Stories I Might Regret Telling You by Martha Wainwright - Review

I've been a fan of Martha Wainwright since about 2007 when my friend Sam introduced me to her music. We've seen her in concert a few times, including with her half sister Lucy Wainwright Roche, and with a full band which included her now ex husband Brad Albetta. I really love her first three albums, but I will admit that she's dropped off my radar over the past few years and I'm not sure what she's been up to. I knew she had had two sons, and I knew she and Brad had divorced. She has two albums that I'm not familiar with so I will have to check those out. It was interesting to read her side of lots of things, but I was aware throughout that I was only getting her side of the story. Still, her divorce from Brad sounds like an absolute nightmare and there was clearly lots she couldn't say. 

Martha is the daughter of folk musicians Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle. They split up when Martha was tiny and she grew up with her mum in Montreal with her brother Rufus. She often toured with her mother and aunt, Anna, and her cousins. Loudon had two more daughters, Lucy and Alexandra, and Martha often toured alongside them and Lucy's mum. Her parents never got along. Loudon would write songs about both Rufus and Martha. Martha talks about being a bit adrift in her late teens, when Rufus was starting to write music  but Martha didn't want to go down the family path. She spent a year living in New York with Loudon (which he wrote a scathing song about) (it's okay because Martha wrote her own some years later) and did eventually start writing music. She met Brad when she was quite young and he was somewhat older than her. 

She writes a lot about the decline and death of her mother Kate, and the grief she still feels absolutely shines through. I relate a lot to this and was pleased Martha wrote so much about how Kate dying affected her. I had forgotten Kate died so long ago, way back in 2010 just after Martha's first son was born. Martha also tells some stories about other famous people which are often funny, but sometimes sad - like the breakdown in her friendship with Leonard Cohen's daughter Lorca (who is also the mother of Rufus' child, which is what broke the friendship down). 

I'm giving this four out of five - it's definitely interesting if you're already a fan of Martha or any of the Wainwright clan.