Don't let her angelic countenance fool you -- it wasn't too long ago that Mary Gauthier could have (and very possibly would have) been more than happy to kick your ass.

"There was a time," the Louisiana singer-songwriter laughingly agrees down the line from a Quebec City hotel room. "Maybe 10 years ago, that was possible.

"But not any more," the 41-year-old adds reassuringly. "I can't summon that sort of anger up anymore. Trust me, these days my edge is completely rubbed soft."

Like most life changes, that transformation didn't come about quickly -- or painlessly. Born into a troubled home, Gauthier set out on the road to ruin at 15, when she stole her family's car and ran away from home, looking for a better life. She didn't find it -- Gauthier celebrated her 16th birthday in a Baton Rouge detox facility, and her 18th in a jail cell in Kansas City. There's plenty more where that came from, she says. And even though she's long since hit bottom and worked her way back -- she'll be celebrating 13 years on the wagon in a few days -- she wouldn't erase a single one of those dark days.

"I wouldn't trade any of it. I wouldn't do it differently -- not a single thing. I wouldn't want to do it again," she cracks. "But I'm glad for all I went through, because it's given me so many life lessons."

And so much music. Even a casual perusal of any of her three albums -- especially last year's aptly titled Filth and Fire -- makes it painfully clear Gauthier draws the inspiration for her gritty, mesmerizing story-songs from her grim past. Thankfully, she says the process isn't as painful as it sounds.

"I'm a storyteller. And the stories that I tell, although they're a reflection of who I once was, they're not me anymore," she says. "Those wounds aren't fresh anymore. I've truly evolved, so I can relate to my past as though it's a different person -- because it really is."

While listeners may have trouble relating to Gauthier's shadowy world, they do find her music familiar -- more than a few critics have favourably compared her husky voice and frank songcraft to Lucinda Williams.

"We come from the same part of Louisiana and have the same sort of background, so I'm not surprised by that," Gauthier says, adding her next album will be less edgy and more in tune with her current life. "But I am complimented by the comparison. She's been an influence and a role model for me. There's not a whole lot of literate and intelligent songwriters to pull from in country music."

And if you don't agree with her -- well, you better hope that edge of hers really is rubbed as soft as she claims.