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Martha Wainwright
(We wrote about Martha Wainwright last year, here is an updated version of that profile. We also caught her set at Carribean Lights during SXSW 2005. Truth be told, it was a little disappointing -- but it seemed to be one of her first sets in support of her self-titled debut album, and we have no doubt that a live set would be much more entertaining this time around. She hits the road with Neko Case after SXSW this year.)
You could call 30-year-old Martha Wainwright the late bloomer of the Wainwright/McGarrigle clan. Yes, she's daughter of Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle, sister of Rufus Wainwright. It's almost unfortunate to think of her with all this family baggage attached because she totally deserves your full and undivided attention on her own merits.
I was pleasantly surprised to find Martha's first EP, a self-titled effort from 1999, in the recent acqusitions pile at Austin's amazing used CD emporium Cheapo sometime in late 2000. Martha has the characteristic Wainwright inflection and tone on that recording; the same nascent chamber pop sensibilities of Rufus' early work. There's lots of minor keys, string arrangements, literary references ("Lolita"), and autobiographical confessions ("Laurel and Hardy" seems a response to Rufus' "Little Sister" -- or perhaps it's the other way around).
I loved what I heard on the EP and waited patiently for a full-length album, but none ever appeared. Instead, Martha appeared in a supporting role on an array of albums produced by various family members, released two EPs, Factory and Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole, and appeared as a torch singer in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator alongside Loudon and Rufus. (Outside of Jude Law's blink-and-you'll-miss-it turn as Errol Flynn, the appearance of la famille Wainwright as singers at Hollywood's mythical Coconut Grove was the best part of that otherwise ho-hum film.)
Her self-titled first album, released in 2005, is an interesting crazy quilt of genres and influences. Martha's voice has matured from a feminine shadow of Rufus' full-throated warble to a shredded, yet powerful and delicate-around-the-edges rasp that is, though slightly reminiscent of Bette Midler's circa the bathhouse years, all her own. Martha's songwriting has followed suit as well. She can spit out a polite yet scathing rant like "Bloody Motherfucking Asshole" (which proves that wicked, self-depricating humor is perhaps a little bit genetic and a little bit learned behavior) or delicately duet with brother Rufus on the parlour-song "Bring Back My Heart" and it all seems perfectly natural and not incongruous in the slightest.
Martha Wainwright - Bloody Motherfucking Asshole
Martha Wainwright - Bring Back My Love (feat. Rufus Wainwright)
Martha Wainwright - Factory
Martha Wainwright - How Soon
Martha Wainwright - I'll Be Seeing You (from The Aviator)
Martha Wainwright's offical website. Her self-titled album is available from Amazon and the iTunes Music Store.
Posted by Little Miss Rock'n'Roll at 03.08.06 at 10:36 PM
Comments
Hello! Is there any way you could possibly see it in your heart to repost Martha Wainwright - Bring Back My Love (feat. Rufus Wainwright) and Martha Wainwright - I'll Be Seeing You (from The Aviator). A friend of mine has been raving about those songs and I would love to hear them! Regards!
Posted by: Dandy at 03.22.06 at 3:27 PM
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