On Mercy Now Mary Gauthier reaches even higher by dredging deeper through the backwaters of her life. These songs reflect her mastery of image, her determination to find precisely the right word, sometimes through months of labor over a single line or idea, and her ability to bring it all to life through her gifts as a performer. As on her previous efforts, there is plenty of darkness on Mercy Now.

There are different shadows, more mournful than threatening, and there is light, in the careful instrumentations - the cello, the violin, the banjo, the Hammond organ, each meticulously placed by Mary and her producer Gurf Murlix - and especially in the lyric to Mercy Now, a prayer for those Mary once fought and fled.

"What is the difference between a truth teller and a great songwriter?" Gauthier muses. "I think it comes from writing about the struggle. Instead of running from the pain, a truth teller runs head on into it."

Listen to samples:

• Falling Out Of Love
• Mercy Now
• Wheel Inside The Wheel
• I Drink
• Just Say She's A Rhymer
• Prayer Without Words
• Your Sister Cried
• Empty Spaces
• Drop In A Bucket
• It Ain't The Wind, It's The Rain