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Blurb for Venue Websites, Show Previews:
SLOAN WAINWRIGHT
Folk-pop artist Sloan Wainwright belongs to a musical dynasty of impossibly gifted singer-songwriters.
Her family tree (brother and folk-music luminary Loudon Wainwright, sister-in-law Kate McGarrigle, nephew Rufus Wainwright, nieces Martha Wainwright and Lucy Wainwright Roche) reads like a who's who of contemporary folk music. Sloan's incredible gift is not only her unique songwriting ability but her dramatically voiced rendition of her original songs.
"She's folk-influenced, obviously (you can't grow up in the First Family of Folk and not be, one imagines),
but the real star here is her voice. Warm and smoky and smooth, it makes her earthy, ominous lyrics seem all the more intense."
Defying standard categorization, singer/songwriter Sloan Wainwright consistently demonstrates her easy command of a variety of American musical styles -- pop, folk, jazz and blues -- held together by the melodious tone of her rich contralto. The end result, a unique and soulful hybrid.
With a solid and impressive discography of 8 original CD releases to her credit, Sloan continues to write, sing and perform live.
In addition, Sloan has written numerous musical compositions for theater and dance and teaches at many of the best-known master songwriter series and workshops. Sloan's open spirit and first-hand experience is welcome --year after year-- in the musical classrooms of such prestigious song camps as The Swannanoa Gathering, Summersongs, Wintersongs, WUMB Radio's Summer Acoustic Music Week (SAMW) and Lamb's Retreat.
Sloan is an independent artist making grown-up girl music in the truest sense.
"...A lot of singer-songwriters are whitebread. Sloan is whole grain." WFMT Radio, Rich Warren
"Celebrating a new album, Upside Down & Under My Heart, Wainwright is always a pleasure to behold live. The way her voice rumbles like thunder on a mountaintop will make you a believer. " The Boston Globe
"...one of those singers whose performance is a force of nature." Sing Out Magazine
" ...earth mother voice that she pours into unexpectedly sensitive blends of folk, jazz, blues and funk." The New York Times
ROYAL ALBERT HALL, LONDON ENGLAND, DECEMBER 09, 2009
"...while Queen’s Thank God It's Christmas was fabulously re-imagined by Rufus and Martha’s aunt, Sloan Wainwright. Christmas magic, indeed."
The London Evening Standard.
Vocal Workshop Description:
Workshop Title: Singing with your heart, soul and body
Singing is fun! Inside each of us lives a beautiful and unique instrument.
In this workshop we will move our bodies, soften our hearts, open our mouths and let our voices out to play.
We will use a combination of vocal warm-ups and work-outs to help relax and strengthen the voice....making it more flexible and reliable. There will be an emphasis on vocal health.
Individual attention and support is offered to each person in class as well as for the group as a whole.
Press Release for Life Grows Back [2006]
In PDF Format
THE NORTH JERSEY RECORD
January 20, 2012 Sloan Wainwright to perform in Park Ridge
THE WAINWRIGHT DYNASTY
You might know Rufus. Or Martha. Or Loudon. So is it any great shock that Sloan Wainwright knows a thing or two about music?
There must be something in those genetic fibers, right? Music blesses the Wainwright family the way baseball has blessed the Ripkens, the way football has blessed the Mannings.
Sloan, aunt to Rufus and Martha, lives on the folk side of the pop spectrum. Her own website describes Wainwright's musical strength as "not only her unique songwriting ability but her dramatically voiced rendition of her original songs." She has put out seven albums and composed work for different theater productions. Her most recent CD, "Upside Down & Under My Heart," was released last year.
There is a fantastic YouTube clip of Wainwright singing "Ring of Fire," telling a Madison Square Park audience that even though a guy wrote it, "this is a way chick song. This song is so chick."
January 05, 2012 Towne Crier Cafe in Pawling, to close in February, looks for new digs
PAWLING — The Town Crier Cafe on Route 22 will shutter its doors at the end of February.
Top musical acts from the folk, rock and country music circuits performed in the cozy venue, which has moved to new quarters two other times in its 40-plus-year history.
"Our lease expired, and the landlord has been actively trying to sell the building," explained founder Phil Ciganer, who brought national acts to small spaces, fed audiences gourmet vegetarian fare and recognized up-and-coming talents who progressed from open mic nights to opening acts to national figures.
"I grew up going to the Town Crier when it was in Beekman and saw amazing music there," said musician Sloan Wainwright, who credits Ciganer with helping to start her career.
