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August 30, 2005Loudon Wainwright III first rose to fame in the late 1960s as a witty and honest songwriter. In recent years, he has also become known as Rufus Wainwright's father. With his latest album, Here Come the Choppers, the elder Wainwright continues to share his own wry and poignant way of looking at the world.

That viewpoint has matured with time — and with movement. After being inspired by Bob Dylan and applying himself to a career in music, Wainwright brought a poet's aesthetic and a wit's honesty to his songs, winning fans and impressing critics with a string of albums that began with his self-titled debut in 1970.

More recently, Wainwright moved to Los Angeles, where he has branched into acting, with a part in the upcoming Cameron Crowe film Elizabethtown. Wainwright, who studied drama at Carnegie Mellon, has also been in Big Fish and The Aviator.

But according to Wainwright, the movies had nothing to do with his relocation. He moved, he explains, "for the brushfires and the mudslides and the earthquakes."