Loudon Wainwright III – HuffPost 9.8.14

Mike Ragogna: What’s your view of the “singer-songwriter” genre these days?

Loundon Wainwright III: You’ve got me. My focus is mostly subjective. I’ve been trying to do my job, which is come up with the next song. In terms of what’s happening to the scene or folk or Americana or whatever you want to call it–guys and gals who play guitars–it’s the same five chords everybody’s playing. They’re singing about themselves and what’s happening in the world. In that regard, it hasn’t changed much. I suppose some of the haircuts have changed, but then they come back around to what they used to be. I don’t know what I can say. I try not to even listen to other singer-songwriters. That is my idea of a bad time. Trapped on an island listening to the new John Prine or Steve Forbert album would be torture. I think those guys are great, but I prefer dead black jazz piano players like Thelonius Monk if I’m on my desert island.

MR: Loudon, what advice do you have for new artists?

LW: Play the guitar every day for fifteen minutes. I really don’t know, I can’t offer any advice, I can just only say, “Good luck and get a real job.”

MR: [laughs] Is that what you would have told Loudon Wainwright III?

LW: No, I’m being disingenuous. I think it’s great to not have a real job. I’m a guy who’s not had a real job for almost fifty years. I think that’s the goal in life; to somehow make a living without having to really have a job.