“There’s no such thing as going too deep,” says Mary Gauthier, and that credo applies to all three amazing artists bringing their songs to the Freight tonight. Mary certainly knows how to go deep. Rolling Stone just named “Mercy Now” one of the 40 Saddest Country Songs of All Time. Reviewing her latest album, Trouble and Love, the magazine says that “every tune is a rough gem of melody, misery, and economy.” The Los Angeles Times says that “her razor-sharp eye for detail and her commitment to unsentimental self-reflection puts her in a class with greats such as Kris Kristofferson, John Prine, and yes, Bob Dylan.” Her life story is raw, and it’s provided the raw material for some of the best songs being written today. “Bit by bit /you slip away / you lose yourself in pieces / in the things you don’t say,” she sings in “How You Learn to Live Alone."
 
Eliza Gilkyson is one of the finest singer-songwriters making music today. She “doesn’t pull any punches,” says the New York Times. “She graces the music with her lush and passionate voice; a dark and lonely sound, hope and satisfaction, and edgy lyrics with piercing imagery round out the whole.” The Boston Globe praises her “masterfully structured, startlingly intimate songs in a beautifully lived in voice.” Her latest album, The Nocturne Diaries, features “songs that came to me in the middle of the night,” she says, adding that “the songs that come in the night are very different than the daylight songs.” The album explores dark territory with honesty and wit. “Thank god I’m breathing / I still got my wedding ring / time is fleeting / I’m so worried about everything,” she sings on “Eliza Jane.” “She's given us another remarkable glimpse of her gifts as a vocalist and songwriter,” says the website AllMusic. “Even the darkest moments here are warmed by a genuine compassion for the lost souls who sometimes populate her stories, and a very real concern for the world we all live in is woven through every tune.”
 
Newly inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, Gretchen Peters has written some beauties, including “Hello Cruel World,” “On a Bus to St. Cloud,” and “Independence Day,” which was featured on a recent ABC special, The Top 15 Songs That Changed Country Music. Artists like George Strait, Faith Hill, Martina McBride, Trisha Yearwood, Neil Diamond, and Etta James have recorded her songs, and she herself has released nine solo albums. Her new one, Blackbirds, explores the intricacies of aging, with songs by Paul Simon, Leonard Cohen, Bruce Springsteen, and Nick Lowe, as well as several new originals. “Aging seems to be a taboo subject for female singer-songwriters, in part because our value has depended so much on our youth and sexuality,” Gretchen says. “I want to write about that stuff because it’s real, it’s there, and so few women seem to be talking about it.”
 
What’s real, what’s dark, what’s hard to face– that’s what you’ll hear in the music of these three immensely talented artists who strive to tell the truth in the space of a beautiful song.