To celebrate the 20th anniversary of her seminal eponymous debut studio album, Martha Wainwright announces the 20th Anniversary Tour, hitting North America in the Spring of 2025.
20 years ago my life as an artist took shape when my first record was released. In many ways that record defined me, as well as launched me into a now over 20 year long career that has made me who I am. It was after 10 years of playing in bars, making cassettes and EPs to sell at my shows, singing backup for my brother Rufus, falling in love and out of love and in again, practicing, writing, singing until I could barely sing anymore, partying, walking for hours and hours, crying and laughing with friends, playing with musicians and listening to great artists working with my ex-husband in the studio for 2 years that created this first record.
Labels wouldn't sign me when I started and I had to craft, with the help of many people, an album that would finally be licensed and released in 2005. My first record tells my story and when it was finally released I was able to work and tour and have a career in music - something that I always wanted but wasn't sure would happen. 20 years later, with 6 other albums under my belt, 2 kids and a career that is chugging along, I can safely say that my first record paved my way forward and I'm very proud of it and still sing many of these early songs.
On March 21st we will release the record on vinyl for the first time ever, as well as digitally release unheard songs, outakes and early material from that 10 year period of discovery that led to my first record. And along with the re-release there will be a tour (with more dates being announced soon), with a few great musicians, where I'll play the record in its entirety as well as a few new songs - there's no 48 year old me without the 28 year old me.
With love and gratitude, Martha
20 years ago my life as an artist took shape when my first record was released. In many ways that record defined me, as well as launched me into a now over 20 year long career that has made me who I am. It was after 10 years of playing in bars, making cassettes and EPs to sell at my shows, singing backup for my brother Rufus, falling in love and out of love and in again, practicing, writing, singing until I could barely sing anymore, partying, walking for hours and hours, crying and laughing with friends, playing with musicians and listening to great artists working with my ex-husband in the studio for 2 years that created this first record.
Labels wouldn't sign me when I started and I had to craft, with the help of many people, an album that would finally be licensed and released in 2005. My first record tells my story and when it was finally released I was able to work and tour and have a career in music - something that I always wanted but wasn't sure would happen. 20 years later, with 6 other albums under my belt, 2 kids and a career that is chugging along, I can safely say that my first record paved my way forward and I'm very proud of it and still sing many of these early songs.
On March 21st we will release the record on vinyl for the first time ever, as well as digitally release unheard songs, outakes and early material from that 10 year period of discovery that led to my first record. And along with the re-release there will be a tour (with more dates being announced soon), with a few great musicians, where I'll play the record in its entirety as well as a few new songs - there's no 48 year old me without the 28 year old me.
With love and gratitude, Martha
Special Guest
Haley Blais
Haley Blais is a Vancouver-based singer-songwriter who has turned out defiant scream-into-your-pillow pop songs since 2014. Blais developed a community and fanbase as a teenager almost a decade ago with her diaristic YouTube videos and tender ukulele covers. Since then, Blais has traded the solo ukulele for a guitar and a five-piece band. In 2020, Blais released a debut full-length album of jangly pop anthems, Below the Salt, produced with indie staples Tennis and Louise Burns. The debut amassed millions of streams and avid support from publications like NPR, NYLON, and i-D, leading to sell-out shows in the UK, Europe and USA. Now signed to iconic indie label Arts & Crafts, Haley’s signature sound has matured into a distinct new voice. Her lyrics riff on the joys and banalities of the every day, the need to break apart and away from an uninspiring life, radical acceptance, and manifesting a world where you feel proud of yourself and who you’re surrounded by. Wisecrack (Released September 15, 2023), her sophomore album, was conceived as a conceptual record about the formation of new families amidst the dissolution of her parent’s relationship; Wisecrack is textured and wryly poetic, oscillating somewhere between cherished childhood memories and the creation of a new self. The existential, everyday worries we all contain but rarely share are laid bare across eleven songs exquisitely performed with profundity, grace, and humour. Tongue-in-cheek lines like I want my therapist to think I’m cool give the melancholic mood a biting edge. Can I be responsible for things that I did years ago? / I guess it could be good for just a laugh, Blais sings — that’s Wisecrack in a nutshell. Funny and raw at the same time.
The only thing as good as the show? The drink you have after
GRAB A BITE, BEFORE OR AFTER
A few short steps from Midtown is One Twenty Three—our neighborly New American Tavern, serving hearty dishes with modern flare.
