Replay: Mary Gauthier shares Five Things She's Learned about The Healing Power of Songwriting – in Five Songs
Check out the first five minutes of her recent class.
“Music and song helped transform me, it helped grow me, it gave me a reason to keep trying, and home to return to. Far more than just entertainment, music and song saved me. Songwriting also helped me to heal. More than anything, I’ve learned that healing is a by-product of empathy, resonance, and agency. Telling our trauma story, no matter how difficult, is a way of making peace with it. It is freeing. The telling it releases some of the poison, giving us the power to make plans and reach for goals once considered unreachable.”
– Mary Gauthier, Five Things I've Learned about The Healing Power of Songwriting – in Five Songs
Mary Gauthier is a singer-songwriter, troubadour, and author of Saved by a Song: The Art and Healing Power of Songwriting. Here’s the first five minutes of her two-hour class in which Mary shares the Five Things She’s Learned about song’s unique power to bring hope in the face of deep trauma – inspiring lessons from her own life and from her time with wounded veterans and frontline medical workers.
Five Things I’ve Learned about The Healing Power of Songwriting – In Five Songs offers valuable insights and inspiration about the unique ability of songs to bring hope in the face of deep trauma. Mary emphasizes the balance of art and craft in creating great songs, the transformative power of empathy generated by songs, the importance of honesty and vulnerability in songwriting, the courage required to share one's story, and the empowering nature of telling our trauma narratives to find healing, agency, and freedom.
Want to know more about how the healing power of songs and how great songwriters approach their craft? This class is for you.
Mary was named by The Associated Press as one of the best songwriters of her generation. Her most recent musical release, Rifles & Rosary Beads, a collection of songs co-written with wounded veterans was nominated for a Grammy award for Best Folk Album, and Record of the Year by the Americana Music Association.
Mary’s songs have been recorded by dozens of artists, including Jimmy Buffett, Dolly Parton, Boy George, Blake Shelton, Tim McGraw, Bettye Lavette, Mike Farris, Kathy Mattea, Bobby Bare, Amy Helm and Candi Staton. They have also appeared extensively in film and Television, most recently on HBO TV’s Yellowstone.
Thanks for being part of Five Things I’ve Learned on Substack. Visit myfivethings.com to view personal video invitations from more than 100 more writers, thinkers, and artists we admire – and to get special discounted pricing with our Five Things I’ve Learned Multi Pass.