The Foundling – Mary Gauthier
Recent visitor to Oz Mary Gauthier has a gift for her fans Down Under: we get her album a full two months before her home country of the US. The openly gay country-folk singer has always worn her heart on her sleeve, but The Foundling may be her finest and most personal work to date — a 10-song cycle detailing her unsuccessful attempt to form a new relationship with her birth mother at the age of 45. From the sorrowful waltz of the title track onwards, it’s an early contender for album of the year.