Don Imus would have a bloody field day with this one: DMX got arrested ... for the third time since May. 
TORONTO - Martha Wainwright is used to being referred to as the daughter or the sister of her more famous family members, but it's the shadow of former lovers that looms large on her second solo disc, a collection of tortured tales filled with heartache and loneliness.
The quirky singer-songwriter wears her heart on her sleeve with the provocatively titled, "I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too," an emotional roller-coaster filled with dark humour and such melodramatic pronouncements as: "My heart was made for bleeding all over you."
"I certainly cry a lot," Wainwright admits of the raw emotion she puts on display, backed by swirling melodies and layered instrumentation.
"In general, I think that the songs were about my own autobiographical life (which) was scary and lonely as it usually is when you're young and trying to find yourself in a world of egomaniacs ... (And then) you get up on stage and you're trying to get loved and appreciated and it doesn't always work."
"You have to expose yourself a lot and so I think that early on that really defined my style of songwriting and then also my relationship to my family because that's always interested me."
Her wildly talented family is a fascination for many, and is famously the reason for Wainwright's belated foray into the musical spotlight herself. She spent much of her youth supporting the musical projects of folk-singer parents Loudon Wainwright III and Anna McGarrigle and her brother, singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright, with self-doubt serving as a constant personal obstacle.
Wainwright, 32, says she's finding her voice now and is excited by the stronger and more poised approach that distinguishes this latest outing from her nonetheless accomplished 2005 debut disc, simply titled "Martha Wainwright."
"It's kind of like being a rich kid and never having a job yourself," she says of her earlier insecurities.
"That makes you sometimes lack confidence in some way because you feel like you can never sort of catch up. I think that that's always been something that's haunted me but I think that's certainly less, less and less and less. And now that I just go on the road and I play my own shows and I write songs and I work really, really hard, all of that other stuff sort of fades away."
"As on the previous disc, brother Rufus appears singing back-up, and brought an undercurrent of sibling rivalry to the studio sessions.
"I always call Rufus when I run out of ideas because he never runs out of ideas ... and it's always something that is completely off-the-wall. And when I have him sing back-up I don't really tell him what to do because I don't think that's really going to work," Wainwright says laughing.
"Because he's still my older brother. It's more like trying to like let him have free reign. Then he leaves and then I edit it! So it's a system."
"Family also appears by way of Wainwright's husband, Brad Albetta, who produced most of the disc. Wainwright credits him with helping her find the courage to cut her own path to begin with, noting he ushered her through her debut, as well, and helped close a chapter in her life that included a seemingly endless stream of unrequited love."
"I was very lonely and very sad in many ways and so it was nice to have someone...in the work situation that believed in me and I think that gave me more of a sense of confidence to sort of continue," says Wainwright, whose wedding to Albetta last September was said to be a star-packed affair including guests Emmylou Harris, Linda Thompson and Jimmy Fallon.
Special guests on her second disc include friends Pete Townshend of the Who, Donald Fagen of Steely Dan and Garth Hudson of the Band.
Wainwright says her friendship with Townshend began several years ago in London when she received a phone call out of the blue inviting her to appear on an online music show he tapes out of his living room. To her surprise, he was a fan and jumped in with his guitar as she performed. They've been friends ever since, with Townshend providing mentorship and encouragement that now has Wainwright contemplating her musical ambitions in the grandest of scales.
"I'm still trying to create my story in the history of music amongst my family and other greats - which is so interesting about having people like Pete Townshend and Donald Fagen (as musical guests)," says Wainwright, who splits her time between Montreal and Brooklyn, N.Y.
"You get a sense of the history of music and that story and it's great to feel like you could maybe pop in somewhere on that line."
News from �The Canadian Press, 2008