Members of her extended family of musical luminaries have also graced the stage at Town Crier. Pete Seeger and his musical siblings have performed there, as have Arlo Guthrie, Tom Paxton, John Sebastian, Natalie Merchant, David Bromberg, Ricky Skaggs and Jesse Winchester.
December 16, 2011 FRIDAY'S BEST BETS by Mark Bialczak
No matter the time of year, Sloan Wainwright is ready to pour her passion into her folk music.
The popular singer and songwriter will be joined by her full band for a festive night of holiday sounds, Friday at May Memorial Unitarian Universalist Society.
She’ll deliver original songs from her album “On a Night Before Christmas,” accompanied by Stephen Murphy on guitars, Cadence Carroll on percussion and Doug Wray on bass.
For Wainwright, it’s a matter of nature and nurture. Loudon Wainwright is her older brother by 11 years, and she got to watch him mature before rising through the Greenwich Village ranks of hipster folk poets in her own right.
December 08, 2011 POP & ROCK LISTINGS FOR DEC 9-15
‘A Not So Silent Night,’ With Rufus and Martha Wainwright (Thursday) Almost every branch of the genetically blessed McGarrigle-Wainwright musical clan convenes under the Town Hall rafters: the patriarch (Loudon Wainwright III), his children (Rufus, Martha and Lucy) and their aunt and uncle (Anna McGarrigle and Sloan Wainwright). Sadly, the matriarch, the sublime folk artist Kate McGarrigle, passed away last year; she’ll be honored by many friends, including Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson. At 8 p.m., Town Hall
November 27, 2011 LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III PERFORMS AT SANCTUARY CONCERT SERIES
The evening opened with Wainwright's sister, Sloan Wainwright, whose rich voice filled the air with the sounds of jazz, folk and blues. Sloan was backed up by Stephen Murphy on guitar and mandolin.
November 03, 2011 CD REVIEW: UPSIDE DOWN AND UNDER MY HEART
Ten songs from Sloan Wainwright, of the singer-songwriter Wainwright family. If you’ve only got a passing familiarity with the family you probably haven’t heard of her.
This isn’t for lack of talent so much as lack of prolificacy. Unlike her brother Loudon III, she only started releasing music in the 1990s....
October 12, 2011 CD REVIEW: UPSIDE DOWN AND UNDER MY HEART
4.5 OUT OF 5 STARS
In the beginning, God created Loudon Wainwright, III, and it was good. Later came Rufus and Martha, and then Lucy Wainwright-Roche, and all was well for a new generation. Yet quietly, in the midst of all this musical creation, another Wainwright voice emerged. Forged of earth and sky, the deep contralto of Sloan Wainwright arose from the earth. Many stopped and stared in surprise at this unknown commodity, hewn more from the classical bedrock of folk music than any of her extended family. Now, six albums and many accolades on, Sloan Wainwright continues as the quiet musical bedrock that serves as the contrast for a wildly talented and creative family. 2011 saw the release of Sloan Wainwright's sixth album, Upside Down & Under My Heart, chronicles the aftermath of the death of her husband George, and noble effort of a human heart to overcome, heal and begin anew.
Presence is a gift in an artist. It cannot be learned or taught, but the natural talent can be developed in one so endowed. Sloan Wainwright's presence on Upside Down & Under My Heart is preternatural, carrying a sense of spirit and truth that is compelling. Without artifice or affectation, Wainwright bears her heart in ten original songs that cut to the meat of human suffering, healing and survival. "Live Out The Best Of Your Life" is a mantra, of sorts, a challenge to wake up each day, put your feet on the floor and go on. Simple in sentiment and deep in meaning, it's the perfect opener, delivered in Wainwright's clear, natural voice. "Upside Down & Under My Heart" is a sweet country ballad written from an expectant mother to her unborn child. The almost melancholy arrangement is in counterpoint to the peaceful, loving words that pass from one to the other, in a moment of beauty so simple it shines. "Here I Am" plays like a song of becoming; of growing up, or of emerging from darkness into a new sense of self. Once again, Wainwright eschews fancy dress for simple truth, allowing the emerging beauty of the human heart striving to be itself shine through.
October 10, 2011 INTERVIEW: SLOAN WAINWRIGHT
Family and music are the two things she is most passionate about in life – and they are inextricably entwined.
