Following the release of her new album Goodnight City, Martha Wainwright is in the midst of a UK and Ireland tour which sees her performing at Manchester’s Ritz on Saturday 28 January.
The tour includes two London and Glasgow shows with Ed Harcourt.
Goodnight City, which was recorded in Montreal, is the follow up to her 2012 release Come Home To Mama and features twelve brand new songs produced by Thomas Bartlett (Surfjan Stevens, Glen Hansard) and long-time producer Brad Albetta. It is an album which is full of raw emotion and whilst half of the songs on the album were written by Martha herself, the other half were written by friends and relatives including Beth Orton, Glen Hansard, Rufus Wainwright, Michael Ondaatje and Merrill Garbus of tune-yArDs, leading Marth to comment “Because these writers know me and because I was able to personalise these songs by changing things here and there, I made them feel as if I wrote them myself. Somehow they wonderfully reflect my life and I am so thankful to the other artists for writing them.”
Recording the album, which follows last year’s release of Songs In The Dark with her sister Lucy Wainwright Roche, was clearly an enjoyable experience for Martha, who added “Making ‘Goodnight City’ was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. Thomas (keys), Brad (electric/bass), Phil Melanson (drums) and I would sit in a circle and work out arrangements for these vividly different songs. Recording them live with very few overdubs the focus remains on the integrity of the song and our ability to play together as a band.”
Martha Wainwright performs at Manchester’s O2 Ritz on Saturday 28 January 2017.
