Mary Gauthier brings ‘Drag Queens in Limousines’ anniversary tour to Tampa Bay this winter

Don’t tell the governor.

Mary Gauthier, who plays Safety Harbor Arts & Music Center in Safety Harbor, Florida on Jan. 31, 2025. - Photo by ChadC ochran
Photo by ChadC ochran
Mary Gauthier, who plays Safety Harbor Arts & Music Center in Safety Harbor, Florida on Jan. 31, 2025.
Drag queens in limousines are headed for Tampa Bay this winter, at least metaphorically. Safety Harbor Art Music Center recently announced the booking of beloved songwriter Mary Gauthier who’ll play the venue in January.

The 62-year-old songwriter is no stranger to Florida—and will also play Winter Haven’s famed Gram Parsons Derry Down as part of the tour—but this time she’ll be celebrating the 25th anniversary of her sophomore outing, Drag Queens in Limousines.

The album’s title track is a coming of age story for a gay kid living in the south, sadly apropos in a state where the rights of LGBTQ+ citizens are being suppressed with every legislative session. Last week, Gauthier released a brand new video for the song.

“The song speaks to the outsider in all of us, though when I wrote it I had no idea that people of all persuasions from all over the world would relate to feeling like an outsider,” Gauthier has said about the tune.

“Often times when I am singing it I look out into the audience and I see folks who look a whole lot like insiders wholeheartedly relating to the outsider in this song, singing every word. I’ve learned that insiders feel like outsiders sometimes, and high school was hard for an awful lot of people, not just the gay kids.”

Tickets to see Mary Gauthier play Safety Harbor Art & Music Center on Friday, Jan. 31 are available now for $30.

Jaimee Harris, the "next queen of Americana-Folk” according to NPR, opens the show.
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Ray Roa

Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief in August 2019. Past work can be seen at Suburban Apologist, Tampa Bay Times, Consequence of Sound and The...
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