Veteran songwriter mastered uncomfortable humor

For Loudon Wainwright III, writing a good new song has an almost primal reward."There's an analogy with sex," says Wainwright in a phone call from his home in Woodland Hills, Calif. "It doesn't happen as often, but when it does, it's just as great as it ever was -- maybe better. So when a new song comes along that I'm excited by, it's a great thing."Part of the same generation of early 1970s singer-songwriters as John Prine, Steve Goodman, Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon and other masters of the form, Wainwright, 61, has been a commercial late bloomer. His one appearance on commercial radio was 1972's "Dead Skunk." It was an example of Wainwright's irreverence, but gave no hint of the emotional wallop he could deliver.Wainwright's style was warts-and-all honesty. The uncomfortable humor he mastered wouldn't become widely popular until television shows like "Seinfeld" appeared two decades later. Still, Wainwright persevered, gaining a good following in Britain, bouncing between record labels (11 to date) and making a dent in films. Most recently, Wainwright both scored (with Joe Henry) and appeared as an actor in the film "Knocked Up," directed by longtime Wainwright fan Judd Apatow.Wainwright's latest album, "Strange Weirdos," is made up of music used in or intended for use in "Knocked Up."Of all the artists who began around the same time as Wainwright, he may have remained the most active. He says that although he and his peers were friendly, there was more of a sense of competition than camaraderie. "I felt a sense of jealousy," says Wainwright with a chuckle. "Chagrin, irritation. We all palled around with each other and got drunk and swapped waitresses and things, but we were competing, or at least I was."Wainwright recently had a chance to revisit his early days. While working on "Strange Weirdos," he recorded new full-band versions of songs from his earliest albums, which only featured Wainwright and his guitar. He hopes to have the album in stores in 2008.He says most of his songwriting is simple observation, one of several journalistic traits he inherited from his father, who was a writer and editor for Life magazine.Wainwright utilized his journalistic genes even more by writing topical songs for National Public Radio in the 1990s. While he feels his best songs just come to him, he also enjoys the challenge of writing on command:"I'm lazy by nature, so I just sit around and wait for things to come, but if weeks or months go by, I realize that I'm going to have to go in there and dig a little bit. I can write on deadline even though I have a kind of lackadaisical approach. I know songwriters who get up and sharpen pencils every morning and write some songs. I don't do it that way, but I can be nudged by someone else or my own sense of desperation and fear."He says he's sometimes surprised to get laughs in songs where he didn't expect them, but that's always a good thing."I like to make my audience laugh whenever I can," says Wainwright. "Some songs (tick) people off, and that's a good thing, too, to a degree."Three of his children have inherited their father's traits. Rufus and Martha Wainwright and Lucy Roche have all become singer-songwriters. Lucy and Loudon have been touring together this year and plan a tour of Australia in 2008.As far as Wainwright's own artistic peaks , he points to his albums "History" and "Last Man on Earth" as high points."On 'History,' my father had just died, and a number of the songs were about him and us ... . I like that record a lot.""Last Man on Earth" was written somewhat about the death of Wainright's mother.He notes that he is out of parents for inspiration."But when the dog dies, watch out!" (Contact Wayne Bledsoe of The Knoxville News Sentinel in Tennessee at www.knoxnews.com.)