The death of Australian singer-songwriter Audrey Auld shocked the country western music scene last year. Despite her passing, her fans continue to buy her CDs and visit her online memorial. Dallas music critic Mike Granberry, a contributor to OurPaths.com, wrote this remembrance:
AUDREY AULD
Jan 14, 1964 - Aug 9, 2015
By MIKE GRANBERRY
Tasmanian-born singer-songwriter Audrey Auld had a wit and comedic style that added a joyful punctuation to her natural talent in crafting memorable country ballads. For many of us, it is still hard to believe she is gone.
Auld, who died of cancer, had been a frequent performer in Dallas, having headlined at Uncle Calvin's Coffeehouse and Opening Bell Coffee on South Lamar. She often traveled to shows with her dog, Gypsy, who rode with her in a Chevy pickup truck outfitted with a camper in the back.
Her break-up song, "I'd Leave Me Too," which doubles as a delicious satire of Country & Western, may linger as the best example of Audrey's rare combination of lyricism and wit. "I'd Leave Me Too" made it onto the soundtrack of the FX series "Justified." I beg some prominent star to record it in Audrey's memory. It's the least they could do.
Audrey always got big laughs when she played the song, which reminds of a lost love,
"So, darling, you're the lucky one.
And I wish I were you.
I won't stop you when you go.
'Cause I'd leave me too."
As a tribute to the great Audrey Auld, we've posted on ourpaths.com the YouTube version of "I'd Leave Me Too":
"Beautiful spirit, nicer than the most nice. Audrey, travel safe, travel onward, travel free of pain and don't forget to write," said Austin roots rocker Jimmy LaFave, with whom she once performed a memorable Woody Guthrie tribute show at Uncle Calvin's.
Tributes to Audrey filled her Facebook page and that of her husband, Mez Mezera, as well as http://www.ourpaths.com when word came that she had passed away. Audrey and Mez, whom she once described as "Nashville's best plumber," had moved from the Tennessee hills to Stinson Beach, Calif., a coastal city she loved, near the end of her life.
She released 11 albums and three EP's on her own Reckless Records label and had recorded with such musicians as Mary Gauthier, Dale Watson, Kasey Chambers and Carrie Rodriguez. She also played the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival in Guthrie's hometown of Okemah, Okla. In addition to "Justified," her music was featured in the TV shows "Longmire," "NCIS New Orleans" and "The Good Guys."
As I wrote before a show at Calvin's in 2013, "People don't often associate singer-songwriters with cutting-edge comedy. Songs about breakups or death rarely add to laugh-out-loud moments. Audrey Auld can write sad songs as well as anyone, and yet she's funnier than a lot of the acts that turn up at the Improv or Hyena's."
Her album, Tonk, closes with a song that begins, "Bury me at Walmart, so he can see me every day." She attributed her humor to her "mum," a quick-witted woman who gave birth to four Tasmanian children. They grew up above the snow line near the capital of Hobart.
"I look at the entertainers that I enjoy," Audrey once said in her rich Aussie accent, "and they're funny. I think entertainment is key. The songs are important, and the singing is important, but ultimately, when people laugh, they open up."
Add your own thoughts at Audrey Auld's tribute on OurPaths.
Audrey understood that a sense of surprise is one of the best weapons in an artist's arsenal. She described herself as "a country-folk singer-songwriter," but growing up, she honed her musical talent listening to Brahms, Beethoven, Mozart and punk. She loved Bauhaus, the Psychedelic Furs and Suicide, "which had the darkest album in the world," she said with her characteristic belly laugh.
The secret to Audrey's appeal may have been that she was real. It was a quality that had a profound impact on inmates at the San Quentin prison, where she traveled often to perform as part of her work with Bread and Roses, a nonprofit founded by folk singer Mimi Farina that brings music to homeless shelters, hospitals and prisons.
She even wrote songs with the inmates at San Quentin.
"It's good to go outside your comfort zone," she told me of her work at the prison. "As corny as it sounds, I really am just the messenger. The songs that come through me are, I hope, about creating the human connection that everyone wants."
In the same interview, she surprised me by saying: "There's an aspect of me that's rebellious and cynical and dark."
She once told me that she left Tasmania for the United States because she fell in love with an American, her "true love," the man who stood beside her until the end.
Mike Granberry writes for the Dallas Morning News. He is a regular contributor to OurPaths.com.