Mary Gauthier Releases New Song SOME TIMES With Vince Gill
The track appears on her forthcoming album RECKONING, out via Soundly/Thirty Tigers.
Mary Gauthier has released a new song called SOME TIMES, co-written with Vince Gill. The track will appear on Gauthier's forthcoming album RECKONING, set for release via Soundly/Thirty Tigers. The song traces the life of an elderly narrator whose experiences span decades of American history, from personal milestones to major historical events.
What started as a passing remark from a legendary artist/activist and an old photograph, evolved into a moving, reflective story of the elderly narrator and his experiences. From witnessing the rise and fall of different eras to political assassinations to social progress to deep national division and personal loss, his life becomes a living chronicle of the past eight decades.
'I co-wrote this song with Vince Gill,' Gauthier shares. 'The idea began after he played a show with Mavis Staples. As they were leaving the stage, Mavis looked at him and said, 'We sure have seen some times, haven't we?' It was a simple, powerful observation that stayed with him and inspired a song called 'Some Times,' though it remained unfinished for quite a while.'
'When Vince played it for me, one verse mentioned the Orange Blossom Special, which neither of us knew much about. We discovered it was a high-speed luxury passenger train that ran between Manhattan and Miami from 1925 to 1953, carrying everyone from wealthy vacationers to servicemen, families, dreamers, and working people. It wasn't just transportation—it was a moving cross-section of America.'
'Then I found an old black-and-white photograph of a waiter in the dining car. I began imagining the thousands of passengers he had served and the reunions, farewells, celebrations, and heartbreaks he had quietly witnessed over the years.'
'That's when we found the song's narrator. Instead of telling the story through a passenger's eyes, we let the waiter speak. From his place in the dining car, he'd had a front-row seat to decades of American life.' She concludes, 'Once we found his voice, the song almost wrote itself.'
Alongside sweeping historical events are quieter, deeply human moments, all of which can be relatable reflections of ourselves. 'Some Times' captures the feeling of growing older and looking back: watching the world change in ways both inspiring and heartbreaking, grieving those we've loved, while still believing that tomorrow can be better. It is a bittersweet rumination on memory, resilience, and the shared journey of simply living a life.
The songs on RECKONING exude an urgency during turbulent times, while offering inspiration and hope. Each song serves as a compelling vignette with characters who arrive at pivotal moments and face choices that ultimately define lives, communities, and even history. After nine critically acclaimed albums, RECKONING is poised to be Gauthier's most important work to date.
Across more than two decades, Mary Gauthier has built a reputation for fearless songwriting that confronts difficult subjects with honesty and compassion. Throughout RECKONING, Gauthier balances urgency with perspective. It is an intimate, courageous, and deeply resonant work that finds one of the genre's finest songwriters meeting an arduous moment with clarity, compassion, and unwavering faith in the power of storytelling.
Gauthier has said the song originated from a remark Mavis Staples made to Gill after a show, and evolved after the pair researched the Orange Blossom Special train and imagined the story through the eyes of a dining car waiter who witnessed decades of passengers pass through his section. RECKONING will mark Gauthier's tenth studio album.
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