This is a sad story. But like all sad stories, this one turns into something great.

Mary Gauthier is a New Orleans based singer songwriter whose newst album, The Foundling, is based on the struggles of her own life.

“I was born to an unwed mother in 1962 and subsequently surrendered to St. Vincent’s Women and Infants Asylum on Magazine Street in New Orleans, where I spent my first year. I was adopted shortly thereafter but left my adopted family at fifteen. I wandered for years looking for, but never quite finding a place that felt like home. I searched for, found, and was denied a meeting with my birth mother when I was 45 years old. She couldn’t afford to re-open the wound she’d carried her whole life, the wound of surrendering a baby. The Foundling is my story.”

Guthier has quite simply, one of the most brutal and honest collection of songs in recent years. She’s playing tonight at Ashland Coffee & Tea. Show starts at 8 p.m. and tickets are $20.

Mary Gauthier – Sideshow