Mary Gauthier and Mindy Smith Minneapolis Concert Review and Set List

We headed down to the Riverside area and attended a very intimate concert of Mary Gauthier and Mindy Smith. Here are the notes in no particular order:

Mary Gauthier

• Mary is a great storyteller, great song writer, and great crowd presence. She looked like she was really having fun, and she brought the audience with her, despite her depressing set of songs.
• She had a nice little band with slide guitar and fiddle accompaniment. Both sang back up and really added to the atmosphere.
• Set list, to the best of my recollection, was two of her older songs, then an entire run through of her latest release The Foundling. Here is the list:

Last of the Hobo Kings
Falling Out of Love
The Foundling
Momma Here, Momma Gone
Goodbye
Sideshow
Blood is Blood
March 12, 1966
Walk on the Water
Sweet Words
The Orphan King
Another Day Borrowed

• March 12, 1966 is one of the saddest songs I’ve heard, and there was not a dry eye in the house when she delivered that one.
• The Orphan King was a nice capstone and was delivered with a smile and with audience participation. We still believe in love.

Mindy Smith

• Mindy gave a pretty disjointed show. She was flighty on the stage and constantly tuning her guitar to the point of annoyance, but she was also warm, funny, and has a voice of an angel.
• Her set list is as follows:

Jolene
What Went Wrong
Highs and Lows
If I Didn’t Know Any Better
Tennessee
Raggedy Ann
Come to Jesus
Ahead of Myself
Out Loud

• Jolene, the old Dolly Parton standby, is one of my most hated songs. Mindy’s treatment made it absolutely haunting, and it was fabulous.
• Come to Jesus was perhaps the finest moment of the night. Chills-up-the-back kind of singing.
• Out Loud was surprisingly botched on the lyrics, and I felt bad as it was Mindy’s last song. Not a good note to end on for either the audience or her.

General Observations

• I liked The Cedar. It was intimate (probably less than 200 people), a touch hippy, and smelled of the restaurants next door. I’d definitely go do another show there again.
• Despite general admission seating, we had great seats. 
• They had Summit on tap. Hell, the place was awesome!
• It was weird to be back in this neighborhood after living down there during grad school. I had a lot of bad memories down there, and let’s just say I’m glad to be living where I’m at today.  A lot has changed for me since then, although it was fun living down there when the Twins won their first championship.
• Overall, a very good show by two very, very talented ladies. Nice night.