On Easter, Patti Smith says, “Those who have suffered understand suffering and therefore extend their hand.” Thibodeaux native Mary Gauthier’s art bring this thought to mind; on 2005’s Mercy Now, she sings the title cut as someone who understands the need for mercy for herself, her family, her friends and all of us. It’s not just the way she has battled with addictions for much her life; her weathered voice alone sounds like it belongs to someone who knows what she’s talking about.

Between Daylight and Dark is a collection of singer-songwriter-ly songs about people finding themselves in places they never thought they’d be—in legal trouble, in bad relationships, and personal limbo, and in “Can’t Find the Way,” in another city trying to get back to New Orleans. The album is peopled with those on life’s margins, and Gauthier portrays them with dignity, the most poignant moment coming when a grandmother is patted down on the way to visit a family member in prison on Thanksgiving. That subject matter has drifted into cheap melodrama in the hands of lesser writers, but her delicacy—particularly knowing which details to stress—serves her well. In the title cut, she captures an existential moment of truth by describing a house in the suburb and two actions on the central figure’s part

It’s easy to find Gauthier’s world a grim one, but as Joe Henry’s sympathetic production suggests, it’s also a subtly beautiful one. Each song gets exactly what it needs, whether it is the slide guitar that gives “Snakebit” energy and grounding in the blues, or the occasional echoed upright piano chord that marks time in the title song. He creates space so that the songs focus on Gauthier’s voice and gentle melodies.

The beauty isn’t only in the music. Ultimately, the people in her songs hang on to hope, to dignity and each other. The things they cling to may be diminished or damaged, but at some point they choose to hang on and make a stand. That stance doesn’t come out of drama; there is no southern rock defiance in “I Ain’t Leaving.” There are no heroes in Mary Gauthier songs, only people who have learned from experience that no matter how hard staying can be, the other options are worse.