Rising star Jaimee Harris, with a voice that sounds like an edgier Emmylou Harris (who unsurprisingly just happens to be her hero) met the venerable singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier in 2017 at a songwriting workshop in Taos, New Mexico, at which Mary was teaching. Their instant chemistry resulted in them becoming writing partners, then touring partners and then life partners. Harris discovered Gauthier via a Ray Wylie Hubbard song, ’Name Dropping,’ where she knew every singer cited except Gauthier; so she researched her and discovered the song ‘Mercy Now‘. Gauthier was drawn to Harris when, given a two-hour slot in which to write a song at the workshop, Harris produced a song that left Gauthier absolutely floored (“Basic Folk podcast – Cayamo 2025”). Together since shortly after that workshop, the couple have toured together extensively, appeared on each other’s albums and written songs together.
They describe the success of their relationship (both professional and personal) as being the result of merging their respective strengths and weaknesses, and recognising both in each other. Although there is a significant difference in their ages, they have been writing and performing for approximately the same time (Gauthier’s debut album came out when she was 40 years old). Both are recovering, nay recovered, alcoholics. Harris swore off alcohol after a conviction for drink driving. Gauthier used to be a chef with three restaurants to her name, until she decided she wanted to be a songwriter.
Both attest to the influence of one on the other. Gauthier was a well-travelled troubadour who performed mostly solo (“I’m a lyricist first”), but credits Harris with teaching her how to use her voice. Harris credits Gauthier with helping her songwriting and also how to be a troubadour. One of the major benefits of the partnership is that they co-write songs, one of which is an extraordinarily powerful description of grief ‘How could you be gone’, written after the death of a longtime close friend of Gauthier’s, Betsy Moran, during COVID, from the after effects of a tick bite. The song resonates especially for Harris as a tribute to her mentor, Jimmy Lafave, whose loss she still grieves (“I think about him every day”). The song first saw light of day at a live gig, where they previewed it, and then, unusually, the song appeared on Gauthier’s 2022 album “Dark Enough to See the Stars”, and then the following year on Harris’ stunning 2023 release “Boomerang Town“.
Gauthier’s version uses her weathered, gravelly voice to great effect, with mainly acoustic guitar backing but with big strings and a powerful background choir at the end. It is quite contemplative and introspective. Harris’ version focuses on her higher register Texan drawl, taken at a slightly slower pace but with a fuller sound (acoustic guitar, drums, bass, piano, organ and viola as well as strings and a powerful background choir). It has a more desperate tone towards the end as she almost wails the title line over and over.
But it is perhaps in live performance that the true feeling of grief and shock, is best revealed. Gauthier always has Harris sing the song, noting that “it is more suited to her voice”. It’s a stunning song that is particularly poignant, not particularly because poor Betsy died during COVID but because she had been an incredibly fit person beforehand., hence the emphasis on YOU in the title when it is sung.
