A Conversation with Rufus Wainwright (continued)

PM: There's not enough written these days about your very talented mother. [Kate McGarrigle]

RW: She's really great. She and her sister Anna are completing a French album at the moment, which will be coming out soon. On my record, she plays banjo on "14th Street" and accordion on "Dinner at Eight." As my father says, she's quite a taskmistress, she really lives and breathes music, and culture. She's never been sparing in her criticism or her support.

PM: Do the McGarrigle sisters do many dates these days?

RW: Yes, they still play a lot of shows, but like I say, they're finishing an album at the moment.

PM: Since we favor how our subjects are revealed when they are speaking of significant others, please give us a few words on your sister Martha.

RW: Yeah, sure. Martha is also doing an album, and I'd have to say she is one of the casualties of the current recording industry climate. It's a real crime if she isn't signed. She's making an amazing album, but she's really fighting right now.

PM: What is her album like stylistically?

RW: Her influences are more folk-rock based than mine are.

PM: Yeah, I remember her singing with your dad [Loudon Wainwright III, see our recent interview with him] on a live cut of his, and she was doing kind of an R&B thing, very well.

RW: Right. She could give Tina Turner a run for her money. Or, say Tina Turner combined with Joni Mitchell...

PM: Has Martha always been a songwriter, or is that a more recent development?

RW: No, she's always been a songwriter. I was a songwriter for a lot longer, but she did perform in my very first show, about ten years ago. And a week later she had her own set. continue

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