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Martha Wainwright.
It is amazing just how quickly things have happened for Martha Wainwright since touring earlier this year with brother Rufus and mother and aunt Kate and Anna McGarrigle. She's released a great album, done 'Letterman', played Meltdown and Glastonbury in the UK and, at the time we spoke by phone from Ontario, had just supported country legend Loretta Lynn.
Her album, which shows just as eclectic a range of influences
as brother Rufus, draws on a wide range of musical influences
- folk, country and indie - and has received truly excellent
reviews, due to its wide range of styles ranging from English
pastoral composer Ralph Vaughan Williams' Whither Must I
Wander, the powerhouse vocals of Ball And Chain to
the unmitigated anger of Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole
(evidently directed at her father Loudon). Understandably the
track has led to mixed reactions in the US where she has been
asked to delete it from her set lists when playing Christian
universities and with Lynn. When I suggested that this track
is perhaps the most vituperative and empowering feminist song
since Marianne Faithfull's infamous ode to sexual jealousy,
Why D'Ya Do It, she is more than touched by the comparison.
"That's such a great song and like [Faithfull's] Broken English,
I've always wanted to cover it. Sex and sentimentality are among
my favourite topics. When I've been asked here in the US not
to play BMFA at concerts, I always tell the audience that I've
been asked not to perform it," she laughs. And although Faithfull
may number among Martha's influences, Rufus had told me that
perhaps the most famous of feminine influences for many, Joni
Mitchell, was actually banned from the Wainwright household
as she was viewed by Kate as the opposition. "I have many influences
and not just feminine ones. Our mother had a very eclectic record
collection but whereas Rufus gravitated towards classical music
and opera at a very young age, I leant more towards the singer/songwriters:
actually, country music. These people were playing a genre of
music that I could interpret myself either on piano or guitar.
"When I was thirteen I heard Leonard Cohen's records and realized that lyrics can be as powerful, if not more so than the melody. In terms of women, I can't deny - I mean the first time I heard Nina Simone [at around the same age], that power and her ability to play her instrument was really shocking to me. Nina was such a wild card. Those early records of hers are great and good enough to inspire anyone. And also country music - whether it's Gram Parsons or Hank Williams."
Upon suggesting that there are parallels between Simone's strength of character and her own and that perhaps Martha was more content to wait for an ideal contract rather than sign the first that was offered, she muses "Yes, I didn't realize just how hardheaded I really am. For years I've been singing and playing and opening up for other people and I'd been offered contracts - though I must say very few - and different producers wanted to work with me but I think I really shied away from that at first because I was afraid that they wanted to make a folk album, a pop record or had visions for me which wasn't exactly what I wanted to do. So without necessarily knowing it, I had to find the right person and to be ready myself. I needed to make a record that was musically honest to my own sentiments."
Being Canadian may also explain some of Wainwright's individuality and that which some may view as capriciousness. "Canada's right next door to the States and there are problems and advantages to this. It's also fucking cold," she laughs. "Because Canada's less attractive than America, I think that it allows you to be a real free spirit if you want to. There's not as much self-consciousness as in the States, and all of that open space and the lack of media and the entertainment business here allows people the ability to explore their musicality and emotions on a whole other level declined to those living south of the border. And politically, people are very anti-Bush. It's very much like Australia, but you guys have a conservative government, don't you? Who support Bush? But we don't."
Brett Allen-Bayes
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Martha Wainwright plays The Governor Hindmarsh on Fri 9 Sept supported by Josh Ritter.
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