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Loudon Wainwright III music biography continued...

to record and perform to this day. Wainwright was born on September 5, 1946 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the son of Martha Taylor, a yoga teacher, and Loudon Wainwright, Jr., a columnist and editor for Life magazine. Wainwright grew up in Bedford, New York, an exclusive suburb of Manhattan. He took up the guitar as a youngster and was soon playing in the folk clubs in New York City, where he was discovered and offered his first record contract with Atlantic Records. Wainwright recorded his first album in 1970 (Album 1). In 1971 he recorded Album II before switching to Columbia Records, for which he made the folk-rock Album III (1972), which featured the Top 40 novelty hit "Dead Skunk." Wainwright went on to record over twenty albums on eleven different labels. Two of his albums were nominated for Grammy awards: I'm Alright (1985) and More Love Songs (1986), which he recorded while living in Great Britain, a country from which he had an even greater fan following than in the United States. More recently, Wainwright, now back in the U.S., co- composed the music to the Judd Apatow film, Knocked Up, which was released in 2007. In addition to composing the soundtrack, Wainwright appeared in the film in a supporting role as the protagonists' obstetrician. He has also composed music for the new theatre production of Carl Hiassen's Lucky You, which premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2008.



Although he has moved off the recording industry's radar at different points in his career, Wainwright's mainstay has always been in connecting with his fans during live performances. As one critic said of the performer, [Wainwright has] "a rare honesty, biting wit, moving depth, impish sex appeal, a punk's energy, a star actor's charisma, and a great biographer's gift for detail." And although he has at times bemoaned his inability to break into music's mainstream, Wainwright himself has said: "I'm one of those people who got to do basically what they wanted to do and get paid for it. So I consider myself very fortunate." And we're fortunate to have him.