Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter/author Mary Gauthier has announced the release of new song “Some Times,” co-written with Vince Gill. The song appears on her forthcoming album, Reckoning, set for release September 25th, 2025, on Soundly/Thirty Tigers.

The genesis of the song is described thus:

What started as a passing remark from a legendary artist/activist and an old photograph, evolved into a moving, reflective story of the elderly narrator and his experiences. From witnessing the rise and fall of different eras to political assassinations to social progress to deep national division and personal loss, his life becomes a living chronicle of the past eight decades.

Gauthier shares:

“I co-wrote this song with Vince Gill. The idea began after he played a show with Mavis Staples. As they were leaving the stage, Mavis looked at him and said, “We sure have seen some times, haven’t we?” It was a simple, powerful observation that stayed with him and inspired a song called “Some Times,” though it remained unfinished for quite a while.

When Vince played it for me, one verse mentioned the Orange Blossom Special, which neither of us knew much about. We discovered it was a high-speed luxury passenger train that ran between Manhattan and Miami from 1925 to 1953, carrying everyone from wealthy vacationers to servicemen, families, dreamers, and working people. It wasn’t just transportation—it was a moving cross-section of America.

Then I found an old black-and-white photograph of a waiter in the dining car. I began imagining the thousands of passengers he had served and the reunions, farewells, celebrations, and heartbreaks he had quietly witnessed over the years.

That’s when we found the song’s narrator. Instead of telling the story through a passenger’s eyes, we let the waiter speak. From his place in the dining car, he’d had a front-row seat to decades of American life. Once we found his voice, the song almost wrote itself.”

Like this track, the songs on Reckoning speak to “turbulent times, while offering inspiration and hope.” Each song is a “vignette with characters who arrive at pivotal moments and face choices that ultimately define lives, communities, and even history.”

Across more than two decades, Mary Gauthier has built a reputation for songwriting that confronts difficult subjects. Throughout Reckoning, Gauthier expresses “compassion and unwavering faith in the power of storytelling.”