Canadian singer Rufus Wainwright releases new album Folkocracy, embarks on worldwide tour

Canadian singer Rufus Wainwright is returning to folk music with his new studio album Folkocracy.

In an interview with CityNews, the Juno award-winning songwriter and composer says the album feels like coming home.

“I was just ready to return in a lot of ways to material that I had sung as a child, and as a young person and reinvigorate it with this kind of vocal prowess that I’ve worked very hard to develop for a very long time,” he said.

“I think, if anything, it’s an examination of my eclectic tastes in general in music, with a folk kind of philosophy behind it…There’s a lot of folk songs on the record, but… if anything, what’s more important is just that it has a folk sensibility, meaning that people are singing together in real-time, they’re harmonizing, people are playing real instruments, and it’s not too overly produced.”

Canadian singer Rufus Wainwright is returning to folk music with his new studio album Folkocracy. (Courtesy Media Relations team)

Folkocracy, which follows Wainwright’s most recent studio album — the 2020 Grammy and Juno Award-nominated album Unfollow The Rules — sees the critically acclaimed artist celebrating his upcoming 50th birthday by revisiting his roots of childhood summers spent at folk festivals and of watching his famous family on stage.

“It’s turning out to be quite cosmic in the sense that I didn’t plan to put out a folk record right when I’m turning 50 and right at the moment when my first album is [celebrating] its 25th anniversary,” he said.

Wainwright grew up in what many consider one of the royal families of folk music that has helped shape popular folk music for decades.

He adds he comes from a folk-legacy — which he calls “folkocracy.”

He says he felt his late mother’s presence during the making of the album and considers it a tribute to her.

“Kate McGarrigle, who is of course a great Canadian artist who is sadly no longer with us…it was very important that her spirit be in the record somewhat and so we were able to do that because we do a song called ‘Wild Mountain Time’ where Chaim Tannenbaum plays her old banjos,” he said.

The 15 songs featured on Folkocracy include folk standards from around the world. Wainwright adds that the album also features a star-studded lineup of friends and guest artists including John Legend, David Byrne, and Chaka Khan, as well as family members Anna McGarrigle, Lucy Wainwright Roche, and Martha Wainwright.

“Harvest” feat. @andrewbird & @chrisstills • OUT NOW

Watch/listen here:https://t.co/1Gh25y6DhV pic.twitter.com/NoNEVy2vpc

— Rufus Wainwright (@rufuswainwright) May 3, 2023

The albums haunting first single, “Down in the Willow Garden,” features Brandi Carlile.

“That’s what they call a ‘Murder Ballad’ which is a rather violent song that traditionally was used…to tell the news about some terrible thing that had happened in the village…I do feel when singing it, because it is pretty brutal, especially against the woman in the song, so I felt it was necessary to sing it with a woman. So Brandi Carlile was kind enough to join me on that,” he said.

The song “Going to a Town” also features ANOHNI in a duet that he calls a “lethal combination.”

“That’s a song that I wrote years ago after America invaded Iraq,” he said.

“Every few years it’s quite relevant and now it is especially in terms of LGBTQ rights, and women’s rights, and stuff in the United States. So singing with the ANOHNI, she was the perfect candidate ‘cuz she’s always been so vocal and strong in her views.” 

Singles also include “Heading for Home” featuring John Legend, a joyous rendition of the Peggy Seeger folk standard. On the duet with Legend, Wainwright adds, “Peggy Seeger, in my opinion, is sort of the Empress of Folk…And you know, whenever I heard it (‘Heading for Home’) years ago, I would always break into tears. I know there’s just something so touching about it and so vast, and I wanted to sing it and John was very keen to join me. I think it’s also nice to have someone with a different type of voice than mine on it too. It just gives it more kind of variety and depth.”

The singer-songwriter says, “The older I get, the more I appreciate how valuable my folk knowledge is, to have had it ingrained in me as a child.”

“I’m from a bona fide folkocracy who mixed extensively with other folkocracies such as the Seegers and the Thompsons. I spun off into Opera and pop. Now, I’m back where it all began.”

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Wainwright embarks on a worldwide Folkocracy Tour while also marking the 25th anniversary of his landmark debut album, 1998’s Rufus Wainwright.

He is also set to make two Canadian stops and join the Winnipeg Folk Festival and Ontario’s Mariposa Folk Festival.

For more details about Rufus Wainwright, his new album Folkocracy, and the tour click here.