accessAtlanta

Martha Wainwright among reverent 'children of Leonard Cohen'

Singer-songwriter Martha Wainwright, who performs in the concert film/documentary "Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man," tells very different versions of her introduction to the famed poet-novelist-singer-songwriter, himself known for embroidering a good tale.

• The G-rated version: Growing up in Montreal, Wainwright became friends with Cohen's daughter, Lorca, and as a teen was visiting the Cohen house. "I saw him working in the back yard, and it was wonderful to get the opportunity to know him," she told the AJC. "He's very moving to be around."

Lian Lunson/Lions Gate Films (enlarge photo) Martha Wainwright (performing in 'I'm Your Man') grew up in Montreal, where she knew Leonard Cohen's daughter and got to meet the singer who has influenced scores of other musicians. Read reviews of "Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man."

• The R-rated version: "He was sitting in [a hot tub in the backyard] and next to him there was this beautiful naked woman lying there on her back, just this gorgeous feminine figure," she told the New York version of the free daily Metro. "How classic is that? It was like a [expletive] painting."

The truth, as they say, is out there. But there's no question that Cohen made — and continues to make — a big impression on Wainwright, daughter of long-divorced singer-songwriters Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle.

She refers to herself and other young artists (including her brother Rufus Wainwright, Beth Orton, Nick Cave, Antony and Teddy Thompson) who appeared in a Sydney Opera House tribute concert to Cohen that's captured in "I'm Your Man" as "the children of Leonard Cohen."

And she even jokes that, in her case, it might be literal: "I've always secretly wondered if he and my mother had something going on somehow."

Now 30, Wainwright, whose eponymous debut album was released last year to strong reviews, started listening to Cohen's hit "I'm Your Man" album when she was 13. "I had no idea what he was talking about initially, but I've listened to it a thousand times since," she says. "He's helped me understand poetry, how to write songs and express things, and opened the world up to me."

Cohen campaigned with producer Hal Willner to let Wainwright sing the sly "Tower of Song," her favorite of the songwriter's tunes, in the Sydney tribute concert. (Sample lyric: I said to Hank Williams: How lonely does it get? / Hank Williams hasn't answered yet. / But I hear him coughing all night long, / a hundred floors above me in the Tower of Song.)

"It's the quintessential musician's song," she notes, "and with my family being musicians, sometimes it does feel a little like a prison."

Wainwright's cover didn't make the film, however, since Cohen himself sings it at the end, backed by U2.

"I got bumped for Bono, which is fine — whatever," she says, feigning sarcasm Cohen would appreciate.

But on the soundtrack, due in stores July 25, a balance is struck: Her countrified "Tower of Song" opens the CD, and Cohen's bluesy, Bono-fied version is the closing bookend.