Loudon Wainwright III’s Older Than My Old Man Now is his take on a memoir, told in 15 songs. Here he attempts to sum up his tangled family history, three marriages and his relationships to each of his children — all of four of them make appearances on the album, as do two of their three mothers, Suzzy Roche and Ritamarie Kelly. Also included are recitations from the writings of his late father, a Life magazine columnist, and the only song ever co-written with former wife, the late Kate McGarrigle. Other guests include Chris Smither, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, John Scofield, as well as the aforementioned Dame Edna Everage.

Hopefully we’ll see it released sometime toward the end of June.

“Singer-songwriter contemporaries of mine have recently taken to writing memoirs and autobiographies,” notes Wainwright. “I decided I would try to tell the story of my swinging life in a three and one-half minute song.”

He’s speaking specifically of the album’s lead track “The Here & the Now,” which features jazz guitar great John Scofield and backing vocals from all four of Wainwright’s children — Rufus and Martha Wainwright, Lucy Wainwright Roche and Lexie Kelly Wainwright — as well as two of the three moms, Suzzy Roche and Ritamarie Kelly. But the album as a whole reflects the stage he’s reached in his life, and as he so wryly puts it, the “death ‘n’ decay” that inevitably accompanies it.

One track which cuts directly to the issue, “The Days That We Die,” remarkably brings together three generations of Wainwright males.

“My Dad wrote the recitation, and I’m singing with No. 1 son Rufus,” says Wainwright. “That’s my grandson Arcangelo Albetta — Martha’s kid — I’m walking with on the beach photo that’s part of the CD artwork. Not only that, but Loudon Wainwright I is referenced in the title track, so in fact there are five generations represented on the album!”

Wainwright’s father, who died in 1988, also wrote the recitation that introduces the album’s title track. “Please believe me when I say that collaborating with my long gone progenitor at this late date felt pretty damn big,” says his son, who also lifted the opening line of “Double Lifetime” from one of the notebooks that his father used to carry around with him to write in.

Another key family member who is no longer living, Wainwright’s ex-wife Kate McGarrigle (the mother of Rufus and Martha), is represented by “Over The Hill” — “the one song we wrote together, way back in 1975.” Martha Wainwright accompanies her father vocally on the track, as does multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Chaim Tannenbaum, his “musical sidekick and sounding board” for over 40 years. Suzzy Roche returns to sing on “10,” and even Wainwright’s lab/pit/chow mix Harry, who’s been featured (in the lyrics) in a number of his songs in the last few years, appears on “Ghost Blues” and the bonus download track for the album “No Tomorrow.”

But Older Than My Old Man Now, which was produced by Dick Connette (producer of Wainwright’s 2009 Grammy-winning High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project), boasts stellar participants other than family.

“One voice singing a lot about death ‘n’ decay can be a bit wearing so Dick and I brought in other singers to help with the heavy lifting,” says Wainwright. “The venerable Chris Smither testifies with me on ‘Somebody Else,’ for which High Wide & Handsome alum Rob Moose wrote the string arrangement. Barry Humphries, a.k.a. Dame Edna Everage, does a duet with me on ‘I Remember Sex.’ He and I were romantically linked in two episodes of Ally McBeal a few years back, and I’ve been besotted ever since. There is no greater living and performing legend than Barry Humphries, for my money. And he’s even older than I am!”

Older than Wainwright, too, was another personal hero who guests on Older Than My Old Man Now — folk music legend and 2 time Grammy winner Ramblin’ Jack Elliott.

“After making pilgrimages to Jack’s shows for half a century now, for me to sing and play with him on an album was nothing short of a dream come true,” he says, referring to “Double Lifetime.” “Recording this song with him — perhaps my foremost musical father figure — was a gas.”

One other old friend is noteworthy: Robin Morton, a founding member of legendary Celtic group the Boys of the Lough.

“We’ve known each other since the early 1970s when we were young hell raising/up-chucking Turks on the folk music scene together,” recalls Wainwright. “It was great fun to begin recording Older Than back in May at Robin’s studio in the tiny Scottish village of Temple — just a wee bit south of Edinburgh.”

And from High Wide & Handsome also came the likes of guitar and banjo player Matt Munisteri, cellist Erik Friedlander, pianist Paul Asaro and bassist Tim Luntzel. Together, the new album’s personnel create song treatments ranging from basic guitar-and-vocal to sophisticated string settings — together with some swinging funk provided by Scofield.

Loudon Wainwright III came to fame when “Dead Skunk” became a Top 20 hit in 1972. Born in Chapel Hill, N.C. in 1946, he had studied acting at Carnegie-Mellon University, but dropped out to partake in the Summer of Love in San Francisco.

