Loudon Wainwright III (USA) Returning to New Zealand This Summer

US songwriting icon Loudon Wainwright III is wending his way back to Aotearoa New Zealand for the first time since 2008, performing in the opulent settings of Auckland's Hollywood Avondale on 2nd February and Wellington's James Hay Theatre on 4th February. Since visiting our shores nearly two decade ago, Wainwright scooped the Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album for his 2009 long player High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project, and now has 26 studio albums (plus a 2017 autobiography) to his name, unveiling his latest Lifetime Achievement in 2022.

Hailed recently by The Guardian for his ever-affable onstage presence, Wainwright is legendary musical figure in folk and blues with a songbook spanning more than five decades. Also a veteran of the screen (both silver and televisual), Wainwright has acted in numerous major pop cultural productions, including M*A*S*H (the hit TV show), Ally McBeal, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, The Aviator, Parks and Recreation, Knocked Up (he also co-composed the original soundtrack), and lots more.

Celebrating his 80th birthday with an all-star jubilee event in NYC this December (special guests include Van Dyke Parks and Christopher Guest), Wainwright's overflowing talent evidently runs in the family, his children include songwriting stars in their own right Rufus and Martha Wainwright. Devotees are advised to not dilly dally when tickets go live next week...

Loudon Wainwright III

Tuesday 2nd February - Hollywood Avondale, Auckland
Thursday 4th February - James Hay Theatre, Wellington

Presales from 11am, Wednesday 22nd July
General public on sale from 11am, Friday 24th July
Sign up for presale at destroyalllines.com

Here's Loudon Wainwright III singing 'I Knew Your Mother' (from his 2014 album Haven't Got the Blues (Yet)) in 2016 on Later… with Jools Holland...

Check out late '70s television footage of Loudon Wainwright III performing his 1971 classic 'Motel Blues'...

Press release:

For over five decades, Loudon Wainwright III has carved out a singular place in modern songwriting, whose work can be sharply funny, heart-wrenching and always deeply personal.

Now, Loudon Wainwright III returns to Australia and New Zealand for the first time in almost 20 years, bringing with him one of the most distinctive catalogues in contemporary folk & blues music.

Originally signed to Atlantic Records by Nesuhi Ertegun, Wainwright was later recruited by Clive Davis to Columbia Records, where he released his unexpected Top 20 hit ‘Dead Skunk’ in 1972. Since then, he has issued more than thirty albums, including the Grammy‑winning High Wide & Handsome (2009). His songs have been recorded by Johnny Cash, Mose Allison, Bonnie Raitt, and his son Rufus Wainwright, while his acting credits span film and television, from MASH to collaborations with Martin Scorsese and Steven Soderbergh.

Across his career, Wainwright has produced a string of enduring classics, including ‘The Swimming Song,’ ‘Dead Skunk,’ ‘Daughter,’ ‘Motel Blues,’ ‘Down Drinking at the Bar,’ and ‘Lullaby.’

On stage, he remains a force: sharp‑witted, fearless, and emotionally unfiltered. A Loudon Wainwright III performance is part concert, part confession, part comedy set, an artist who is a master storyteller delivering his songs with the same honesty, humour, and hard‑won wisdom that have defined his remarkable life in music and Australia and New Zealand is about to witness that, first-hand.