Lucy is the latest in musical clan (From The Bolton News)

Lucy is the latest in musical clan

11:33am Thursday 4th March 2010

• Print
• Email

LOUDON, Rufus, Martha... as far as musical dynasties go, the Wainwrights have got the alt-folk-meets-operatic-pop corner pretty sewn up.

So it might seem that surely there couldn’t be space for any more — a view that at one point was shared by the latest in the family to take to the stage, Lucy Wainwright Roche.

The daughter of Loudon Wainwright III and singer Suzzy Roche, making her a paternal half sister to Rufus and Martha, Lucy initially took up a career in teaching, but the pull of music proved too strong to resist.

“I loved music but I thought the last thing the world needed was another Wainwright,” she says over a very crackly line from her home in New York. “But I started to miss it — I grew up on the road.

“I went out on tour with Rufus for part of the summer and decided I didn’t want to go back to my job.”

Inevitably both of her parents were a huge influence on the young Lucy, as were her brother and sister. Although Martha and Rufus are now well-established names, lucy says she doesn’t feel any competitiveness towards them.

“Most of the time it’s a really positive thing,” she says. “The three of us kids sound very different to each other and we don’t really get in each other’s way.

“And of course there’s lots of people to give advice. All of them told me you should go with your gut when it comes to making decisions — I think that’s good advice no matter what career you are in.”

Although she is based in America, Lucy’s songs are very much rooted in the English folk tradition as well as the American songs mined by her father and sister. Her new album will be released over here before it hits shelves in the States, and her first solo headline tour is due to start here on Monday.

She hopes that the English audiences will take to her straightforwardly honest songwriting.

“Hopefully the audience will be kind to me and laugh at my stories of driving on the wrong side of the road,” she says.

• Lucy Wainwright Roche plays The Met on March 10. Tickets cost £10/£8 concessions. To book, visit themet.biz or ring 0161 761 2216.