He wrote his first song in 1968, “Edgar” (about a lobsterman in Rhode Island) and was soon signed to Atlantic Records by Nesuhi Ertegun. Clive Davis lured him to Columbia Records — which released “Dead Skunk.” His recording career now consists of 25 albums, also including last year’s five-disc retrospective 40 Odd Years and his most recent studio album 10 Songs For The New Depression (2010).

Wainwright’s songs have been recorded by Johnny Cash, Earl Scruggs, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Rufus Wainwright, and Mose Allison, among others. He has collaborated with songwriter/producer Joe Henry on the music for Judd Apatow’s hit movie Knocked Up, written music for the British theatrical adaptation of the Carl Hiaasen novel Lucky You, and composed topical songs for NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered and ABC’s Nightline.

Also an accomplished actor, Wainwright has appeared in films directed by Martin Scorsese, Hal Ashby, Christopher Guest, Tim Burton, Cameron Crowe, and Judd Apatow. He has also starred on TV in M.A.S.H. and Undeclared, and on Broadway in Pump Boys and Dinettes.

After the War (II) my father Loudon (II) came home with his bride Martha (I).1 My parents had sex and nine months later I was born albeit almost backwards.2

My youth was spent in Westchester County, New York and Beverly Hills, California.3 I remember being particularly happy when we lived in Southern California.4 However there was romantic agony – I had a tremendous crush on Liza Minnelli who happened to be a classmate of mine in the 3rd Grade.5

In 1956 the family moved back East to Westchester.6 That year I bought my first record – a 45 r.p.m. single of “All Shook Up” by Elvis (I) and music suddenly seemed terribly powerful and important. In 1961 I was sent away to a boarding school in Middletown Delaware called St. Andrew’s (seen on screen in Dead Poets Society), where my father had gone 20 years earlier. It’s not such a great idea to go to the same boarding school as your old man especially when you both have the same weird first name.7 Incidentally, a few years later I wound up seeing my father’s shrink – another bad move.

I started playing the guitar around 1960 and after seeing Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival in 1962 I acquired a brand new musical role model.8 I was unhappy at St. Andrews, but thank God for teenage rebellion – it can get you through.9 I graduated in 1965, went on to drama school at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh,10 dropped out in 1967 and headed west to San Francisco where all the other long-haired lemmings were bound at that time.

Suddenly it occurs to me that some of these biographical details may seem familiar to you, that you may have already gleaned these tidbits from earlier bios. Well, let’s just be professional and go over it one more time, shall we? It makes the record company happy.

Okay so now I’m about 20 years old and you’d think all that rebellion stuff would be out of my system. But as Belushi (I) used to say, “Nooooo….” I had to get busted for pot. And not in a reasonable state like Vermont or Rhode Island, but Oklahoma for God’s sake. In jail I was given a free haircut.11 Good old Dad flew in from London and bailed my ass out of jail, which of course is not a safe place for any young man’s ass to remain for any length of time. Nevertheless my time in the slammer (5 days) changed my life. I had short hair and had to get a job to pay the old man back. I worked a variety of jobs – movie house janitor, boatyard barnacle scraper, and cashier-cook-dishwasher at New York’s first macrobiotic restaurant, the Paradox on East 7th Street.12 This was also the time I started to write my own songs. Male singer-songwriters were a happening commodity back then and I was signed to Atlantic Records in 1969. The first album came out in 1970 and the career’s been up and down ever since.13

I suppose if you were writing my obituary today you’d refer to 1972’s “Dead Skunk” (#1 in Little Rock Arkansas for six weeks) and my 3 appearances on the M*A*S*H TV show in 1975 as Capt. Calvin Spaulding, the singing surgeon. Hopefully you’d mention my two Grammy nominations for the albums I’m Alright (1985) and More Love Songs (1986). And you’d remember and include the fact that Johnny Cash recorded my song “The Man Who Couldn’t Cry” for his highly acclaimed 1994 album American Recordings. Undoubtedly your editor would remind you to say something about last summer’s BBC II TV show, Loudon And Co. and the topical songs I’ve been writing for N.P.R. and Ted Koppel’s Nightline on ABC. If and when you do write the obituary I’m sure Virgin Records would be happy to supply you with any photos you might require. You’ll probably want to finish off the piece with a quote from one of the fabulous songs which have appeared on the 15 great albums I’ve made. How about this one from the most recent album Grown Man?

