Loudon Wainwright III

For the past fifty years, Loudon Wainwright III has carved out a distinguished career as one of America’s most original singer-songwriters, a six-string diarist with material that is by turns, tongue-in-cheek, tender, satiric, heart-wrenching, and always deeply personal. Along the way, he has released more than twenty albums, won a GRAMMY, acted in film and TV, and has had his songs recorded by artists including Johnny Cash, Mose Allison, Bonnie Raitt, and his own son, Rufus Wainwright.  His one-man show, Surviving Twin, based on his father’s Life Magazine column in the 1960s—toured internationally and became a Netflix special directed by Christopher Guest and produced by Judd Apatow.  He also published a memoir, Liner Notes: On Parents & Children, Exes & Excess, Death & Decay, & a Few of My Other Favorite Things, and in 2018 issued Years in the Making, a 42-track “audio-biography” of rare, offbeat recordings from his remarkable career.

In addition, Loudon Wainwright III has unveiled his new album, I’d Rather Lead A Band.  A collaboration with Vince Giordano and his band The Nighthawks, and producer and music supervisor Randall Poster, the 14-song collection is a loose, fresh, and “anti-nostalgic” take on classic songs from the 1920s and ‘30s featuring Wainwright as singer and bandleader.