The gene pool was certainly blessed when Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle got together. For as well as producing one of the finest songwriters and performers around today in Rufus Wainwright, it turns out there was another talented progeny in the family.
Yes, Martha is indeed Rufus' younger sister and on this evidence she's at least her brother's equal. Factory is a marvellous record - it floats along beautifully, blessed with a sparkling chorus and showcasing Wainwright's glorious voice. She manages to be both strong and vulnerable at the same time, managing to break hearts with the simplest of phrasing.
She shares her brother's knack for an eye catching lyric too, opening the song with the winning couplet: "These are not my people, I should never have come here/the chick with the dick and the gift for the gab". Move over the Bedingfields, there's an infinitely more talented brother and sister team in town...
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