“He died on Monday where he lived, it happens to us all
Shot through the air expecting nets, flight and then a fall.”
- Human Cannonball, 1995

1 “During the War in the Marine Corps/ They met and then married one day” -Westchester County, 1982
2 “The doctor reached inside of her/He turned me round then pulled me out”-April Fool’s Day Morn, 1982
3 “When I was 10 years old I was alive/In the Benedict Canyon on Hutton Drive” -Hollywood Hopeful, 1976
4 “Nothing bad has happened yet/Everyone is happy” -Thanksgiving, 1988
5 “After school we two engaged in pre-pubescent play/At your house afternoons we spent cruising your black driveway/In your junior Thunderbird electric kiddie car/I chauffeured you you lounged in back/Back then you were a star” -Liza, 1974
6 “Tennis courts and golf courses galore” -Westchester County, 1982
7 “My parents should shoulder some blame for calling their kid a strange name” -T.S.M.N.W.A., 1992
8 “I got some boots a harmonica rack/A D-21 and I was on the right track” -Talking New Bob Dylan, 1991
9 “In Delaware when I was younger I would live the life obscene/In the spring I had great hunger/I was Brando, I was Dean” -School Days, 1970
10 “Pennsylvania’s Western daughter” -Ode to Pittsburgh, 1970
11 “Don’t shave off my beard, don’t cut off my hair/It took me 2 years to grow it and it just isn’t fair” -Samson & The Warden, 1971
12 “Several stars played guitars and were backed with feeling/By a chop-stick wielding rhythm section” -Bruno’s Place, 1970
13 “For 20 odd years I have strummed on guitars/5,000 lost flatpicks, four fingertip scars” -Career Moves, 1993

Hope you like it.

In 2011 the Cowboy Junkies embarked on their most ambitious project yet, to write and record 4 albums in 18 months. It was called The Nomad Series. Each album had its own individual style and feel. The first instalment, ‘Renmin Park’ was influenced by Michael Timmins’ trip to China with his family. Volume 2, ‘Demons’ was an album of Vic Chesnutt cover versions and a tribute to their late friend. ‘Sing In My Meadow’ was a louder, more guitar heavy album and the fourth and last in the series, ‘The Wilderness’ was a group of songs that the band had written and had been playing live throughout this process and it was released in March.

Once the project was finished, the band realised they had songs that haven’t quite made the four albums that were too good to keep hidden. This 5th LP ‘Extras’ consists of ten songs that will constitute a full album in the same embossed outer sleeve and printed inner that Volumes 1 to 4 have come in.

The box will be completed by a live 4 track bonus 12” that includes live tracks from ‘At The End Of Paths Taken’, songs that aren’t on the CD box set. There is also a 12” x 12” booklet compiled by the band.

All of these come housed in a box with lift off lid so that the complete series can be kept together as a whole.

We’re hoping Cowboy Junkies ‘The Wilderness’ will be with us by the end of the week.

RICHMOND FONTAINE (duo) + DANNY GEORGE WILSON of DANNY AND THE CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD + JOSHUA CAOLE
10 Feet Tall, Cardiff
Tuesday 20th March 2012
Tickets £9 adv. from http://www.wegottickets.com/event/152531 (stbf)

To celebrate the long awaited vinyl release of the band’s 2004 masterpiece ‘Post To Wire’, Willy Vlautin and Dan Eccles take time out from a tour with The Jayhawks to visit South Wales for an intimate evening of tunes from that landmark breakthrough album, their latest record The High Country and other highlights from their illustrious catalogue.

Richmond Fontaine’s Post To Wire finally gets the vinyl treatment. What’s more, it has a bonus 7″ with two previously unreleased songs from the album’s recording sessions…

Post To Wire was released through El Cortez/Décor Records on the 12th of April 2004 and caught the attention of UNCUT’s editor Allan Jones who gave the album a 5 star lead review as “Album of the Month” as well as placing it number 4 in albums of 2004 year end polls. “Uncut’s discovery of the year….Fans of a certain kind of orphaned Americana are likely to fall on Post To Wire like apostles on The Grail. A dark and mesmerising masterpiece, brilliant” Allan Jones UNCUT went on to give the band a 5 page feature and numerous glowing live reviews that year. But it was not just UNCUT championing the band.

All this helped the band from being an un-discovered US band on their 5th album who previously sold 200 copies in Europe to going on to sell over 10,000 copies of what has been oft described as their masterpiece.

Richmond Fontaine formed in 1994 at the Portland Meadows horse track by Vlautin and Dave, when the two took their mutual love of Hüsker Du, Willie Nelson, X, The Blasters, and The Replacements and began playing music together. The band was named after a down and out American expatriate Harding had met while hitchhiking through Mexico.

The bands strength are the story-based songs of singer Willy Vlautin, which were often compared to the stark short stories of writers such as Raymond Carver, Bukowski and Larry Brown. Post To Wire landed the band with their first UK release via Décor/El Cortez. 4 more have followed, the last two, ‘We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River’ and ‘The High Country’ have been released on vinyl by Diverse Records.

We’re thrilled to be able to delve into the band’s back catalogue and give this alt.country masterpiece the vinyl treatment it deserves. The band played the album in its entirety (along with The High Country) at their London gig in September.

