Lorna Irvine finds much to love with the singer's recent Celtic Connections performance.
There is a full moon tonight, which may account for Martha Wainwright's buoyant energy- then again, she has always been a mercurial and compelling performer.
From the minute she bounds onto the stage, in a fur trapper's hat and pink jeans, she captivates mostly everyone in the auditorium with her choppy guitar playing and kittenish timbre- sometimes a purr, sometimes a mewl.
With much of tonight's material taken from her fourth (most recent) album Come Home To Mama , dedicated to her late mother, musician Kate McGarrigle, there are times when the music is almost too raw, as with Kate's unreleased I'm A Diamond, when Wainwright's creamy voice cracks and it feels like reading a stray diary entry which fell onto the street.
The last song McGarrigle wrote shortly before dying, Prosperina alludes to the Greek myth of Persephone and springtime, to returning to the source. It is beautiful, with a simple refrain played by guests Aly Bain and Donald Shaw, no less, on violin and harmonium.
The recurring theme of motherhood is very present, with Wainwright's tender song to son Arcangelo Everything Wrong, a highlight: a self-effacing ballad examining the idea of trying to protect her child, but knowing ultimately he is on his own. It's as sweet as song to her wayward father Loudon Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole is spiky, full of ''female rage''.
Yet in spite of going to dark places lyrically and emotionally, Wainwright is often hilarious and always utterly charismatic. She stomps her feet, kicks up one leg during the high notes and tells potty-mouthed jokes between songs, some of which are unrepeatable... and there can't be many artists who sell logo knickers!
The encore is a defiant cover of Piaf's La Vie En Rose, unamplified-a devastating and fitting finale to a pyrotechnic show.
Rufus who?
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