Sloan Wainwright, who performs in Norwich this week, is happy to celebrate her famous familial connections while also forging her own path in the world of music. Sister of Loudon, aunt to Rufus and Martha, and former sister-in-law to the late Kate McGarrigle, she admits music is in her DNA as well as her soul.
But despite being a member of America’s ‘first family of folk’, and growing up with the sound of song about her, it has been only relatively recently that she has been able to give her musical career her all.
August 11, 2011 SUMMERFEST REVIEW
Eclectic Company - Small Is Tremendous: New Bedford Summerfest By Leslie Berman
This year I promised myself that I would actually sit myself down at a Sloan Wainwright set, because I’ve missed hearing her warm jazzy-bluesy voice in person for many years, despite our proximity at several Summerfests. Well, I didn’t manage it again this year, so I picked up a copy of her Rediscovery CD at the sales tent, and it’s in my iTunes right now, her covers of Nick Drake (“Time of No Reply”), Phil Ochs (“There But For Fortune”), Neil Young (“After The Gold Rush”) and George Harrison (“All Things Must Pass”) proving once again that new versions respectful of the originals, yet offering a different interpretation, can probe deeper by revoicing.
Here, Sloan wields her sultry boom-y bass-y sound to make more of a delicate hush than a wispy-voiced singer does, and in these selections, she finds nuances that I hadn’t heard before.
Sloan Wainwright - Upside Down And Under My Heart (Derby Disc Music)
Making her eponymous debut in 1996, named after grandmother Eleanor Sloan, Loudon’s youngest sister - aunt to Rufus, Martha and Lucy - remains the lesser known of the family, despite having released six studio albums in the past 15 years.
This is her seventh, a collection of (save for an early Joni Mitchell flecked cover of Mani Cregan’s Holland) self-penned numbers about taking life by the balls, that showcases her rich, deep contralto and, much informed by her Greenwich Village years, musical leanings that hew more to earthy folk, blues and gospel than others of the clan.
Featuring Stephen Murphy on mandolin, she opens in rousing anthemic form with the folk-gospel inspired battle cry Live Out The Best Of Your Life, a song which, like the big belting declamatory show tune sounding Here I Am, underscores the positive, seize the day tone of the album.
It seems appropriate that, given the sense of moving on and grasping the future, she should finally include the title song, a lovely old-fashioned country flecked tune featuring Gerald Menke on pedal steel, written some 30 years ago when she was pregnant with her son, Sam. who, inevitably, is also now a singer-songwriter.
The spectre of mortality also hovers over the album, but the mood is celebratory rather than melancholic. The simple piano and strings backed I Wear The Ring has its roots in the passing of her husband in 2008 while the tenderly bittersweet Today poignantly features the late Kate McGarrigle, who co-wrote the song, on piano with longtime McGarrigles sidemen Chaim Tannenbaum and Joel Zifkin on mandolin and viola.
If the other songs don’t hit quite the same emotional heights, they still command your attention with their musical and lyrical power; the bluesy take hold of tomorrow I Can See Now with its echoes of Mahalia Jackson, jangling folk rock gospel protest Little Bit Right ("I am the power, I am the source, my life is right on course") and, delivered with just voice, acoustic guitar and keyboards, the equally defiant affirmation of I Am Free, a number that could have been born of the Civil Rights movement.
The young generation of Wainwrights may get all the attention these days, but this album clearly shows that the older branches of the family tree still bear ripe fruit.
Sloan Wainwright - Upside Down And Under My Heart (Derby Disc Music)
What is it with the Wainwright family? Sloan is the youngest sister of Loudon Wainwright, and auntie to Rufus and Martha Wainwright; when they were handing out songwriting chops, they certainly weren’t doing it alphabetically. Needless to say, Sloan got her share and just to emphasise the injustice of it all, she was equally fortunate when they were dispensing the great voices.
Upside Down And Under My Heart is her eighth album all told, and it’s a spirited collection of originals, tinged with heartbreak – a lost love one – but ultimately positive. Her voice, a deep contralto, is an ideal instrument for the sentiments running through her songs, and layer soulful resonance to words which feel honest and unguarded.
The record begins well with Live Out The Best Of Your Life with a sprightly but sparse mandolin accompaniment, and it’s followed by the gentle country lilt of the title track, a song almost three decades old, written when she was pregnant with her son Sam. My Song is clever and infectious, and Holland employs an early Joni Mitchell vibe which is truly captivating. It’s a thoroughly agreeable album, and if you’ve room for one more Wainwright in your record collection, then you know what to do.
