The Foundling

Mary Gauthier has always sung with the heart and grit of someone who’s spent a hard life on the road with both eyes wide open. For *The Foundling*, she strips her sound down to an eerie quiet, recording in Canada with producer Michael Timmins of the Cowboy Junkies. The effect is much like the Cowboy Junkies themselves with a slightly more life-worn voice up front. An adopted child who ran away from home as a teenager and contacted the birth mother who refused to meet her, Gauthier explores the role of identity in songs such as the slow sweeper “Mama Here, Mama Gone,” the suppressed rocker “Blood Is Blood” and the broken country ballad “The Orphan King,” shedding not tears but insights into the tough questions and impossible answers of a life spent wondering. “Good-Bye” adds a sweet fiddle. “Another Day Borrowed,” “March 12, 1962” and “Walk On The Water” are solid, soul-searching tunes with their somber hues enhanced by Gauthier’s striking vocal delivery. “Coda” is a quick, gentle a cappella finale.

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Mary Gauthier chooses her words carefully.

<p>Mary Gauthier's concept album about her abandonment and search for her birth mother is a bravely thoughtful mood piece, writes <strong>Robin Denselow</strong></p>