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>> On her new album, Martha Wainwright deals with love and marriage, death and war

BLEEDING HEART: Martha Wainwright

by LORRAINE CARPENTER

“You can say that I’ve gone through a little bit of a change,” says Martha Wainwright, on the line from Manchester, England, commenting on her life, her craft and her new album, I Know You’re Married but I’ve Got Feelings Too. Ironically, perhaps, one of the changes Wainwright has undergone is her recent marriage to Brad Albetta, a member of her four-piece touring band and co-producer of this record as well as her eponymous 2005 debut.

“We’ve been having a wonderful turbulent relationship ever since,” she says, “but it’s better that we’re married. If you fight, it’s not that big a deal because it’s too hard to get out of the relationship. You just have to get over yourself, you can’t sweat the small stuff because the commitment that you’ve made is really present in your mind. That’s kind of a comfort. And it’s nice to be together, to not be alone on the road.”

Under the influence of marriage, Wainwright penned a couple of love songs for this record, which is more sonically and emotionally diverse than its largely raw, bitter predecessor. But while spirits are higher here, and moods range from raucous to sweet, the songs are never saccharine and many of the sentiments are as visceral as ever—the lead track, “Bleeding All Over You,” is a prime example.

“[The album is] a bit more confident and not as angry,” she adds, “but I’m also looking outside of myself for subject matter.”

There are songs about the suicide of a friend and a cancer scare in her family, as well as an allusion to 9/11 and the so-called “war on terror” in “Tower Song,” which is also a tip of the hat to that ubiquitous Leonard Cohen track. And Wainwright plays a pair of covers, of the Eurythmics’ “Love Is a Stranger” and Pink Floyd’s “See Emily Play,” featuring her mother Kate McGarrigle. The pair initially performed it last year at the Syd Barrett tribute concert in London, by request of the song’s original producer, Joe Boyd.

But the ’60s rock content doesn’t end there. Pete Townshend plays guitar on one song, “You Cheated Me.”

“It was spawned out of friendship,” she says. “He’s not used on the record in an obvious way. He really knows how to become a part of the song. It was just about having him there as an artist and as a musician rather than as a name. But it means so much to me that we have a history now.”

Being upstaged is one thing Wainwright doesn’t worry about, and for anyone who’s seen her live, she doesn’t have to. She often invites guests to the stage, and just as often appears as a guest at other artists’ concerts, and doesn’t view live collaboration as competition.

“I come from a tradition of folk music where that’s what it’s about—talented people who can take themselves out of it for the greater good, to do a song together. That’s one of the joys of music, so why not do that?

“In Montreal, we’ll have some family come up,” she adds. “I always sang with my family—it’s a way for us to be together, and it’s a way of life.”

With Jim Campilongo at
le National on Wednesday,
June 4, 9 p.m., $27.50