Singer-Songwriter-Actor Loudon Wainwright III @ The Egg on Friday

By Greg Haymes

Throughout his 45-year recording career, the sometimes scathing, often hilarious Loudon Wainwright III has been the most candid of singer-songwriters, writing with unflinching honesty about himself and his family, warts and all. In fact, you could say that singing about failed and flawed family relationships is his career.

When last in concert at The Egg two and a half years ago, Wainwright focused much of his show on his relationship with his father, Loudon Wainwright Jr., the longtime Life Magazine columnist, who died in 1988. In reviewing that show, I wrote, “In fact, the performance had such deep resonance that it seemed as though Wainwright was likely working out the kinks in a work-in-progress one-man theatrical show.”

And, yes, that’s exactly what he was doing…

Wainwright returns to The Egg on Friday night (October 2) with “Surviving Twin,” a very special evening that combines new Wainwright material and some of his most well known songs with spoken word sections taken from the writing of his late father.

It should come as no surprise that the Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter is taking a more theatrical approach to his performance this time around, considering that, in addition to his music career, he’s also acted in television shows and feature films since the mid-’70s when he took on a recurring role as Capt. Spalding on the TV series, “M*A*S*H.” Along the way, he’s worked with such A-list movie directors as Judd Apatow (“Knocked Up” [for which he also recorded the soundtrack] and “The 40 Year Old Virgin”), Christopher Guest (“For Your Consideration”), Cameron Crowe (“Elizabethtown”), Martin Scorsese (“The Aviator”), Tim Burton (“Big Fish”) and Hal Ashby (“The Slugger’s Wife”).

WHO: Loudon Wainwright III
WHAT: “Surviving Twin”
WHERE: The Egg’s Swyer Theatre, Empire State Plaza, Albany
WHEN: 8pm Friday (October 2)
HOW MUCH: $34