SLOAN WAINWRIGHT Celebrating a new album, Upside Down & Under My Heart, Wainwright is always a pleasure to behold live. The way her voice rumbles like thunder on a mountaintop will make you a believer.
June 10, 2011 SLOAN WAINWRIGHT BAND WITH SUZZY ROCHE
And still they come! Yes, Sloan Wainwright is related to the Loudon-Rufus-Martha galaxy—she's Loudon's little sis—and she sticks to a more classically folky sound than the kids, as evidenced on latest disc Upside Down and Under My Heart. She's backed tonight by the Roches' lead, Suzzy Roche; by our calculation, Roche is Wainwright's sometime sister-in-law.
We never get sick of local music—especially when the musician in question is Sloan Wainwright. Luckily, she'll be performing at the Watercolor Café in Larchmont (March 01). There, you might hear a tune or two from Rediscovery, which features her take on songs such as "After the Gold Rush" and "Ring of Fire."
February 14, 2011 WAINWRIGHTS ANNOUNCE KATE MCGARRIGLE CELEBRATION SHOWS
On May 12 and 13, Rufus and Martha, along with their aunt Anna McGarrigle will host A Celebration of the Music of Kate McGarrigle, a pair of tribute shows to be held for their late mother at New York City's Town Hall. These shows will feature performances by Rufus and Martha, as well Anna McGarrigle, Jimmy Fallon, Emmylou Harris, Antony (of Antony and the Johnsons), Krystle Warren, Teddy Thompson, Justin Bond, Jenni Muldaur, Sloan Wainwright and more. Tickets for both shows are onsale now at Ticketmaster.com.
All profits from these events will go to the Sarcoma Foundation of America. Rufus and Martha were recently named as the 2011 spokespersons for the Sarcoma Foundation of America. Kate McGarrigle passed away from Sarcoma in January 2010.
February 10, 2011 MARTHA WAINWRIGHT SINGS PIAF AT GREAT AMERICAN MUSIC HALL
It’s difficult to make a name for yourself when you come from an incredibly talented family as Martha Wainwright does. And we’re not talking one or two members here.
We’re looking at generations and extended family members.Performing tonight at Great American Music Hall, Martha will sing a collection of melodies from iconic French chanteuse, Edith Piaf.
The daughter of celebrated singer-songwriters (the late Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III), and the sister of virtuoso Rufus Wainwright, the talented family tree branches out to include
the McGarrigle Sisters, The Roches, Lucy Wainwright Roche and Sloan Wainwright. It’s a musical genealogy really worth investing the time on.
December 12, 2010 HOLIDAY EXTRAVAGANZA WHIZBAND SHINDIG - A SHOW REVIEW
My favorite moment: I Believe. Sloan all alone at the piano. When she was a child, Sloan once saw Santa fly across the sky. Sloan can make anyone believe anything.
Holiday Concert: Folk-Pop Artist Sloan Wainright Plays Her Hometown. It's always fun and joyous to play the Bedford gig. There will be laughs and good spirits, as well as some seasonally poignant moments. Sloan Wainwright and Her Band, with special guests Sam McTavey, Anna Wainwright and Martha Wainwright.
The talent of the Wainwright clan is vast indeed. Sloan Wainwright, sister of Loudon, aunt of Rufus and Martha, has been putting out records and gathering a loyal following for the last 15 years. Much more on the traditional end of the folk genre, she supports her songs with a strong, deep voice that can easily fill any of the listening rooms she's been touring in the last year. Wainwright plays The Living Room this Friday.
The brightest star in the constellation? That would be Sloan Wainwright, who delivered killer sets everywhere she appeared and with everything she sang. If you’re going to cover Marvin Gaye, you’d better have chops. She has ‘em, alright. Talk about your family trees! She’s the sister of Loudon Wainwright III, the sister-on-law of Kate McGarrigle, her nephew is Rufus Wainwright, and her nieces are Martha and Lucy Wainwright. Believe us when we say that Sloan is more talented than any of them! She does it all—soul, pop, acoustic folk, jazz, rock…. and boy does she get into it. If you don’t know her you might be tempted to say that she’s stagey, but it’s genuine—the woman simply loves to sing. And so would you if you had a contralto voice like hers. Imagine what Celine Dion would be if she know how to sing. She still wouldn’t be as good as Sloan Wainwright.
