Loudon’s lifetime achievements Singer-songwriter is at folk fest with his famous family By: Rob Williams Posted: 4:14 PM CDT Thursday, Jul. 6, 2023

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This article was published 06/07/2023 (1161 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Loudon Wainwright III is not afraid to look mortality in the eyes.

On the song How Old Is 75? from his latest album, 2022’s Lifetime Achievement, the singer-songwriter examines his future demise, practically daring death to come for him in five years, while also pondering the death of his parents.

“I think about mortality all the time,” Wainwright says over the phone from New York City. “I have for most of, a lot of, my life. The first line on my first song (School Days) on my first record is, ‘In Delaware when I was younger.’

“I don’t know if fixation is the right word, but it’s a topic that interests me: the passing of time. It’s dealt with on this record, but also on a number of my other records.”

Lifetime Achievement finds Wainwright, 76, in somewhat of a philosophical and sentimental mood. He covers themes — love, divorce and family — familiar to fans of his 50-plus-year career, but also shows off a content, some might even say romantic, side, although Wainwright isn’t one of them.

“I would never use the word ‘romantic’ to describe me, but I think as I’m getting older maybe I’m getting a little less cynical — how about that?” he says.

“I even reference in one of the songs — which is an almost uncharacteristically positive song, It Takes Two — I reference my earlier song, One Man Guy, and I think I used to embrace my sense of isolation. I thought it was sexy and romantic, but I think as I get older, I’m looking for a little more intimacy in my life.”

Wainwright did the bulk of the writing for Lifetime Achievement, his first album of original material in eight years, during the pandemic lockdown, which he spent at a property on Long Island, N.Y., with his partner, Susan Morrison, an editor at the New Yorker.

“A song for me at this point, I don’t quite understand where the songs come from, but I’m very grateful that they still do come,” he says. “At the beginning of my career, I used to write a lot. Now, it’s not so frequent. Just like my sex life: it’s a thrill when it happens, I just wish it would happen a little more.”

With more than 30 albums to his name, dating back to his 1970 self-titled debut, Wainwright has had plenty of inspiration over the years. His entire life has been documented in the honest-to-a-fault (usually his) songs and in memoirs written by him and his children, Martha and Rufus Wainwright, both singer-songwriters themselves. (Rufus plays the mainstage at the folk fest at 8:45 p.m. Friday.)

Wainwright was born in Chapel Hill, N.C., but spent his youth in the community of Bedford, N.Y., about 65 kilometres from New York City. After high school he moved to Pittsburgh to attend acting school before dropping out and following his musical muse, finding an audience with his clever wordplay, humour and satirical style; he, along with fellow acoustic-guitar-strumming songwriters such as John Prine, Steve Goodwin and Bruce Springsteen, was dubbed one of the New Dylans.

“A song for me at this point, I don’t quite understand where the songs come from, but I’m very grateful that they still do come.”–Loudon Wainwright III

Wainwright only had one true “hit” — the novelty song Dead Skunk in the Road — but over the years has carved out his own niche and earned a devoted worldwide fanbase.

And despite never finishing acting school, he has managed to land a steady stream of roles over the year in TV shows such as M*A*S*H, Undeclared and Parks and Recreation, and movies such as Big Fish, The Aviator, The 40-Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up, for which he did the soundtrack.

His relationships and children have filled a large part of his repertoire over the years. He was first married to Canadian songwriter Kate McGarrigle, with whom he had Rufus and Martha. His middle daughter, musician Lucy Wainwright Roche, was born during his relationship with American singer-songwriter Suzzy Roche; Lexie Kelly Wainwright is his daughter with second wife, Ritamarie Kelly.

Over the years his sometimes-strained relationship with his children has been well-chronicled, notably in songs by Rufus (Dinner at Eight) and Martha (Bloody Mother F—king A—hole), but any animosity that existed in the past appears to have dissipated — Wainwright often performs with his kids. This weekend he will share the stage with Rufus and Lucy, a member of Rufus’s band, during the All in the Family workshop Friday at 1 p.m. at Big Bluestem. Next week he will join his entire family at Rufus’s 50th birthday celebration on July 13 in New York.

“It’s quality time. Rather than sitting around arguing about who did what to who when, we could stand out there and sing a song,” Wainwright says.

“I think the audience gets a kick out of it, and then I guess it could be argued because of the genetic connection that vocally there might be some interesting sonic components to two or three or even four voices, because we’ve all sung together at various times. We’re dancing around the same genetic pool onstage.”

Along with the stories about his family in numerous songs, he delves even further into his life and history in his 2017 book, Liner Notes: On Parents & Children, Exes & Excess, Death & Decay, & a Few of My Other Favorite Things, and in a 2018 Netflix special, Surviving Twin, a stage show about his father and their relationship.

“My dad was an amazing writer; he wrote for Life magazine in the ’60s and ’70s and ’80s. When I was child growing up, I was the son of the famous Loudon Wainwright. We had a difficult, at times combative, competitive relationship.

“He died quite a while ago, in 1998, and Surviving Twin I have thought of as a posthumous collaboration between my father and I. I perform some of his writing and connect it with some of my own songs.”

Adding to his lifetime achievements is his latest appearance at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. This weekend will mark his seventh time playing at Birds Hill Park, where in 2016 he was given the festival’s Artistic Achievement Award for his contributions to music.

Wainwright has many memories of the festival, but the first thing that stands out to him is something every Winnipegger can relate to: mosquitoes.

“Whenever the word Winnipeg is mentioned, and certainly the folk festival, I think of the time I did the festival 20-something years ago. There’s a certain moment in the evening where the mosquitoes or blackflies, whatever you have up there, they kind of descend on the field everyone is sitting in and on the stage. It’s right out of a horror movie.

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“I remember a few years ago me and other performers, including Taj Mahal, were hiding in somebody’s motor home to get away from those crazy insects,” he says with a laugh.

Wainwright’s folk fest concert is on Saturday at 4 p.m. on the Snowberry Field stage, so he shouldn’t have to worry about bugs then, which suits him just fine, although the show would go on, as it always has and will for as long as he is alive.

“When I was a young romantic man just starting out, I imagined I wasn’t going to live to be anywhere near this old, so it’s a nice surprise to still be around and doing this job I’ve had for over 50 years,” he says.

“I don’t care much for airports and hotels and travelling, but once I’m onstage, it’s still as much fun as it always was.”

rob.williams@winnipegfreepress.com