Filth & Fire
The misfit, prodigal lives that scrape and struggle through this Louisiana-born singer-songwriter's third album are all "looking for the grace from which they fell." They find it in unlikely images and places: a freeway phone booth, a stolen Christmas tree, a flaming field of sugar cane, a motel tryst, a sunset "the color of everything." ProducerGurf Morlix's signature sound--churning Hammond organ, bubbling vintage guitars, swampy grooves--isn't just well suited to Gauthier's vision--it toughens the moral grit and turns up the emotional heat. If Gauthier remains obsessed with the darker side of life, she also knows of the human truths hidden there. Like Springsteen'sDarkness on the Edge of Townor Lucinda Williams'sCar Wheels on a Gravel Road,Filth & Fireis an immediately convincing work of personal, poetic realism.--Roy Kasten