Mary Gauthier (born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana) is an American folk singer/songwriter. At age 15, she ran away from home and stole her parents' car, and spent the next several years in detox, halfway houses, and living with friends; she spent her 18th birthday in jail. These experiences provided fodder for her songwriting later on (particularly her song "Drag Queens in Limousines"). Later on, she enrolled at Louisiana State University as a philosophy major, but after five years there, dropped out due to drug problems and moved to Boston. After working waitress jobs and eventually being promoted to manager of the restaurant where she worked, financial backers paid her way to attend the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts and she opened a Cajun restaurant in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, "Dixie Kitchen" (also the title of her first album).
last.fm page

Similar Artists

Sugar Cane Lyrics

Mary Gauthier

(Mary Gauthier/Catie Curtis)

Mama said she don't give a damn what those people say
Cane smoke can't be good for you day after day
Every year at harvest time when the black smoke filled the sky
Shed pick me up and take me home and make me stay inside

From Thibodaux to Raceland there's fire in the fields
All the way up the bayou from Lafourche to Iberville
Dirty air, dirty laundry, dirty money, dirty rain
A dirty dark at daybreak burning the sugar cane

Christmas on the bayou, midnight come and gone
Driving past the sugar mill and all the lights are on
The parking lot is full of trucks I can see the furnace glow
Everybody's working overtime, it's a good job, even though

From Thibodaux to Raceland there's fire in the fields
All the way up the bayou from Lafourche to Iberville
Dirty air, dirty laundry, dirty money, dirty rain
A dirty dark at daybreak burning the sugar cane

First came the sugar cane, then came Thibodaux
Cane sugar built this town, cane sugar paved these roads
They burn the leaves to harvest cash, money for the company
Money makes the world go round, money, money, money

From Thibodaux to Raceland there's fire in the fields
All the way up the bayou from Lafourche to Iberville
Dirty air, dirty laundry, dirty money, dirty rain
A dirty dark at daybreak burning, burning

The soot and ash are falling like a dark and deadly snow
The air is full of poison to the Gulf of Mexico
Dirty air, dirty laundry dirty money dirty rain