Release Date: Aug 19, 2022
Genre(s): Folk
Record label: Storysound Records
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On his 26th studio album, Lifetime Achievement, Loudon Wainwright III considers his titular accomplishments through a series of moving, witty reflections on aging, love, and nostalgia. Initially suffering by comparison to Dylan and perhaps best known for his early hit "novelty" song "Dead Skunk," many will also recognize Wainwright as the subject of ire in numerous songs by his famed children Rufus and Martha. Wainwright's substantial talent for pirouetting along a wavering tightrope between comedy and tragedy remains undiminished with age; "Hell" amusingly imagines a welcoming committee in the fiery pits of the afterlife; "Little Piece of Me" and "Back In Your Town" form a duo of bittersweet ruminations on his decades of touring.
It's over half a century now since John Peel played the hell out of a young American singer-songwriter who self-confessedly had aspirations of being "the new Dylan". Here, in 2022, Bob is taking the plaudits for reaching his four-score years… and good ol' Loudon is still doggedly in pursuit five years behind. Many of the songs on his 31stt studio album - which he will promote in Europe in September - didn't exist when Covid first took away his touring ticket.
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