TAKING CHARGE Martha Wainwright
Aug 25, 2008
The lady knows what she wants.
BY JAMIE GADETTE
If you're at all familiar with Martha Wainwright, you know her story: father Loudon Wainwright III and mother Kate McGarrigle are folk icons; brother Rufus is an artist famous and eccentric in his own right. Martha, well, she took a bit longer to join the family business, and released her debut just three years ago.
That eponymous breakthrough was a stunning, raging work-much more an exercise in catharsis than her well-crafted follow-up, I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too (Zoë). While still deeply passionate and personal (there's a track inspired by her new husband/producer Brad Alberta and one for a departed friend), it seems this time around Wainwright had a better sense of how to shape the record. "I wanted it to be a little more produced than the last record," she says, "so I wanted to find that right person. But at the same time I didn't want to let one sort of older guy, generally, take over and sort of ejaculate on my record."
Instead of messing with one unruly ego, Martha hired several producers for the job-a move that could have easily resulted in a sloppy sophomore slump. Instead, the album is just loose enough to accommodate the singer's unique delivery, which navigates the sweeping space between sweet, fragile breathlessness and grizzled salt-of-the-earth bravado. At times, it's hard to believe Martha ever lacked the confidence to take control.
"I always straddled music in a really serious way, but I think that I was probably a bit insecure and intimidated to really go for it as an artist," she says, of her early years playing New York coffee shops and backing Rufus on his breakthrough shows. "On the first record, there was a lot of baggage to overcome, whereas with this one I was just able to go into the studio as an artist and a singer."
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