Photo By Muse Media

Loudon Wainwright III's latest album, Here Come the Choppers, turns his trademark wit loose on the current political climate of mistrust and paranoia.

Still enjoying his regular sojourns on the tour circuit, veteran songsmith Loudon Wainwright III makes his way to Cincinnati while touting his strongest record in years. Here Come the Choppers, his 21st release, taps into America's current climate of fear, paranoia and government run amok. Befitting his singer/songwriter roots from the early '70s, his new music blends topical concerns with his more familiar brand of bittersweet domestic tales.

Though he still usually tours in solo mode, Choppers offers a rewarding snapshot of a crackerjack, all-star band in action. Wainwright rounded up several of his mates, who also happen to be some of the best session musicians working today. Jazz guitar great Bill Frisell and pedal steel maestro Greg Leisz pitch in, as do studio aces like bassist David Piltch and drummer Jim Keltner. It's a formidable lineup, to be sure, but Wainwright's witty, tuneful songwriting still takes center stage.

"I felt lucky to get these guys together at the same time because they're in such demand all the time," Loudon says during a recent interview. After literally one day of rehearsal, they recorded the songs in a quick four-day stretch, playing together live in the studio with little overdubbing.

Amazingly, it's a cohesive effort that showcases their individual skills but never at the expense of the songs. And that's quite an achievement when you're talking about so little rehearsal time combined with the distinctive chops of guys like Bill Frisell, whose electric guitar colors the record in sonic textures that have rarely appeared on Wainwright's earlier work.

Of course, Loudon started out as a folkie way back in 1970, and like Springsteen, John Prine, Steve Forbert and myriad others, he was touted as the "new Dylan" on the scene. This is a label that has unfairly buried its fair share of songwriters in the overwhelming landslide of Dylan's monolithic myth and talent.

But he has never shied away from his influences, even to the point of writing a 50th birthday tribute song to the Minstrel from Minnesota. Even on Choppers, Loudon name-checks Dylan in the brilliantly wry opening cut, "My Biggest Fan." In his usual, self-deprecating way, he writes, "Naturally, Bob's still No. 1/The runner-up, that's Mr. Young/And I'm No. 3 in command." Cocky words, until you hear the ironic twinkle in his voice.

In more topical fashion, Wainwright addresses the state of NYC after 9/11 in "No Sure Way," a gentle ode to the wrecked lives and to the damage done as he writes about taking a subway ride beneath the rubble in Manhattan.

But it's the title cut that brings home the suspicion, mistrust and fear we've all experienced since that day of infamy. Here Come the Choppers refers to the domestic situation here in America more so than the one in Iraq. "When I wrote the title song there was a martial kind of vibe in the country -- not that that's changed -- (and) I imagined what if they were going to attack us where we live," Wainwright says.

The record's cover spells that out as it shows animated characters running through the streets of Los Angeles with helicopters overhead strafing the pedestrians. And with all the city's riots and drug wars, maybe that's a more familiar scenario than many of us would like to admit. He declares, "I'm not a topical songwriter per se, but when I get annoyed or pissed off enough, I will write a song. I don't consider myself a political songwriter. Most of my songs are just a description of something that has happened. I try not to editorialize too much."

It's interesting to note that he wrote this song even before the administration's "Big Brother" policies (the Patriot Act and subsequent wiretapping) became so ingrained and painfully clear to the rest of us living with the repercussions of such a repressive regime.

Frisell's guitar darts its dissonant sting beneath the lyric's imagery. You get the sense that this is one of the main reasons Wainwright put this particular band together. Solo acoustic guitar might not convey the same paranoid vibe or fill in the same dark, empty spaces. The layered nuances add depth to the uncluttered arrangements.

Nevertheless, there are several of Wainwright's more trademark acoustic songs that dip into personal politics as well. "When You Leave" is perhaps the most poignant song, a requisite heartbreaker, as he sings about a husband/father who leaves his family behind only to find that years later when he wants to reconcile he can't make up that distance. It's almost impossible to hear these lyrics and not try to insert Wainwright's own biographical info in between the lines.

But then that seems to have become the family tradition as both his kids, Rufus and Martha, have also written about family dynamics in their music careers. Yet this is what fine songwriting does -- it transforms the personal into the universal so we all can relate to the scenario at hand.

Though Loudon has played Cincinnati before, he has also recently spent some time locally in Lexington, Ky., while filming Cameron Crowe's new movie, Elizabethtown. Acting has been a long-time supplemental outlet for him, and in the last few years he has appeared in both television shows and various movies. Wainwright wrote the song, "God's Country," as an homage to his experience in the South.

Discussing his alternate career, he says, "Originally, I was going to be an actor and had trained for that, but I got involved in singing and that just seemed easier. With music I get paid for traveling and with acting I get paid for waiting around a lot. That's the major difference."

When he plays Cincinnati, delivering his unique spin on the world around us, inside and out, he will, no doubt, have new stories to tell and new songs to sing.