Martha Wainwright

"I wish I was born a man so I could learn how to stand up for myself/Like those guys with guitars I've been watching in bars," sings Loudon's daughter/Rufus's sister. She needn't worry about professional success, as each of these songs of loneliness and heartache exudes class. Country music's best when it hurts.

If you think Rufus Wainwright possesses an uncommonly expressive voice, check out his
sister. On Martha Wainwright's debut album, the New York-based singer-songwriter attacks
her songs with harrowing desperation. Wainwright exudes hard-core drama over finely
detailed soft rock, drawing from her folkie parents Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright
III but also from theatrical operatic warblers, French chanson weepers, jazz-cab... More >