Hg1 — Rufus Wainwright’s Folkocracy
Returning to his folk roots, the Canadian songmaster finds a new musical family
WORDS BY RACHEL WINDSOR
ILLUSTRATIONS BY KALYA RAMU AND DANE THIBEAULT
INTERVIEW BY MICHAEL ZARATHUS-COOK
Rufus Wainwright is no stranger to experimentation: over his twenty-five-year career, he has dabbled in pop, opera, and live theatre. Wainwright released his first studio album in 1998 to critical acclaim and followed it with eleven more. His newest release, Folkocracy, marks a turn to (as the name suggests) the folk genre. While traditional folk music in Canada dates back to the 16th century for settlers — and much longer for Indigenous peoples — its history is a bit nebulous, with no precise definition or characteristics. Contemporary folk rose to popularity in the 20th century, blending the traditional with other genres (such as rock or pop) and often including a political or counter-cultural slant. The 1960s and 70s in particular saw a rise of influential Canadian folk musicians (including Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Wainwright’s mother and aunt, respectively), a legacy that Wainwright attempts to uphold with Folkocracy.
The album’s release thus marks both a new chapter and a return for Wainwright (whose father, Loudon Wainwright III, is also a well-known American folk musician). In putting together the album, Wainwright drew from his childhood — spent primarily in Montreal, Quebec — where he sang folk songs and attended folk festivals with his mother and his sister, Martha Wainwright (herself a critically acclaimed artist). If the album is a homecoming, though, it is necessarily an exercise in nostalgia, as Wainwright contemplates his youth from the vantage point of his upcoming fiftieth birthday. The saving grace is that repetition, tradition, and reflection are part and parcel to folk music.
Hiding behind the veil of a studio album, Folkocracy might really just be a pretext for an artist with an illustrious career to gather together all the friends he’s made along the way. Recording appearances are made by the likes of Brandi Carlile, John Legend, David Byrne, Sheryl Crow, Nicole Scherzinger, Chaka Khan, Andrew Bird, ANOHNI, Susanna Hoffs, Van Dyke Parks, and Madison Cunningham, as well as his sisters Martha and Lucy Wainwright Roche, aunt Anna, cousin Lily Lanken, and close family friend Chaim Tannenbaum. Indeed, it’s a bit of a fancy get together. The star-studded lineup again reflects the core tenants of folk music, which is by definition a communal genre. Traditional folk music was transmitted via oral tradition, rather than through written words and lyrics, and the word “folk” derives from the Old English “folc” meaning “the people”.
Keeping with his experimental and spontaneous creative spirit, Wainwright recently staged Wainwright Does Weill, a five-night residency at Café Carlyle in New York performing the songs of German-born composer Kurt Weill. He followed these shows with his Folkocracy tour, kicking off June 2 — the album’s release date — at the very low-key Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. As an album, Folkocracy demonstrates Wainwright’s knowledge of, and respect for, folk music’s history and ethics, which he remains committed to throughout the record—even at the risk of alienating mainstream audiences. Cannopy Magazine sat down with Wainwright to discover the “why” behind Wainwright’s dedication to folk and its principles.
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