Martha Wainright @ The Gov, Adelaide 14/5/2024
Blood doesn’t flow through Martha Wainwright’s body, it is music. Martha’s father was American singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright 111. Her mother, Kate McGarrigle a folk singer- songwriter who performed with her sister Anna and of course Martha’s older brother is Rufus Wainwright, a star himself. Even her grandfather was a musician, so there was really nowhere for Martha to go than into music.
Martha returns to Adelaide with her sixth album, 2021’s Love Will Be Reborn and also a book entitled Stories I Might Regret Telling You, entwining book and album into her set. With her were pianist Edwin de Goeij, bass player Morgan Moore, drummer Tommy Crane and her new partner, saxophonist Nicolas Deslis, who wandered on and off stage to supply lithe sax to some of the songs.
No support artist, no fanfare, the lights just dimmed and the stage bathed in red light as band and Martha Wainwright walked on stage. With just a “Hi. We will do some songs off the newish record and see where that takes us”, Martha strummed her acoustic guitar and flowed into the title track of her latest album, Love Will Be Reborn. Hole in My Heart, also from the new album followed and then back to 2008 for a beautiful rendition of Bleeding All Over You. The band were tight, slightly subdued as this was Martha’s trip and apparently listening to jazz music pre show. “Oh well” said Martha, “we’ll see where that goes”. In fact, a lot of her music does have jazz undertones. After another new track in Getting Older Martha askes the bar for a beer, “whatever the locals drink”. One was bought to her and during the night someone near the front kept getting her pints of beer, which she passed around the band.
Rainbow followed, with the beautiful lyric “Can’t you hear the sound of angels calling, Angels singing” was possibly the highlight of the evening. Martha read a story from her book about having dinner with her family and always being late before a singing her brother’s song, Dinner at Eight with only pianist Edwin de Goeij accompanying her. You literally could have heard a pin drop in The Gov. I was near the back, close to the stage room door and noticed the rest of the band came out into the venue to watch for a couple of songs.
With Martha on guitar, her and Edwin played their rendition of Go Leave (after another story from the book), a song from her mother and auntie, Kate & Anna McGarrigle. Still not a sound in The Gov except the sound of beautiful music flowing from the stage.
With band back on stage, it was a powerful run toward the end. Report Card, Factory and Radio Star all bought loud cheers from the audience, who up till now had been very subdued. Body and Soul closed out the set with Martha and band leaving the stage to rapturous applause.
Encores are usually used to roll out the big numbers, the hits. Not Martha. “This is a work in progress and always will be a work in progress” she told us, playing a news song called I chose My Children Over My Career, which is, as it sounds, autobiographical. It was really a work in progress, as Martha had to check the lyrics from a piece of paper in front of her several times.
Martha Wainwright closed out the show with just Edwin on piano to accompany her on a sincere, soulful cover of Tom Waits, Take It with Me. Despite having to take a conference call (apparently her son had been suspended from school), Martha promised to come out and sign copies of her book and meet the fans.
Such is the warm-hearted person who is Martha Wainwright. While at times the show did “meander”, she gave her fans exactly what they wanted, a great show of subdued and searing songs.
Live Review By Geoff Jenke