The Wainwright Sisters perform several shows at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, July 15 to 17 at Jericho Beach Park. Schedule and tickets at thefestival.bc.ca.
Babies don’t always enjoy the soothing sound of their mother’s singing voice.
There were times when Martha Wainwright would croon classic lullabies while rocking her youngest son to sleep and he would raise one little hand and place it over her mouth as if to say, “Stop singing.”
“But I didn’t listen, I’d just keep singing,” the Canadian folk musician says with a laugh. After all, she was trying to influence his taste in music from an early age, steering clear of too much Barney fluff in favour of traditional cradle songs – as depressing as some of those may be.
Melancholy lullabies, with their sweet melodies and dark lyrics, inspired Songs in the Dark, the debut album from the Wainwright Sisters (that’s Martha and her half-sister Lucy Wainwright Roche).
Although they didn’t grow up together, Martha and Lucy were born into the same musical family: they have the same father, folk legend Loudon Wainwright III, while the late singer-songwriter Kate
McGarrigle is Martha’s mother, and Suzzy Roche, known for her work with female vocal group The Roches, is Lucy’s mom.
Martha and Lucy are both musicians, but it wasn’t until recent years that the siblings had a chance to perform together on a televised Christmas special hosted by Martha and her brother, Rufus Wainwright.
“It was the first time that we got to sing together and it was really, really fun,” Martha says. So fun, in fact, that the duo decided to team up on Songs in the Dark. The idea for the project had been in the back of Martha’s mind for a few years, ever since she had her first son in 2009.
“I had this compilation of sad songs that I really enjoyed listening to with the baby at night time,” she says.
Deciding which 16 tracks to include on their debut collaboration was an exercise in nostalgia. The album features a collection of lullabies their mothers sang to them as children, three traditional songs, songs written by their father, and covers of country tunes by the likes of Jimmie Rogers and Townes Van Zandt.
All the songs relate to children or babies, and all of them are “morbid and negative in some way,” Martha explains. The traditional ballad “Long Lankin” recounts the story of the murder of a mother and her infant son (“And the false nurse held the basin / For the blood to flow in”); Richard Thompson’s “The End of the Rainbow” warns of the harsh realities of life (“There’s nothing at the end of the rainbow / There’s nothing to grow up for anymore”); and Loudon Wainwright’s “Lullaby” deals with the ever-frustrating bedtime routine (“Shut up and count some sheep / And do me a favor, don’t bitch in your sleep”).
“It’s not really a children’s record, obviously, but it’s something that the whole family can enjoy and that children can listen to. And it definitely works to put kids to sleep – I’ve tried,” Martha says.
The Wainwright Sisters recorded the album in a small cabin north of Montreal with just their guitars in tow.
“We really had no idea what our voices would sound like together because we have very different sounding voices in our own music,” Martha says, describing Lucy as a “clear bell” and herself as more “aggressive.” But they put any uncertainty aside and tried to create music as simply and as plainly as possible. “I think that it came out really beautifully.”
When the sisters perform at this weekend’s Vancouver Folk Music Festival, audiences can expect an intimate, no-thrills experience that won’t feel too different from their cabin recording session.
“The performance is really a reflection of the album,” Martha explains.
“It’s a joy for us to be able to spend this time together,” she adds, explaining the album and ensuing tour brought the musical siblings closer. “It’s like finding a long-lost sister in many ways, and that’s really nice.”
