Mary Gauthier has announced the release of her latest album, Reckoning, via Soundly/Thirty Tigers on 25th September 2026. The new record is described as exuding an urgency during turbulent times, while offering inspiration and hope. Each of the nine songs features characters who arrive at pivotal moments and face choices that ultimately define lives, communities, and even history.
Across more than two decades, Gauthier has built a reputation for songwriting that confronts difficult subjects including addiction, recovery, family, war, grief, love, and redemption—not from the sidelines, but from lived experience that she transforms into communal narratives. Throughout Reckoning, “Gauthier balances urgency with perspective. The songs acknowledge the tensions of the present moment without surrendering to cynicism, instead revealing a quiet confidence, where empathy and truth remain powerful forces.”
Gauthier’s gift for creative collaboration remains a key element of her work. Some Times, co-written with Vince Gill, grew from an unexpected spark and evolved into a portrait of resilience and shared humanity. Soldier of Fortune, co-written with Eliza Gilkyson, draws connections between history and the present, examining the enduring consequences of extremism through a human lens. Heaven, a collaboration with Lori McKenna that began more than a decade ago, tells the story of an ageing man confronting loss, while finding peace through faith.
The title track, which is the first song from Reckoning to be shared with the world, was co-written with Aaron Lee Tasjan. It is described as “a meditation on a world at a breaking point where personal, political, and spiritual truths can no longer be ignored. The message that there will be a dawn after the darkness compels us to choose optimism over despair. Gauthier reminds us that nothing can hold back justice, transformation or renewal forever.”
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