Loudon Wainwright III

[Zac Pensol]

I recently found a guy named Loudon Wainwright III, an older folk singer who has been singing since the early 70's who is apparently pretty popular in some circles and not at all in others.

So has anyone heard him? He's an indie folk guy with such hits as "I'd Rather Be Lonely", "Dead Skunk (in the middle of the road)" "Men" and "White Winos"

I find him particularly fascinating because he's not any one thing, which I guess is the beautiful thing about indie music. Sometimes he's funny, sometimes he's sad, sometimes he's mean and sometimes he's thoughtful. He's it all, really. Some of his songs remind me a lot of Greg, so some of you may like him. He's also very Dylan-like.

[Greg adkins]

I LOVE Loudon Wainwright...

I don't always agree with everything he says and sometimes he's a bit off color, but I've learned a lot from him. He deals with his demons honestly through his songs and that's something I have tried to emulate in my writing as much as possible. He has songs about what a lousy dad / husband / son he has been and they're some of his most compelling songs.

His album "Last man on earth" is probably a good starting point and then you can go from there... he has TONS of albums and I've only ever heard a few of them.

[Zac Pensol]

admin said:

I don't always agree with everything he says and sometimes he's a bit off color, but I've learned a lot from him. He deals with his demons honestly through his songs and that's something I have tried to emulate in my writing as much as possible. He has songs about what a lousy dad / husband / son he has been and they're some of his most compelling songs.

I totally agree... some of his messages are a bit... much... however, I do love how you can tell so much about his life via his songs. I was reading up on him and his relationship with his children and his daughter, Martha (a fellow musician) discussed how in their family it's just kind of their way of talking things out to write songs about each other, and I just think thats amazing. He has one song with her, "Father/Daughter Dialogue" and it's great because it's about just that, she talks about how he sings about his miserable life and then he retorts explaining that it's not him singing in those songs, and when it is, it's him trying to shed some of his guilt. Great great stuff.