Mary Veronica Gauthier (/ˈɡoʊʃeɪ/ GOH-shay; born March 11, 1962) is an American folk singer-songwriter.
Gauthier was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Born to a mother she never knew and left in St Vincent's Women and Infants Asylum, Gauthier was adopted when she was a year old by an Italian Catholic couple from Thibodaux, Louisiana. At age 15, she ran away from home, and spent the next several years in drug rehabilitation, halfway houses, and living with friends; she spent her 18th birthday in a jail cell. Struggling to deal with being adopted, she used drugs and alcohol. These experiences provided fodder for her songwriting later on. Spurred on by friends, she enrolled at Louisiana State University as a philosophy major, dropping out during her senior year. After attending the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts, she opened a Cajun restaurant in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, Dixie Kitchen (also the title of her first album). Mary ran, and cooked at, the restaurant for eleven years. She was arrested for drunk driving opening night, July 12, 1990, and has been sober ever since. After achieving sobriety, she was driven to dedicate herself full-time to songwriting, and embarked upon a career in music. She wrote her first song at age 35.
There's a tiny village with its landscape painted green
A firehouse, a general store, all the streets are clean
The people at the depot love to hear that whistle sound
And they all wave at Jackie when the engine comes around.
He says roll train roll
The steel and all its rhythm
are sweet music to his soul.
You'll be riding safe tonight
Come hell or freezing rain
The red caps got your baggage
All Aboard!! Jackies Train
A cow strays from the meadow
She's stranded on the track
Jackie's fingers lift her up
Then gently put her back
the train chugs on down the line
Through the kitchen and the den
Disappearing under Jackies bed
And back to town again.
Yes its Roll train Roll
The steel and all its rhythm
are sweet music to his soul.
You'll be riding safe tonight
Come hell or freezing rain
The red caps got your baggage
All aboard! Jackies train
Jackie never stops the train when he's home all alone
He keeps her rolling round and round till mama, comes home
Jackie can't go out to play, the village needs him there
Every little detail of the train gets all his care
Gotta keep it rolling, gotta stay on time
When he dies they'll honor him
For miles on down the line.
Yes its Roll train Roll
The steel and all its rhythm
are sweet music to his soul.
You'll be riding safe tonight
Come hell or freezing rain