RIFLES & ROSARY BEADS
| Mary Gauthier
RIFLES & ROSARY BEADS
Co-written with U.S. veterans and their families, the eleven deeply personal songs on this album reveal the untold stories, and powerful struggles that these veterans and their spouses deal with abroad and after returning home. -www.marygauthier.com
Critic Reviews
Show All-
NPR
The lyrical precision on the folk singer's first eight studio albums is testament to her ability to transform her own trauma into a purposeful and communal narrative.
-
Pop Matters
Mary Gauthier's latest is an important album that gives voice to the soldiers of our ongoing wars. These stories deserve to be heard.
-
Noisey
The songwriter paired with veterans to write the music for her latest album, and not even she could've predicted the powerful result.
-
All Music
Anyone who has seen her play during this period has witnessed how the experience of collaborating with veterans and their families has transformed her own approach to performing.
-
Red Guitar Music
It could never be classified as an easy listen but it’s poignant, compelling and above all honest. It has the ability to make you think and I’m sure all involved would settle for that.
-
Exclaim!
The singer carries all the pain of the world in her voice. She rarely strains above a whisper, and her subtle delivery embeds the songs in the listener's mind.
-
Rlling Stone
The vets share anecdotes and stories, the songwriters mold them into lyrics and set them to music, and songs about the intricacies of military life are born.
-
AXS
Rifles and Rosary Beads is neither a protest album nor a jingoistic declaration of patriotic pride. Instead, it thrives in the nuances between those two opposites, the “middle” reality that her collaborators face every day.
-
Folk Radio
Although instantly recognisable musically, Mary’s tenth album, Rifles And Rosary Beads, takes its inspiration not from her own life experience, but from those shared by US military veterans and their families, as part of a program that exists to help those affected by the aftermath of combat
-
Entertainment Focus
an incredible collection of songs that deserve to be played again and again. This album will live with you and call you back the same way as any other in Gauthier’s catalogue.
-
All Eyes Media
Mary Gauthier is helping veterans share experiences that only they can understand, in a way that we as listeners can relate to. This process not only has the power to touch others but also to help soldiers take a step towards healing, while at the same time creating beautiful art.
-
The Green Man Review
Gauthier’s weathered voice is perfectly complemented by the arrangements, which vary from simple acoustic guitar and harmonica to full band settings with slide guitars or keyboards. But those arrangements always serve the songs and never get in the way of the powerful lyrics.
-
Grateful Web
The finesse and empathy that Gauthier brings to these songs and stories is unprecedented, making Rifles & Rosary Beads a landmark in her career and proving that she continues to be one of the most important and honest voices in our musical landscape.
-
Oliver Twist
her album shows that most people will cling onto anything in order to survive, whether it’s something destructive like rifles in battle, something comforting like rosary beads at home, or something healing like music
-
Maximum Volume Music
Easy listening and God Bless America bullshit this is not, it is a work of supreme skill from a brilliantly gifted songwriter. “Rifles And Rosary Beads” may stand alone as perhaps her finest work to date.
-
No Depression
Rifles & Rosary Beads gives veterans and their spouses a voice, a chance to find in song the words that foster growth in the midst of trauma.
-
Trangri-La
the craftsmanship is undeniable. From the writing, composition, arrangement, mixing, and production, there is not one hair out of place.
-
Timotheories
This is not easy listening, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t beautiful to behold and when layered with a great number of profound and heartfelt stories, Gauthier provides a chilling account of military service and how it impacts everyone in those peoples lives.
-
We are Unseen Press
Deeply personal and inspiring, Rifles and Rosary Beads is Mary Gauthier’s most important work to date. The fact that all 12 tracks comprising the album were co-written with U.S veterans and their families renders it an authentic and sincere narrative on contemporary American existence.
-
Americana Highways
a breathtaking collection of heartbreaking, authentic songs co-written with American veterans and their families, through a project called Songwriting With Soldiers. Songwriting With Soldiers organizes songwriting workshop retreats during which the projects are initiated collaboratively, with the resulting albums available for a donation.
-
Americana UK
Each song is a mini-masterpiece: there isn’t one moment that doesn’t ring true. It’s a record that humbles you to hear it with its unheard stories. It is certainly Gauthier’s masterpiece, and a record that genuinely has helped to change lives, a wonderful piece of art.
-
Blabber 'n' Smoke
a powerful and emotive listen
-
Thinking Lyrically
A stunning record that feels honest and leaves an impact, Rifles & Rosary Beads is an amazing collection of songs that captures the soldier experience with intensity from the beginning to the end
-
Three Chords and the Truth
RIFLES AND ROSARY BEADS is every inch the trademark Mary Gauthier that has come to be a valued part of the American folk scene. In essence, these folk songs of 2018 are every bit important as any predecessor of the genre.
-
New Zealand Herald
It's massively affecting and her weary vocal style really conveys the despair of the subject matter.
-
Rocking Magpie
this is an album every single person in Western Civilisation should hear at least
-
The Afterword
Finely crafted songwriting and thinking.
-
Artree
Gauthier keeps her supporting music soft and simple; slide guitar that carefully balances out the gentle drum beats and a softly swaying violin like you might find someone playing in a Texan saloon.
-
Festival Photo
This is a superb album. Mary Gauthier has helped the veterans and their families express their feelings in an incredibly personal and moving way that makes these songs so amazingly powerful.
-
Folking.com
the album’s humanistic themes and sentiments embrace the experiences of the military and their families on a global scale, up there with Gauthier’s finest work and not just one of the best album’s you’ll hear in 2018, but one of the most important
-
Folk and Tumble
it’s a wonderful honest piece of work by a woman who is one of the truest and most passionate performers out there. I think Woody Guthrie would be proud of where the tradition has gone.
-
Folk Alley
It's an extraordinary project that's turned into a new album for Gauthier, 'Rifles and Rosary Beads,'
-
Prescription Music
New album co-written with wounded veterans tells deeply powerful and personal stories of struggles abroad and at home.
-
Maine Today
Gauthier’s music is many things at once: haunting, provocative and often quite personal.
-
steemKR
This time she has been collaborating with war veterans and their relatives to achieve an almost unbearably strong result. ... The result is magnificent, beautiful, and touching. Rifles and Rosary Beads may very well be Gauthier's strongest record to date.
-
American Music Show
For every bill written then someone has to pay. Here are songs to those we owe the debt. Poignant and powerful.
Rate This Album and Leave Your Comments