It’s just been announced that Martha Wainwright will return to Australian shores, including a very special concert at the Sydney Opera House.
Fresh from warmly received performances in Europe and North America, Martha will present material from across her career to date – show stoppers from her emotionally-charged debut album to her acclaimed tribute to Edith Piaf, and Martha’s latest LP of original material, Come Home To Mama.
Come Home… was co-produced by the highly regarded Yuka C. Honda of Cibo Matto, and displays the passionate angst of her 2005 eponymous debut coupled with the twisted pop of its follow up I Know You’re Married.
Yuka and Martha have created an edgy, multi-instrumental soundscape that showcases Martha’s raw, confessional poetry with undeniable style and grace.
It’s the kind of artistic depth which led Pitchfork Media to claim she is “taking music and wringing from it a startling wealth of shiver-inducing moments.” While Popmatters.com goes so far as to say, “Martha Wainwright excels at both singing and song writing, and earns herself a spot among this decade’s foremost performers.”
Ben Marshall, Head of Contemporary Music at Sydney Opera House said, “We are incredibly proud to welcome back Martha Wainwright to the Sydney Opera House. With performances that are transporting, gripping and vulnerable in equal measure, she is an artist with real depth and verve and it will be thrilling to see her on the Concert Hall stage again.”
During the winter of 2009 and 2010, Martha gave birth to her first child and her mother passed away. Confronted with both joy and anger, the songs on Come Home To Mama are, at times, aggressive and forceful, but also the most reflective of Martha’s songs to date.
Her set will no doubt include the album’s hauntingly beautiful “Proserpina”, the last song her mother Kate McGarrigle wrote before she died in January 2010.
With a constantly changing timbre of depth, Martha Wainwright displays a remarkable polarity between songs of harrowing despair that also show a sense of spontaneity and playfulness. It is this striking mixture of light and shade and her ability to conceptualize, tackle and achieve dynamic arrangements that marry so beautifully with her heartfelt lyrics of remarkable candour and acrimonious humour.
She can, within a single verse, play both angel and demon. Martha’s incredible, evocative and characterful voice will course its way through pop, soul, folk and torch.
Don’t miss the work of an artist at the top of her game.
Martha Wainwright 2013 Australian Tour
Friday 31 May
The Tivoli, Brisbane
Saturday 1st June
Byron Theatre, Byron Bay, NSW
Sunday 2nd June
Byron Theatre, Byron Bay
Thursday 6 June
Sydney Opera House, Sydney
Saturday 8 June
Lizottes, Newcastle
Sunday 9 June
Lizottes, Newcastle
Thursday 13th June
Dark Mofo – Theatre Royal, Hobart
Friday 14 June
Recital Centre, Melbourne
Saturday 15 June
Recital Centre, Melbourne
Sunday 16 June
Memorial Hall Leongatha, Gippsland
Saturday 22 June
Astor Theatre, Perth
Visit gaynorcrawford.com for more details.
