by Thom JurekBetween Daylight and Dark is Mary Gauthier's (pronounced Go-Shay) sixth full-length offering, and a compelling step forward from 2005's Mercy Now. Produced by Joe Henry with most of the musicians who played on his Civilians album and Loudon Wainwright III's Strange Weirdos -- Patrick Warren, Jay Bellerose, Greg Leisz, and David Piltch, with Wainwright and Van Dyke Parks making guest appearances -- it possesses a deeply centered, almost organic sound; one that reverberates the intentions of the songwriter without trying to meet the sound head on. Henry is able to present songwriters as strong presences, as the still centers of a chaotic, frenetic world that whirls all around them, leaving them unaware of the presence of his voice ordering it without being swallowed in the process. But before a producer can make that happen, the songs need to be there, fully present, and contain enough aesthetic authority to allow themselves to be delivered, not consumed. Gauthier has them in spades. She walks her own fraying tightrope; she even dances on it, letting all senses of paradox, violence, dislocation, loneliness, tenderness, bitterness, acceptance, and yes, love, flow through the grain of her earthy voice. The band is ever present yet never intrusive. They offer the singer just enough weight to let her know she's on sure footing on this ledge. And she does know it, but the lyrics here are so utterly naked that a few friends watching her back can keep her from being swept off into the void. 　　"Snakebit" is a hunted, struck-with-horror country blues underscored by Leisz's snarling dobro; the scenario comes right out of Flannery O'Connor and Dorothy Allison. Violence roils in the center of the song, but so do confusion and regret at becoming the thing dreaded most, proving the enemy's assertion in the process -- especially when that enemy is flesh and blood....