EASE DOWN THE ROAD

Songwriter Loudon Wainwright III’s under-appreciated life story should someday be made into a posthumous feature film. Maybe a dark, comedic jaunt by some guy named Judd Apatow. Hipsters and lazy listeners everywhere will promptly buy the soundtrack, later kicking themselves for not listening to Rufus and Martha’s dad while he was in the middle of one of his two “golden periods.” In the heart of that second “golden period,” Wainwright pulls into Indianapolis for a Sept. 27 show at Clowes alongside longtime friend and fellow legend Leo Kottke.

Though he has been steadily releasing studio albums for the better part of four decades, Wainwright found new breath when Apatow (who Wainwright had previously worked with on the short-lived TV series Undeclared) asked him to not only act in his blockbuster comedy Knocked Up, but also to contribute to the film’s soundtrack. Along with acclaimed songwriter/producer Joe Henry and legendary guitarist Richard Thompson, Wainwright recorded his 2007 album Strange Weirdos for the film. The album not only saw some of the best sales numbers of Wainwright’s career, but also led to a second album, the recently released Recovery, and thus the current tour with Kottke. Recovery is a profile of a young artist re-imagined by a seasoned veteran, with songs, once fragile and simple, now fleshed out and grand.

“My friend Joe Henry and I were working on my previous album, Strange Weirdos, and we were talking about songs, you know,” Wainwright recently told NUVO. “As a teenager he’d been a fan of my earlier material, and he said, ‘Wouldn’t it be interesting to take some of these really old songs — most of which were recorded with just voice and guitar — and record them with the band we were working with at the time?’ I thought it could be interesting, so we tried one of the songs and liked how it came out, so we started to make a record.”

Understanding the depth of Wainwright’s history as an entertainer takes some devotion. Known as much for his dark sense of humor as he is for his bleeding-heart honesty, Wainwright has seen a decent amount of screen time throughout his career as a songwriter, holding down roles in M*A*S*H, Elizabethtown, Knocked Up, Undeclared, Big Fish, For Your Consideration and many others. To see the man perform says it all: Each phrase demands its own series of mannerisms and expressions, as if Wainwright is acting out his songs while singing. “I always wanted to be an entertainer,” Wainwright says.

And all along, through all the screen roles, famous children, tabloid-like coverage of his family issues and so on, there has been the music.

“I’m always trying to write. That’s one of my main jobs. I’m a performer and sometime actor, but I’m mainly a songwriter,” Wainwright said. “I’m always concerned about writing. In the beginning of my career I worried about if I’d continue to write, but I have managed to keep up with it.”

More than any songwriter that comes to mind, Wainwright’s output is defined by his guts and lean honesty. Wainwright knows that, sure as there is pain in love, there is sweetness in hate. A brief list of topics for those unfamiliar should suffice: failed marriage; dark meditations concerning his father; being hailed as “the new Dylan”; the feelings he had just before his son Rufus was born; hitting his daughter; and so on. When asked if he ever has a period of explaining to do towards friends and family upon the release of new records, Wainwright perked. “No. My friends and family know who I am and know what I’m going to do. They’re all used to it, so I never panic about that.”

And those famous kids? “My kids are grownups now,” Wainwright said when asked about his three famous musical offspring, Lucy, Martha and Rufus. “They’re into their own things and I don’t think they need my advice. They’re doing very well. I’ve toured [with them all], but they’re all embarked — they don’t need my advice, they can make their own mistakes.”

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