We’re delighted with the response that Mary Gauthier’s new album, Rifles & Rosary Beads, has been getting in the press and from fans. The new album features eleven songs co-written with and for wounded veterans as part of the five-year-old SongwritingWith:Soldiers programme.
Participants of the programme have shared that the experience of songwriting was life-changing for them, some even said life-saving. Something about writing that song — telling that story — is healing. What program co-founder Darden Smith calls post-traumatic-growth. Find out more about Rifles & Rosary Beads here. You can read a selection of the review quotes for the new album below.
★★★★★ The Independent & i
“(The songs) are often exceptional and Stronger Together, written with Jennifer Marino, is truly powerful. This is a very good Mary Gauthier album with some outstanding compositions.”
★★★★★ Country Music People
“An astonishingly emotive collection of songs”
★★★★★ Scottish Daily Express
“Bullet Holes In The Sky is, as claimed, the highlight of the album, but there are many others. In fact, it’s difficult to find moments that don’t work.”
★★★★ RnR Magazine
“This is a record that shows the power of art to help to heal and to help to find a way to express the inexpressible. 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.”
9 / 10 – Americana UK
“Rifles & Rosary Beads is a masterpiece of channelling emotion. Mary Gauthier and her co-writers pull no punches and the result is humbling listening. …these are eleven poems set to some of the most haunting music that will stay with you for a very long time.”
NoDepression
“this is an album every single person in Western Civilisation should hear at least once”
Rocking Magpie
“Rifles & Rosary Beads is a powerful and emotive listen. It’s Gauthier doing what she does and doing it well. Beyond that it raises the profile of the forgotten wounded (and surely here in the UK there’s a need also).”
Blabber ‘n’ Smoke
“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”
Thinking Lyrically