TORONTO - Martha Wainwright opened her encore on Saturday night at The Music Hall with a thrilling cover of the appropriately-titled Stormy Weather, given the technical glitches that had riddled her otherwise entertaining set, not to mention the snow and frigid temperatures outside.

And for those five minutes or so, Wainwright - accompanied only by her husband-producer-bassist Brad Albetta on piano - reminded the crowd of her immense talent as a member of one of Canada's most "musically prodigious" families, as she had been introduced earlier in the evening.

Just this past week her relatives were either in town or in the news - father Loudon III played Hugh's Room last Monday night and two days later brother Rufus nabbed a Grammy nod for his reenactment of Judy Garland's famous Carnegie Hall concert.

Even Wainwright herself led us through a rehearsal of a holiday song that she's going to sing on Tuesday night (Dec. 10) with "the family" - as she called them while making a goofy face - at their annual Christmas concert at Carnegie Hall. (Her mother is Kate McGarrigle and her aunt is Anna McGarrigle.)

What's a girl to do?

In Wainwright's case, having just toured Australia before arriving in Canada for a cross-country trek in support of her second album, I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too, she has succeeded in forging a unique musical identity all of her own.

In a live setting, the quirky, funny and charming Wainwright comes across as a rock chick trapped in a folk singer's body with her dyed blonde hair, sexy clothes and raging intensity.

She first appeared alone on stage Saturday night, strumming her acoustic guitar, while dressed in clingy black mini-dress, multi-colored leg warmers and heels, and knitted wrist warmers, the latter which were holdovers from a recent climate-change expedition to Greenland with Feist and other artists. (See capefarwell.com, she urged.)

"We're trying to represent fashion from the North while wearing as little clothes as possible," she joked of her ensemble.

Then she launched into I Wish I Were, stomping her left foot for emphasis, raising her knees, and singing her heart out. Her voice moves quickly from a little-girl whisper to a wild bellow - and got the concert off to a promising start.

That was before almost every instrument she touched - she alternated between two acoustic and one electric guitar - initially failed in some way, bogging the show down in places.

It got to the point that you were almost holding your breath as she reached for a new instrument.

Still, in less skilled hands, it could have been a disaster.

Wainwright is nothing if not a quick wit and seasoned performer (she began singing backup for Rufus more than a decade ago) and her stage banter while she and her roadie trouble-shooted the various problems. "You guys do that atmospheric s--t" she ordered her band - was effective.

After the opener, she was joined by her three bandmates (Albetta, guitarist Oren Bloedow wearing a knit hat with pom-poms made by her mother for the Greenland trek and drummer Matt Johnson) for Bleeding All Over You, Comin' Tonight and Hearts Club Band, all from I Know You're Married, before the guitars started acting up.

Still, whether alone on stage or backed by her band, Wainwright more than did justice to the new songs, So Many Friends, Jesus And Mary, Tower Song, Jimi, The George Song, You Cheated Me; Ball & Chain, Bloody Mother F---king A--hole (her famous ode to dad), This Life, G.P.T, and Factory, all from her first 2005 self-titled disc; or EP offerings like Lolita, New York New York New York.

There was definitely a feeling of disorganization as Wainwright and her band had to share the same lyric sheet while performing a cover of Leonard Cohen's The Traitor or scrambled mid-song to find a seat for whoever happened to be playing the keyboards.

It could just be that Wainwright likes to keep things loose on stage.

Whatever the reason, it certainly keeps everyone on their toes.

Sun Rating: 3.5 out of five