A Conversation with Loudon Wainwright (continued)

LW: Well, first of all, for me, I'm so used to--I mean, it was great. I do play from time to time with Richard and David and Van Dyke, but to play with a great rhythm section, and as you say, Bill has a whole other kind of feel to his playing. We all met, we communicated about songs. There was some research. They listened to all the records.

PM: To all the records.

LW: And this guy, Lee Townsend, who produces--

PM: He was in on it, too? I think that guy is a magician.

LW: Yeah, Lee was kind of the overseer and the producer of the whole thing.

PM: We're huge Lee Townsend fans at Puremusic. We think he does amazing things.

LW: Yeah. So Lee and I did emails about titles and what would work. And I'd met Bill just socially a few times. But we got over there, we rehearsed for three days. And then we did two shows in this kind of incredible place. It was, at one point, a steel mill I think, or--it had this kind of Blade Runner/Metropolis feeling--

PM: Wild. Only the Germans.

LW: Yeah, it was wild, indeed. But it really worked out. Both nights were really fun, and people seemed to enjoy it.

PM: So in that kind of environment, was it pretty decent acoustics?

LW: Yeah, the sound was great. There was a great, great sound person named Claudia, a beautiful woman who does wonderful sound, and she did the sound for the house. And the whole thing was a great experience.

PM: Is she European?

LW: No, she's actually from New York--or actually, she's originally from California, and she lives in Brooklyn. I can't remember her last name.

PM: Claudia, okay.

So, yeah, by virtue of that gig alone, I mean, to say that you're experiencing the respect of your peers is quite an understatement.

LW: Yeah, that's been the highlight of the summer, certainly, that gig.

PM: Because it's really a classy job, who did the selecting of the artists to be profiled in that series? Do we know?

LW: I don't know for sure, but I suspect it was Bill and Lee.

PM: Wow.

LW: And then we had our hosts--I'm blanking on their names, but these two guys in Essen who produced it.

PM: Maybe I'll go back to Lee and inquire.

LW: Yeah, Lee will have all the info. But they had, I think, pretty much creatively in that situation--they had Suzanne Vega and Mark Ribot, and I think Elvis Costello--

PM: Elvis too, yeah.

LW: --he either did it or is going to do it. So I think that Lee and Bill were the people who made the decision.

PM: So, thems some mighty talented kids you have.

LW: Yeah. Yeah, one of them is on the album, Martha.

PM: She done good, too.

LW: Yeah, she sang great on the record.

PM: Yeah, a lot of attitude on that cut. It was really cool.

LW: Yeah.

PM: We here loved Rufus' Poses. Was that big on your list?

LW: Yeah, and of course the fact that my song "One Man Guy" was on it, that didn't hurt.

PM: Yeah. Did he sell a lot of units with that?

LW: Well, I got a little bit of a check.

PM: Good.

LW: That's a great record, and--

PM: He did a good job on your song.

LW: Oh, I think it's the definitive version of that song.

PM: So you're big on Poses too. You like that record?

LW: And the new one. Wait until you hear the new one. [It's scheduled for release in late September.] I heard that--I've heard a lot of it, anyway. And it's--

PM: Oh, we're hot to go on that. In fact, at one point we were hoping--even though it's a little hokey, but--we were hoping to have both the Wainwrights, father and son, on the cover. But the timing didn't work out.

LW: Oh, well.

PM: Is Martha going to make a record?

LW: Well, she has kind of made a record, and now they're just--she's shopping a deal, which is a grotesque expression. You know, looking, trying to figure out who's going to put it out. But a lot of it is done. She's been working on it and she's getting ready to make a move.

PM: Did she write the songs or go outside for songs?

LW: She mostly wrote the songs.

PM: Yeah. That is a talented family.  continue

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