Sharing the stage is nothing new for Martha Wainwright.

After all, the Montreal native grew up as the daughter of such folk royalty as Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle -- and she's the sister of fellow music star Rufus Wainwright, and the niece of Anna McGarrigle.

But it has taken a while for the 32-year-old singer and writer of raw, confessional folk-rock songs -- featured once again on her second album, I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too -- to find her groove in that setting.

"One of the things that I've learned is how to share a stage and be around people who are really talented, and not be intimidated. To join in the experience of that rather than to sort of not want to look bad by having other people who are great around you," Wainwright said leading up to a cross-country theatre tour that includes stops in Calgary on Sunday, Edmonton (Dec. 1), Winnipeg (Dec. 3), Kitchener, Ont., (Dec. 5), Toronto (Dec. 6) and Ottawa (Dec. 30).

"And it harkens back to this tradition of music that I know, which is singing together and folk music, although my songs are completely kind of individualistic in many ways and are very personal. But the act of playing music and singing is also very satisfying in a group setting."

Wainwright, whose first album was her 2005 self-titled effort, slowly began her music career by writing a song in 1998 for a McGarrigle Sisters' album. She then toured with Rufus as a back-up singer before moving to New York City to forge her own musical identity.

There she would eventually meet her future husband, Brad Albetta, who produced both of her albums and also plays bass on the road with her.

But along the way to becoming a star in her own right, Wainwright had some nagging questions about whether she had chosen the right path -- was she doing it because her whole family was?

Now she feels she has worked through all that.

"I think once and for all -- finally," Wainwright said.

"It takes accomplishing things for you to understand your relationship with your work. You start to feel like you are becoming the person that you wanted to be, and you're doing the thing that you wanted to do."

Initially, there was no plan for Albetta to produce the followup record. Wainwright was looking at various pop producers -- but didn't like the overall vibe.

"In meeting a lot of different producers, older men, generally, and demo-ing with them, some of them, I realized I really didn't want one older man to (mess with) my songs ... I didn't want them to put their stamp on it.

"And these songs are so particular to me, and I know I'm very hardheaded ... I know what I like, I know what I don't like and I'm a control freak without knowing how to get there.

"And I ended up going back to Brad 'cause I can't charm him in the studio. There's a truth about myself that I don't even know that he perhaps sees, that maybe he can get to, and that's a very useful thing."

The material on I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too -- "it's a line in a song (Bleeding All Over You) and it's not about having sex with married men, I think it's funny and it's provocative and it's lyrical" -- is also more mature sounding, she says.

The songs on the first record were written when Wainwright was between the ages of 18 and 24. (For example, maybe you remember Bloody Mother F------ A------ from her debut CD, which was written about her father?)

"I had to flex my songsmithing muscles a bit more, and I really enjoyed that and I think in many ways sort of less indulgent things came out," she said.

Rock royalty cameos

Martha Wainwright was lucky enough to have The Who's Pete Townshend, Steely Dan's Donald Fagen and The Band's Garth Hudson appear on her second album, I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too.

Hudson was on her first-self titled 2005 record and she says she will hire him to play on her records for as long as he will agree to do it.

"Just because you're going to get something that's completely original and totally f----- up and totally brilliant. Because he's a true and honest musical genius and a true eccentric, which I like," Wainwright said.

Fagen, meanwhile, was a longtime friend of the family and a longtime fan.

Wainwright began sending him songs going back to her first album and has since opened for him on occasion.

"He's a champion of mine, " she said.

As for Townshend, they had a much more memorable first meeting at his house in London.

"He sought me out a couple of years ago to be on his online television show with his girlfriend Rachel Fuller. I showed up at their house, I knew nothing about this thing.

"They handed me a pair of pyjamas and I put them on and I started playing my songs and he knew some of them and was playing along.

"The songs had never felt so energetic and magnificent."