Loudon Wainwright III Touring In 2010 To Support Grammy-Nominated 'High Wide and Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project
January 6, 2010 TOP-40 CHARTS
'High Wide Handsome' features such acoustic music luminaries as Chris Thile, Geoff Muldaur and Rob Moose, along with Wainwright's distinguished extended family members: Martha and Rufus Wainwright, Lucy Wainwright Roche, Sloan Wainwright, Maggie Roche, Terre Roche, and Suzzy Roche.
Friday, 4 December 2009 THE INDEPENDENT UK. By Kate McGarrigle
"Next week, I am joining my children Rufus and Martha Wainwright on stage at the Royal Albert Hall for a Christmas concert, to raise money for cancer research. We've done two family Christmas shows at New York's Carnegie Hall but this is our first time in London.
A big highlight will be Sloan Wainwright, Loudon's sister, singing Queen's "Thank God It's Christmas".
"Sloan Wainwright has spent her music career walking the road less traveled with her distinctive and soulful hybrid of rock,
folk, jazz and blues. “Her songs, like her voice cast a lasting spell,” says the Washington Post.
The Warmth of Winter: The McGarrigle Christmas Hour
[excerpt]
Carnegie Hall was particularly rosy and cozy last night as the McGarrigle family took to the
stage for its annual Christmas love-in. “Welcome to our living room…” joked Rufus Wainwright with a
sinister laugh, reminding everyone just how awkward, tiresome and spirited Christmases tend to be.
Fun can only last so long though and Sloan Wainwright decided a tempo change was in order with her
song Big Bright Beautiful Tree which described the haunting beauty and sacrifice of the Rockefeller Christmas tree.
The resulting ambiance ...."
New York Press December 11, 2008
CARRYING ON THE WAINWRIGHT TRADITION
SLOAN WAINWRIGHT’S house, with its peaked roof and gingerbread shingles, has a gnomelike quality that sets it
apart, even in this hamlet of fairytale homes. Or perhaps it’s that lone pink flamingo on the sun deck.
As Ms. Wainwright, an acclaimed songwriter from a family with a seemingly endless supply of them,
stepped out onto the sloping lawn, she was not accompanied by her big brother, Loudon, or her nephew
Rufus, or her ex sister in law, Kate McGarrigle. She was with her son Sam McTavey, as burly and bearded as his mother
is blonde and cherubic, and who, at 25, is starting to make a name for himself.
The two discussed their musical lives in a room with several guitars, a miniature keyboard and
lots of space for pacing should inspiration run dry.
The New York Times August 08, 2008
"Rufus Wainwright must love challenges. That's the only way to explain some of his recent projects. The
eccentric singer-songwriter, who is the son of musicians Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle, presented tributes to Judy Garland in
2006 and 2007 that re-created her April 23, 1961, Carnegie Hall concert in its entirety. His live album, "Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall,"
came out last year, as did his fifth studio album, "Release the Stars."
Q. Your aunt Sloan is opening these shows. She's 11 years younger than your father, so is she more like a sister?
A. No. I actually have an aunt, as well, who's younger than I am -- my grandfather was very popular -- so she's not my youngest
aunt, even. But she's definitely the baby of that wing of the family, and she's always maintained a youthful perspective. Q. Will you do any songs with her?
A. We haven't had time to pin that down. I'd love to. What's interesting about her -- about her act -- is that,
in my opinion, of all the many singers that exist in both my mother's and father's families, Sloan and I have the most similar voices.
On one of her albums, we sing a song together where we trade off voices, and sometimes it's hard to tell which one is which."
The Newark Star Ledger April 13, 2008
"Martha Wainwright has grown up and is ready to party
Has marriage mellowed Martha Wainwright? No, but her second album shows she’s grown
[excerpt]Her brother, for whom she started out singing backing vocals, guests on the album,
as do her mother and a couple of cousins. Just how many musical family members are there? “Ha! Too many,” sniffs Wainwright. “I may
have to murder them one by one. My secret weapon is Lily Larkin, Anna McGarrigle’s daughter, who has always sung with me. There is
my half-sister Lucy Roche, who has just released a fantastic album, and my dad’s sister Sloan Wainwright, who is the best out the lot of us.
I have another cousin who recently started up. I try to discourage them, but it’s not working. I guess none of us is good at anything else.”
The London Times April 13, 2008
"It's a big family. You've got Loudon Wainwright III, once declared a "new Bob Dylan," who's been
singing and recording personal folk songs for coming on four decades now. His ex-wife is Kate McGarrigle, of Canada's beloved McGarrigle Sisters.
