Much like the man he was compared to early in his career, Bob Dylan, Loudon Wainwright III composes new music these days in full awareness of his age. He even opens this fine album with that classic acoustic guitar and harmonica combination but, where Dylan is more abstract in his musings, Loudon cannot help but flex his humour muscles even when tackling potentially difficult subjects. It has been this way with Loudon over the course of a fifty-plus year recording career, the tendency to balance personal life confessionals with dry wit evident on the early song ‘Rufus Is A Tit-Man,’ a meditation on fatherhood with a title that grabbed wry attention. Everything remains intact in 2022 as he reflects his own longevity and the mysteries of the unknowable answers on ‘Lifetime Achievement’. The remarkable thing is how he can still produce the goods to as high a standard as ever today, this is easily up there among Loudon’s essential records.

The overall effect of the heavyweight ponderings and the laughs is stunning, with lines that reference farting whenever he sneezes and how a family vacation should be a holiday from your closest family, (sample lyric “I’m gonna leave the fucking family at home”, the song ends with a Jean Paul Sartre quote “hell is other people”) balancing anxieties like the uncertainty at your time of passing in ‘How Old Is 75?’. When you consider that the lyrics inform us of his own fathers passing was at the age of 62 whilst his mother made it to 74, you must accept this is far from glib, he really is diving into these thoughts. He never stays long in a dark place though, check the light hearted wisdom imparted on closer ‘Fun And Free’ where memories of lawn mowing as a youngster are awoken by the same activity today with a carefree zest that suggests we “spend life like it’s a spree, ‘cause it’s one and done, that’s it son, so do it for fun and free”. Loudon sings with universal understanding about the biggest personal traumas in life, making you smile and prompting a tear with equal frequency, he remains a rare kind of talent.

Buy a copy of the album here: https://www.discogs.com/release/24372683-Loudon-Wainwright-III-Lifetime-Achievement