Album III

Loudon Wainwright\'s third album marked a major change in production approach, which is to say that there was one; Wainwright\'s first two releases were solo acoustic affairs. But with famed producer Thomas Jefferson Kaye on board, *Album III* featured full-band backing from some of the best session players around (David Sanborn, Hugh McCracken, etc.), and consequently, a move toward folk rock. Perhaps not coincidentally, the album earned Wainwright his first and only Top 40 single, \"Dead Skunk,\" a country-flavored tune about grievously aromatic roadkill that became a novelty hit. While humor has always been a key element in Wainwright\'s artistic arsenal, he usually takes a more ironic approach, as on \"Red Guitar,\" where he mocks the rock-star guitar-smashing tradition, or \"Muse Blues,\" a sarcasm-soaked take on the search for inspiration. But as the affecting, irony-free ballad \"Needless to Say\" makes clear, Wainwright\'s also entirely capable of playing it straight any time it suits his fancy.