Artist:Martha Wainwright (Sings Piaf)
Venue:The Sage, Hall 1
Town:Gateshead
Date:12/7/10
Website:www.marthawainwright.com/
Support for this evening came from Doveman; Martha's own band, who played a pleasant, though not awe inspiring set of piano led songs. The band, which is made up of lead, Thomas, Brad and Doug, played us songs from their CD, The Conformist as well as some new material, including an old poem set to music, which, intriguingly, his father had requested for a party, despite it being about death. Perhaps my favourite from the set was The Angel's Share, inspired by a bar in New York; it's name,which became the song's title , comes from the phrase to describe the evaporation of whisky.
After the interval, the band returned to the stage, followed by Martha Wainwright. I was a little disappointed for her that the hall was little more than half full and wished she'd been in Hall 2 instead.
I have always felt that Martha Wainwright is something of an enigma; daughter of the late Kate McGarrigle of Kate and Anna McGarrigle, and Loudon Wainright III, brother of Rufus Wainwright and cousin of Lucy Wainwright Roche, Martha has carved herself an intriguing musical path which seems to defy categorisation. I suspect this has never been more true than since she released her latest CD, Sans Fusils, Ni Souliers A Paris - Martha Wainwright's Piaf Record. The idea of this in itself could have been considered a little risky for someone known to have a rocky edge to their sound; the idea of taking it live, even moreso; perhaps accounting for the somewhat smaller than anticipated audience. However, those of us present obtained concrete evidence that the risk was absolutely worth taking.
What immediately struck me about Martha Wainwright is that she comes across as very down to earth. She both talks and sings with her hands, which creates a feeling of intimacy in the style of Eve Selis and Joan Baez, as she opens her stage space to the audience.
Bilingual Martha told us that she first fell in love with the music at age eight, growing up in French speaking Quebec in Canada and the CD, as such was a labour of love for her. She decided immediately upon her producer voicing the idea, that she wanted to choose the lesser known songs of Piaf's, choosing the final 15 from over 200 she listened to.
It was obvious by halfway through the first song, L'Accordeoniste, that she is a natural both speaking and singing French and that we were in for something unique. Speaking a little French during the set aswell as English maintained the atmosphere between songs, and she told us, in English a little about each one before she began singing, to set the scene as it were. Her sense of humour came through in many of these vignettes. Une Enfant , we were told, is "the story of a young girl who takes up with a rough type and ends up dead on the street - there's a lot of that in these songs " Then there was Le Brun et Le Blond; the one about the woman who had to choose between two lovers, before one made the decision for her: "He shot himself. There's a lot of that, too." Les Blouses Blanches, we learned, is about a woman in a psychiatric ward, who is reminded by the white doctor's coats of the white blouses of her past and she tries to convince herself that she isn't mad at all. The atmosphere created of looming madness in this song, is simply remarkable. Marie Trottoir is the story of a hooker, whilst Le Vieux Piano is the story of a broken piano, remembering its past and the people who have been in that same bar and played it. A personal favourite, hard as it is to choose, was C'est A Hambourg. I found that my French is enough that these introductions helped me to latch onto some of the lyrics to actually understand the majority of the songs, but at times I enjoyed just tuning out and letting the music tell me the story; a reminder that we do not need to understand the words to let music speak for itself. Martha's voice is simply exquisite and whilst she obviously doesn't sound exactly like Piaf, she got very, very close. More than once I wondered if it would be sacrilegious to think she sings Piaf better than Piaf. At times, between her hands and her expressions, she almost acts the songs as she sings them; she certainly feels them, making me, for one, question whether the spirit of Edith Piaf was right there in the room with us. More than once I forgot that I wasn't actually on a street or in a bar in Paris and I could picture vivid Paris scenes as she sang, bringing us into 1940s and 50s Paris with her and with Piaf.
Ending her set with her mother's favourite, C'es Toujours La Meme Histoire, she translated the title for us, joking that it is indeed always the same story and we know which story it is! Rapturous applause and a standing ovation followed, which I hadn't expected, but believe was totally deserved. Two encores followed (I have rarely seen that happen) in which we were treated to Le Metro de Paris, which recreated the sound of the metro on the tracks under Paris and two of her mother's songs; one translated into French and the other Tell My Sister. Martha's vocals switched more effortlessly than my ears did from French to English, to deliver a beautiful version of a stirring song, made all the more emotive as every now and then there were echoes of her mother's voice in her delivery.
All too soon the night was over and Ms Wainwright left the stage for the last time, to more massive applause. I will admit I had reservations as to what I would make of this show, especially having not seen Martha sing in English previously (I was at a show in the other Hall when she last played The Sage as part of last year's Americana Festival), but I was left with that amazing sense of knowing I had just experienced something truly special, beyond words. I now consider myself a big Martha Wainwright fan, the Piaf CD will be a regular in my player and I hope to see her back at The Sage very soon.
In the meanwhile I have been left with a desire to investigate more about Piaf; maybe find a CD and watch the French DVD of her life, La Vie En Rose, released last year. I can safely say, that , in the words of a well known Piaf song, Je Ne Regrette Rien - I regret nothing - about spending a night in the presence of Martha Wainwright and the spirit of Piaf.
Helen Mitchell
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