Martha Wainwright Comes to the Massey Next Month

The Massey Theatre will kick off its season with the beguiling performer and songwriter, Martha Wainwright, gracing the Massey stage as part of the tour of her new album Love Will Be Reborn for one night only, Tuesday, Nov. 16th at 7:30pm.

Relish the return of live music and also enjoy opening act Bernice, the indie pop band from Toronto, fronted by singer and songwriter Robin Dann. Twice nominated for the Polaris Music Prize, most recently for Eau de Bonjourno, the band's other core members are keyboardist and guitarist Thom Gill, bassist Dan Fortin, vocalist Felicity Williams and percussionist Phil Melanson.

This is Wainwrights' first record in five years, she has called it her "middle coming of age album". Love Will Be Reborn captures Wainwright's heart in transition. The album follows recent years of loneliness and clarity in search of optimism and joy. Wainwright wrote the first song-and what would become the title track-a few years ago. It was a very dark time, she says, but the positivity and luminosity of "Love Will Be Reborn" signalled what was to come. The song simply poured out of her.

"The songs in the album do have its playful and sensual side running parallel to some grim honesty", stated Wainwright. "Other songs represent me trying to shake away the past a little bit, the ball and chain of that anger, trying to escape from it. In an effort to rise out of some painful depth," she stated, "like a phoenix from the ashes of an existential twilight."

Martha Wainwright's role as an artist has always been to embrace her wildness and sketch out her raw depth. This edge is what makes Wainwright uncompromisingly herself and continues to draw in an audience two decades on. Music and song writing are virtually in her blood. Martha comes from a prestigious musical family. She is the daughter of American folk singer and actor Loudon Wainwright III and Canadian folk singer-songwriter Kate McGarrigle and brother of vocalist and composer Rufus Wainwright. As part of this iconic musical family, she has had to fight her way through the raft of applause and accomplishments of her parents and brother to claim a clear space for herself.

Love Will Be Reborn was made during a global pandemic. Back in Montreal, the basement of her brand-new cafe, Ursa, serving as a studio, Wainwright got to work. She enlisted the help of Toronto musicians Thom Gill, Phil Melanson and Josh Cole, and producer Pierre Marchand. The process, both freeing and infuriating, offered Wainwright a new way of creating. She let go a little more, giving way for Marchand to play around with her vocals, emphasizing the beauty in its inherent scratchiness and edge. This record, Wainwright jokes, is her Canadian record, as she's back in Montreal, working with musicians from Toronto, and Marchand as producer.

Get your tickets now and enjoy the return of live music with this incredible performer. .....

Tickets are $45 and on sale now at masseytheatre.com

All safety protocols including a vaccine card will be in place prior to entering the venue.