The deeply personal music of Martha Wainwright
Come Home to Mama was written at time of great change in her life
Martha Wainwright’s new album Come Home to Mama was birthed out of a time of great change for the singer. She wrote the deeply personal songs when she became a mother and lost her own, when Kate McGarrigle died in 2010 of cancer at age 63.
Wainwright is taking the album on the road and getting ready to share those experiences with audiences across Canada. Though it’s nothing new for the musician, she admitted it’s not always easy to be so open.
“In some ways, it’s a bit embarrassing. I write songs by myself in a bubble or a tunnel and then of course I always forget that I’m going to present them to people and expose myself in a way. But it’s also what I’ve always done and I think it’s something people kind of appreciate,” she said in an interview.
Wainwright realized early in her life why it is important to be honest as a songwriter. Her father, Loudon Wainwright, often wrote songs about his family in ways that initially made his daughter cringe.
But after one show in Boston, a big man approached her father in tears, commenting on how one song reminded him of how he felt when his dad died.
“I sometimes wondered, ‘Why is he revealing so much to these strangers?’ But it crystallized in that moment that it’s about the human experience,” she said.
Even though her songs — which, among other things, speak about her mother, her son and her marriage — come from a personal place, their themes express things we all go through.
Wainwright said she finds relief in that shared experience. “It’s not me slashing my wrists every single time at my personal problems as much as it is something that can be shared with the audience.”
After some solo shows in January and February, Wainwright is back with her band, including Broken Social Scene member Andrew Whiteman.