It's a cold, soggy June afternoon in Williamsburg. After getting drenched in curtains of rain, I run into Marlow & Sons and eventually sit down with a cup of coffee and a brownie the size of a cinder block. A few minutes later, Martha Wainwright joins me with a coffee and a slab of strawberry almond pound cake. We both take turns lamenting the awful weather, but find it makes for the perfect ambiance when getting down to business, discussing Édith Piaf and her staging of the legendary singer's more obscure songs at Dixon Place, along with the accompanying live record, due out this fall.

Martha Wainwright's big brother Rufus already divulged his favorite New York restos, so it's only fair she follow suit. While big bro chose some classy Manhattan spots, Martha, a Williamsburg resident, is keeping it local. "A place we really like to go -- it's really popular and overcrowded, but the food is remarkably good -- is Diner. Yeah, Diner in Williamsburg. We live around the corner from there. It's on Berry and Broadway, under the Williamsburg Bridge. It's a hipster nightmare, but the food is very well done. It's all a lot of local produce, local game, and it's done up good. It's American comfort food or things that are in season. It's not really expensive, but it could be, because the ingredients are very high quality. But it's not $28 a plate, it's more like $19."

Last night, Canada's First Family of music and some of their friends brought their folksy brand of Christmas merriment to Carnegie Hall, and while we didn't catch the show, someone who saw it called it "AMAZING. Hilarious and brilliant." The family in question is none other than dandy troubadour Rufus Wainwright, his sister Martha, their mother Kate McGarrigle, and her sister Anna. This was the third edition of The McGarrigle Christmas Hour, an off-the-cuff evening of festive sing-alongs, with guests that included Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Jimmy Fallon, and Emmylou Harris. The show also acted as a fundraiser for The Kate McGarrigle Fund, a Montreal-based cancer research foundation. The first fifty donors are at the Knitting Factory today, where the gang reconvened to tape the concert for an upcoming DVD called A Not So Silent Night. I had a chance to speak to Rufus first, then to Martha, about playing music with mom, what Christmas was like growing up, and just where the hell Jimmy Fallon fits into all of this.

It takes a broken heart to write the kind of music Martha Wainwright does. And for a happily married woman, her songs are sullen. We called up the Canadian singer to discuss bleeding hearts, holy matrimony, and not getting fat.

Martha Wainwright is proof that genes are for real. She is the product of musician parents, and was a singer and a performer from an early age (she sang on family albums at the age of 7). But somewhere along the way, the idea of life in the music business appalled her. A stint as a theater major in Montreal was her bid to escape the grasp of DNA, but somehow, she drifted back to the guitar, back to the microphone, back to the stage. Collaborations with her aunt and mother, singing backup vocals for brother Rufus, an acclaimed, self-titled debut album, and even a cameo in Martin Scorcese's The Aviator, has all led up to the singer's latest disc, I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too. It's a revealing ode to ex-love that features her brother, Pete Townshend, and Steely Dan guitarist Donald Fagen. But the real star of the show is Martha, and here we are with the singer in an intimate conversation about her married life, her exercise habits, and of course, her album.

Last night at Joe's Pub Martha Wainwright's secret (and sold out) record release party was a family affair. Mom Kate McGarrigle drove down from Canada to introduce the songstress, and some cousins were in the audience to show support. Martha paid tribute to absent brother Rufus with a performance of "Stormy Weather," a song she lent her voice to when he re-created a 1961 Judy Garland performance at Carnegie Hall. McGarrigle accompanied on piano.

Joan as Police Woman
To Survive (Reveal Records)

Even if you haven’t heard Joan “As Police Woman” Wasser, chances are you have listened to records she’s appeared on. On her spare second solo album, her many former colleagues and influences are present, particularly Antony and the Johnsons. But this is her record and it is Wasser’s lone, tender voice that cossets tracks such as the wrenching title song, “To Be Loved,” and its emotional doppelganger, “To Be Lonely.” Recalling the more rueful sides of Feist, Roberta Flack, and a smidgen of Cat Power, To Survive is not an album for the noonday sun. But, oh, night never felt so sweet. —Alison Powell