Their children are singer-songwriter Martha and the grandiose pop star Rufus Wainwright. One of the Roches and her daughter lurk in this family tree,
too. Everyone has their own career, and sometimes they even sing together.
But, as Yoda once said, there is another.
Sloan Wainwright -- Loudon's sister, Rufus and Martha's aunt -- is the undiscovered treasure of this musical dynasty.
Writing and singing since her youth (she's not quite 50), she's been recording only for the last decade. But already her
six CDs have set her apart from her brother's witty, documentarian and occasionally caustic songs..."
The Chicago Sun Times September 7, 2007
"Our live "Folkstage" artist was Sloan Wainwright. What a voice! What
a presence! As I said when I introduced her: A lot of
singer-songwriters are whitebread. Sloan is whole grain.”
WFMT Radio: THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL with host Rich Warren, September 8, 2007
"MUSIC REVIEW:
A few surprises spice up Newport folk fest. ... "Even though there were three other opening sets Saturday morning and Linda Ronstadt's
concert the previous night, Martha Wainwright -- wiping her streaking mascara in the 90-degree heat -- launched the festival
with a stellar performance. Later, Wainwright joined her aunt Sloan Wainwright (whose regal voice could fell a redwood) and half-sister Lucy Wainwright Roche
in a song circle that wrapped a pensive take on Hank Williams's "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." It left Harris nodding and mouthing
the words as she sat quietly on the sidelines."
The Boston Globe. August 6, 2007
"However, two of the best performers of the day were solo acoustic
singer-songwriters on the second stage. Martha Wainwright was an iron woman, playing a long set of her own and then
joining a song circle with her half-sister, Lucy Wainwright Roche, and her aunt, Sloan Wainwright....
Sloan Wainwright brought a big, earnest voice to her songs in the circle, including covers of “Mercy Mercy Me”
and “Ring of Fire,” while Lucy Wainwright Roche was sweet-sounding on songs such as her own “I’d Rather Go” and the
traditional ballad “Wild Mountain Thyme.”
The Providence Journal August 6, 2007
"Loudon Wainwright's little sister has a more dramatic voice than he does,
but her songs owe just as much to the 1970s singer/songwriter tradition. Wainwright certainly has her own stamp,
but she still evokes recollections of Carole King and Roberta Flack. "Wild in this World" is a blues that
rocks steadier and cooler than most from this demographic can bring off. "Out of Her Hands" presents an
intensely personal subject in raw detail, but somehow finds its way to hope. The woman has soul."
Dirty Linen Magazine. April/May 2007. Issue #129
"Sloan Wainwright is one of those singers whose performance is
a force of nature. Her big alto voice wraps itself around the lyrics and then wraps the music around you. All of the
11 songs on this CD are originals, many coauthored with Stephen Murphy, her talented longtime producer and engineer....
Wainwright's songs reveal personal dramas and the stories of those within her field of view. Her songs poetically
expose the inner workings of relationships using highly original metaphors and images. ... This recording is far
from the acoustic singer-songwriter sound. There's ample talent here, but you must accept it on its very contemporary terms."
Sing Out! Magazine. Winter 2007. Vol. 50 #4
"Rufus and Martha Wainwright are white hot these days, but the most
talented acorn to fall from the family tree might be their Aunt Sloan. Any nut would tumble from the mighty quake that
is her voice, a muscular and supple sound that soars the high scales one moment and growls with the gutter cats the next.
Life Grows Back is a collection of original and diverse songs. Wainwright can play the straight-up folk singer, but she's also
at home keeping time to Appalachian-style banjo, gritting it out to the bluesy strains of a National guitar, or vocally
matching a cello's resonance. "Out of My Hands" sounds like a lost Joni Mitchell 'Blue' track, and "Something That Comes
Close" has the pent-up power of a climax show tune. This is one of the overlooked gems of 2006."
Valley Advocate. January 2007.
"OK, let's get this out of the way first - - yes, she's a Wainwright,
and yes, of the Rufus and Loudon III sort. She is, however, talented enough to survive - and even thrive - were her
surname, say, 'Whifflepickle.' She's folk-influenced, obviously (you can't grow up in the First Family of Folk and not be,
one imagines), but the real star here is her voice. Warm and smoky and smooth, it makes her earthy, ominous lyrics seem all the
more intense. Thankfully, she never succumbs to wailing or calling attention to herself, or worse, doing the sexed-up heavy
breathing thing so many twee-folk chix rely on"
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