“Those of you alienated by the roisterous flash of Ryan Adams should hitch your horses to Richmond Fontaine’s post right now.”
TIME OUT March 17th-24th Sharon O’Connell

“Heroic pedal-steel Springsteen pop from the Pacific Northwest.
Stranded in Portland, Oregon, but seemingly bound for somewhere better, Richmond Fontaine’s second album is already one of this season’s must have Americana purchases. A little dictionary of dashed hopes, Post To Wire is bathed in the half-dead ennui of the latter period Replacements, but Richmond Fontaine singer Willy Vlautin has inherited Paul Westerberg’s nose for Big Star power-pop choruses as well as his half-empty glass eye for a novelistic lyric”. Jim Wirth in Mojo April 2004

“What Songs, what fucking great songs. This is one of those times. Without a doubt, the best album of the decade so far” Comes With A Smile, Spring 2004

“Burnished Americana; ringing Fender guitars, lachrymose pedal steel, dark balladry – imagines a less feral Uncle Tupelo, but winningly so.”
Q, May 2004

“Post To Wire emerges somewhere between Gram Parsons’ slide guitar majesty and Lou Reed’s narrated New York. The Characters become your neighbours and the tunes as familiar as friends, making Post To Wire a faboulous addition to the all-too-slim canon of passionate, literary rock’n’roll”
4/5 Stars – Guardian

“A dynmamic study of the American underbelly, it puts Vlautin’s songwriting on a par with that of his heroes Jay Farrar and Paul Westerberg”
5/5 Stars – Independent, May 2004

Vinyl info: www.diverserecords.co.uk
Show info: www.gatheredinsong.com
UK label: www.decorrecords.com

Tickets £9 in advance from Spillers Records, Diverse Music and We Got Tickets here – http://www.wegottickets.com/event/152531 (subject to booking fees)

Any tickets left on the night will be £11.00, if available.

In 2011 the band embarked on the project known as The Nomad Series. Each album had its own individual style and feel. The first instalment, ‘Renmin Park’ was influenced by Michael Timmins’ trip to China with his family. Volume 2, ‘Demons’ was an album of Vic Chesnutt cover versions and a tribute to their late friend. ‘Sing In My Meadow’ was a louder, more guitar heavy album and the fourth and last in the series, ‘The Wilderness’ was a group of songs that the band had written and had been playing live throughout this process and it was released in March. Once the project was finished, the band realised they had songs that haven’t quite made the four albums that were too good to keep hidden.

Extras consists of ten songs that will constitute a full LP in the same embossed outer sleeve and printed inner that Volumes 1 to 4 have come in. It will come with a live 4 track bonus 12” that includes songs that aren’t on the CD box set. There is also a 12” x 12” booklet compiled by the band.

All of these come housed in a box with lift off lid that has room for Volumes 1 to 4 so that the complete series can be kept together as a whole.

Gretchen Peters was on born November 14, 1957 in Bronxville, New York and raised in Boulder, Colorado, but moved to Nashville in the late 1980s.

Peters’ own voice and guitar playing have been at the core of her music since she started performing in the Boulder, Colorado folk circuit as a teenager. Inspired by Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and a new generation of songwriters rising out of Nashville that included Steve Earle, Nanci Griffith and Rodney Crowell, Peters relocated to Music City in the late 1980s. Initially she found Nashville inspiring. “Being in a place where you can hear so many good songwriters perform their work on just an acoustic guitar really made me understand the anatomy of songs in a way I didn’t until I moved here,” Peters relates. “Just listening closely to other people who were good at their craft shaped me as a writer.”

The downside was a music business culture that typically perceived “singer” and “songwriter” as different jobs. “The either/or attitude was baffling, since all my favorite artists also wrote their own material,” Peters says. “My decision to pursue a publishing deal was based on wanting to be understood for who I am. I was afraid that if I got signed to a record deal as an artist, I’d never get to sing my own songs. I never had any aspirations of being a hit songwriter for other artists.” Nonetheless, Martina McBride’s 1995 recording of Peters’ “Independence Day,” the gritty story of an abused woman’s revenge, made her a songwriting sensation. The performance received a “Best Country Song” Grammy nomination and won the Country Music Association’s “Song of the Year” title. After that a string of great vocalists – Pam Tillis, Trisha Yearwood, Patty Loveless, Neil Diamond, George Strait, Etta James – began to record Peters’ songs. Peters also signed her own record deal, yielding her 1996 debut album The Secret of Life. The title track was cut by Faith Hill in 1999 and hit number five on the country charts.

Since then Peters has recorded five other solo albums: Gretchen Peters (2001), Halcyon (2004), Trio Live (2006), Burnt Toast and Offerings (2007) and Northern Lights (2008). The compilation Circus Girl was released in 2009. And that same year Peters collaborated with one of her favorite songwriters, Tom Russell, for their One To the Heart, One To the Head.