Stories I Might Regret Telling You, Martha Wainwright
Stories I Might Regret Telling You, Martha Wainwright
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Stories I Might Regret Telling You
A Memoir

Author: Martha Wainwright

Narrator: Martha Wainwright

Unabridged: 6 hr 56 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Da Capo Press

Published: 03/29/2022

Synopsis

A singer-songwriter's heartfelt memoir about growing up in a bohemian musical family and her experiences with love, loss, motherhood, divorce, the music industry, and more. Born into music royalty, the daughter of folk legends Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III and sister to the highly-acclaimed and genre-defying singer Rufus Wainwright, Martha grew up in a world filled with such incomparable folk legends as Leonard Cohen; Suzy Roche, Anna McGarrigle, Richard and Linda Thompson, Pete Townsend, Donald Fagan and Emmylou Harris. It was within this loud, boisterous, carny, musical milieu that Martha came of age, struggling to find her voice until she exploded on the scene with her 2005 debut critically acclaimed album, Martha Wainwright, containing the blistering hit, "Bloody Mother F*cking Asshole," which the Sunday Times called one of the best songs of that year. Her successful debut album and the ones that followed such as Come Home to Mama, I Know You're Married but I've Got Feelings Too, and Goodnight City came to define Martha's searing songwriting style and established her as a powerful voice to be reckoned with.

In Martha's memoir, Stories I Might Regret Telling You, Martha digs into the deep recesses of herself with the same emotional honesty that has come to define her music. She describes her tumultuous public-facing journey from awkward, earnest, and ultimately rebellious daughter, through her intense competition and ultimate alliance with her brother, Rufus, to the indescribable loss of their mother, Kate, and then, finally, discovering her voice as an artist. With candor and grace, Martha writes of becoming a mother herself and making peace with her past struggles with Kate and her former self, finally understanding and facing the challenge of being a female artist and a mother. Ultimately, Stories I Might Regret Telling You will offer readers a thoughtful and deeply personal look into the extraordinary life of one of the most talented singer-songwriters in music today.

Reviews

Goodreads review by chantel on April 09, 2022

Martha Wainwright, daughter of legendary Canadian, Kate McGarrigle, of the duo Kate and Anna McGarrigle, spilled her guts with this memoir. She took us deep into her world filled with love, heartbreak, jealousy, despair, loss, self-actualization and music — lots of it. Some aspects of Stories I Migh......more

Goodreads review by Jennifer on December 13, 2021

I received this as a e-Galley from NetGalley. I love a memoir- especially ones about musicians and/or authors. It makes you read or listen to their work differently after. Sometimes in a good way or sometimes in a bad way. Martha definitely left it all on the page but maybe it needed to be edited a li......more

Goodreads review by Bill on January 16, 2023

I saw Stories I Might Regret Telling You: A Memoir by Martha Wainwright in my local bookstore last August (2022) and it looked interesting so I decided to buy it and check it out. I knew nothing about Martha except that, from reading the blurb, she was the daughter of Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wain......more

Goodreads review by Judy on April 17, 2022

Martha Wainwright’s music is a torrential force in my life, and so I am happy to finally see her spirit expressed in prose, as it is my own medium, and not song (for anyone who knows me knows my family and what they do). It was a good book and I read it all in one sitting. Many better memoirs have b......more

Goodreads review by Deborah on February 24, 2025

I admit that curiosity drove me to listen to this memoir from Martha Wainwright. I have one of her albums, most of brother Rufus’s albums, and am very familiar with the music, especially the songwriting, of Canadian folk legends Kate and Anna McGarrigle (Kate was Martha and Rufus’s mother.) Martha n......more

Quotes

"A beautiful and clear-eyed memoir, full of music, friendship, love and heartache. Somehow at once sizzling and wise, as undeniable as the singer who wrote it.”
 —SEAN MICHAELS, Scotiabank Giller Prize-winning novelist and founder of Said the Gramophone

“I have been listening to Martha Wainwright for at least twenty years, admiring her from afar. Her new memoir, Stories I Might Regret Telling You, made me feel like I was sitting in a corner of one of her New York apartments, reading her private diaries under a blanket with a flashlight. Martha writes like a soldier in the trenches sending word home, not knowing whether she will live or die, bringing uncomfortable, sometimes unbearable, honesty to bear. I was sucked in from the first page, though occasionally I winced because it was all so relatable. A casual sadness strings itself through her story of becoming herself, taking no prisoners, casting regret aside like a cigarette. I kept rereading certain sentences thinking they would make such wonderful songs. This entire memoir is a song.
I turned the last page and felt like I had made a new friend, the kind you wish you were cool enough to have but never had the courage to pursue. My only disappointment? Her memoir wasn’t long enough. I can’t wait for volume two.” 
 —JANN ARDEN, singer, songwriter, TV star, bestselling author

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