Martha Wainwright

STORIES I MIGHT REGRET TELLING YOU, by internationally renowned singer-songwriter Martha Wainwright is a heartfelt memoir about growing up in a bohemian musical family and her experiences with love, loss, motherhood, divorce, the music industry, and more. To accompany the release of her memoir, Martha is set to release the digital deluxe edition of her latest album Love Will be Reborn on April 8. A companion to the memoir, the 5 new tracks are talked about in the memoir, including 4 covers of her family’s song and a reimagined version of the title track. Pre-save HERE.

Recorded at URSA in front of a small audience of friends these are songs that I talk about in my memoir Stories I Might Regret Telling You. They relate to family and its complexity, as well as pain, feelings of loss, and ultimately forgiveness and acceptance. I have heard them my whole life and now I have the chance to sing them. Recorded in a live setting and in a very striped down and exposed way, with my good friend and wonderful piano player Edwin de Goeij, we had only just learned to sing and play them and are exploring with the listener in the moment. A sometimes bumpy and emotional ride, these recordings are about the words and the meaning. The songs speak for themselves and they are songs of our time about modern family and some of the trials of life, explains Martha.

The daughter of folk legends Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III and sister to the highly acclaimed, genre-defying singer Rufus Wainwright, grew up in a world filled with incomparable musical legends—Anna McGarrigle, Leonard Cohen, Suzzy Roche, Richard and Linda Thompson, Emmylou Harris—and struggled to find her voice in a milieu in which every drama was refracted through song.

In that Memoir, Martha digs into her life with the same emotional honesty that has come to define her music. She describes her tumultuous public-facing journey from awkward, earnest, and ultimately rebellious daughter, through her intense competition and ultimate alliance with her brother, Rufus, to finding her voice as an artist and the indescribable loss of their mother, Kate. With candor and grace, Martha writes of becoming a mother herself, finally understanding and facing the challenge of being a female artist with children.

STORIES I MIGHT REGRET TELLING YOU is a thoughtful, moving account of the extraordinary life of one of the most talented singer-songwriters in music today.

March 28, 2022
Calgary • Wordfest Virtual Event

April 4, 2022
Toronto • Another Story Bookshop

April 10, 2022
Québec City • Imagination Writers' Festival

April 11, 2022
Winnipeg • Virtual event with McNally Robinson

April 12, 2022
Montréal • Book launch with Paragraphe Books at the Rialto Hall

April 13, 2022
Oakville • Oakville Center for the Performing Arts and A Different Drummer Books

April 28, 2022
Moncton • Frye Festival

May 5, 2022
Montréal • Atwater Public Library Lunch series

May 13, 2022
Ottawa • Ottawa Writers Festival

May 15, 2022
Hamilton • Virtual luncheon event with Na’amat Hamilton

May 29,
Hudson, QC • StoryFest

April 21, 2022
Québec City, QC • Grand Théâtre de Québec (w/ Ariane Moffatt)

April 22, 2022
Québec City, QC • Grand Théâtre de Québec (w/ Ariane Moffat)

April 26, 2022
Carleton-sur-Mer, QC • Quai des Arts

April 27, 2022
Moncton, NB • Capitol Theatre

April 29, 2022
Châteauguay, QC • Pavilion de l'Île

April 30, 2022
Montmagny, QC • Salle Edwin-Bélanger

May 4, 2022
Drummondville, QC • Maison des Arts

May 5, 2022
Victoriaville, QC • Cabaret Guy-Aubert

May 14, 2022
Prince Edward County, ON • The Eddie

May 20,
Ste-Thérèse, QC • Eglise Ste-Thérèse d'Avila (Santa Teresa)

June 11, 2022
Ste-Marcelline, QC • Vielle Chapelle de Ste-Marcelline

June 18, 2022
Tadoussac, QC • Festival de la Chanson de Tadoussac

August 21, 2022
Halifax, NS • The Stage At St. Andrews

Thanksgiving (originally by Loudon Wainwright III, Martha’s father)
Nothing bad has happened yet followed by him sing-speaking in a lower register, and everyone is happy. It’s from a song of his called Thanksgiving on a record called Therapy, and refers to a photograph, or a time, really, when everything was okay in my father’s family—my family.

Dinner at Eight (originally by Rufus Wainwright, Martha’s brother)
Rufus’ song about Loudon

Tell My Sister (originally by Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Martha’s Mother and Sister)
That terrible time, along with her love for Loudon and his rejection of her, inspired a few of Kate’s most well-known and powerful songs, including Tell My Sister, which is the one of hers I sing in concert the most (Tell my sister to tell my mother I’m coming home... alone).

Love Will Be Reborn (Martha’s reinterpretation of the album’s title track)

Go Leave (originally by Kate McGarrigle, Martha’s Mother)
Go Leave, where she sings about another woman.

More info : MarthaWainwright.com