family matters

I've often wondered how the sons and daughters of celebrities grow up to be functioning adults. I can't imagine what it must be like to be in a family that is consistently in the public eye, constantly being scrutinized. Not to mention the distance that mom or dad's work requires. Dad's away on tour for months at a time. Mom is in the recording studio for 12 hours a day. I have enough trouble trying to connect with parents that were present my entire life. So, how do you get around all of these outside influences trying to take time and attention away from your family? Well, if you're the Wainwrights, you air out your family affairs in your art for all the world to see as opposed to trying to keep it a secret.

I don't know a whole lot about Louden Wainwright III. I know he is a rather accomplished folk musician who has released a lot material. I know that he was funny in an awkward sort of way in the largely underrated Judd Apatow television series Undeclared. I know he had a cameo in Apatow's film Knocked Up and composed the music for it's soundtrack. I also know he has at least three children (Rufus, Martha, and Lucy) from two different women and that all three kids, as well as their mothers, are musicians as well. It seems Louden was a one son-of-a-gun and not exactly the perfect father. Want to know how I know?

I've been listening to Martha Wainwright's self-titled debut a lot lately. Not unlike her father, she writes with a sharp wit and has a gift for playing with words. Also like daddy, she is not afraid to be candid about her family. In fact, she's pretty darn honest about it. Painfully so. The song about her father on this album is called "Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole." Ouch. Apparently she is not completely happy with his parenting. But she doesn't write him off. She voices her displeasure with a sad anger, and it's her voice that really conveys her emotion. She's not hating, she's longing for more.

The emotion in her voice is what really draws me in to this album. The writing is strong, the music is solid, but her voice tells the whole story. Subtle and soft when it needs to be ("Don't Forget"), strong and powerful when it's necessary ("Ball And Chain") and at times both ("This Life"). She's somewhere between Neko Case and Jewel. I suppose what I admire most about Martha (and her siblings for that matter) is that despite the trials of her childhood she did not let her displeasure with home keep her from pursuing her parent's trade and she did not abandon her own talents out of rebellion. And the world gets to enjoy the entire Wainwright family as a result - the good and the bad, the joy and the pain. There they are again, mixed together.