Life In All Its Complexities

Just when you thought Loudon Wainwright III couldn’t broaden his overstuffed résumé, the songwriter, actor and all-around renaissance man put pen to a different kind of paper in 2017 and produced Liner Notes: On Parents & Children, Exes & Excess & a Few of My Other Favorite Things. The engrossing memoir is funny, sad, exhaustive and insightful, taking a pull-no-punches look at Loudon’s family life: a difficult relationship with his father, a Life Magazine columnist (“The View from Here” graced the last page for 24 years) in the ’50s and ’60s; long-term relationships with Kate McGarrigle, Suzzy Roche and Ritamarie Kelly, which produced four children- Rufus, Martha, Lucy and Lexie-all of whom are writers and artists in their own right. As Liner Notes’ dedication page says, “For the family and all we put us through”-and as Loudon says, “the word ‘put’ can be past and present and future.”

Folio Weekly: Did the process of writing Liner Notes differ significantly from the process of writing your songs?
Loudon Wainwright III: It was different. For me, songwriting is almost lackadaisical. I compare it to fishing-if I feel a tug or nibble on the line, I’ll go there. Writing a book requires you to get up every day, sit down and spend a couple of hours working, or it will never get done. You can’t be as random. That’s what I did for three years, pretty much every day, including Sundays. It was a different kind of process, but an enjoyable one.

Did all of that reflection change who you are as a father, a husband or a person?
I’ve been obsessing about these layers, these complications and these relationships for years. I’ve written a lot of songs about them, and many of their lyrics are included in the book. It wasn’t as if the territory hadn’t been explored. So no, writing the book didn’t change who I am. I’m still the same complicated idiot I always was.

After so many years on the road, how do you build the set list for a live performance?
My responsibility is to go out there for an hour and 15 minutes and entertain people, so I use whatever is at my disposal. I play older songs and newer songs, and I read a little bit from my book. I’m also doing these upcoming shows with my daughter, Lucy Wainwright Roche, as my support act. Her mom, Suzzy Roche, is tagging along, too, which means the audience may get to hear [all three of us] sing together a little bit.

That must mean Suzzy and Lucy are OK with the brutal level of honesty you reach in Liner Notes.
It didn’t create any cataclysmic, seismic shake-ups in the family-nobody resigned from the group. I feel good about the book, I enjoyed writing it and I’m happy with the positive fashion in which it it’s been received.

As a father, I particularly enjoyed your insights about the complicated relationship you had (and still have) with your dad.
That’s a lifelong thing. My sister is 70, and I’m 71, but when we get together, we’re Loudie and Teddy all over again. The beat goes on. My dad died in 1988 and yet he’s in my book; I even have a theater show that I do where I perform some of his writing. He’s still a big person in my life, despite the fact that he’s been gone for 30 years. The important relationships with your parents, your children and your siblings never end.

Your song “Double Lifetime” is written from the perspective of a 70-year-old looking back on life’s complexities and forward at what’s to come. Do you share that outlook?
Time is of the essence at this point. I’m happy each day to be alive and kicking, and I’m hoping to have a few more days.

You wrote a song about the prospect of President Donald Trump more than six months before he was elected-the lyrics have proved eerily prescient. Have you worked on more topical material since?
I wrote a song back during the George W. Bush era called “President’s Day,” and I just recently wrote an update to it. The beat goes on in that regard, too-I don’t know what the hell’s going on down in Washington. It’s a shitshow.

Do you feel a responsibility, in these tumultuous times, to take on a more activist folksinger role?
I’ve written songs over the years about several of our presidents, and 20 years ago, I put out an album called Social Studies, which was all topical songs. I do come from that generation; I went to the Newport Folk Festival in the 1960s and saw Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan in his “The Times They Are A’Changin'” period. That social commentary is part of my history, and I continue to partake in that.

As a Southerner, I hope you partake more in projects like High Wide & Handsome, your tribute to old-time banjo player Charlie Poole.
I love that old string band music. My mother was from Tifton, Georgia, way down South, which could be one of the reasons why I like it. [Another reason] I like it is because it’s just good. Charlie Poole played funny songs, sentimental songs, drinking songs, goofy songs … and he was a terrific performer.