NEW RELEASE
Folkocracy by Rufus Wainwright
- PLAYLISTS: On YouTube and Spotify
- INTERVIEW: Wainwright delivers an engaging synopsis of the album with No Depression magazine
Wainwright ponders the question “What is folk?” He offers a partial answer with the 15 songs on Folkocracy
RUFUS RULES
Wainwright’s ambitious and polished album hits the mark – sometimes
At the musical heart of Folkocracy’s homage to the human voice is the powerful operatic tenor of gay icon and musical royal Rufus Wainwright. A number of his compelling collaborations here with a stellar cast of singers and musicians are beautiful. But the collection – superbly sung, arranged and produced – feels a bit disparate thanks to some incongruous tunes and a honeyed feel on a few too many of the duets.
Blame it on the ambitious song selection for one thing. Well-researched and considered, the array of 15 songs range from traditionals, some with roots going back two hundred years, to music written in the last decade. Truth is, some of the stories and writers behind the songs are more interesting than a few of the readings.
Variety and musical history
Wainwright shows a broad knowledge of musical history. Folkocracy includes five traditional songs from various eras in the UK and America, a murder ballad (Down in the Willow Garden), and four songs that touch on protest and commentary (Going to a Town, Arthur McBride, Kaulana Nā Pua and Black Gold). The work of three folk and country luminaries is included – Peggy Seeger, her husband Ewan MacColl as well as Charlie Monroe, brother to Bill, the father of bluegrass. Three writers from the 60’s, 70s and up to current day are in the mix too – Neil Young, John Phillips and Van Dyke Parks. The only anachronism is the inclusion of Franz Schubert and his 1825 composition Nacht und Träume.
“I made the initial list of songs, about 30 or 40 of them,” Wainwright told No Depression magazine. “And I just gave it to [producer Mitchell Froom] and said, ‘You choose. I trust your judgment.’ And as that process happened, ideas came up of people who could join us.”
Various family members of Rufus’ folkocracy of McGarrigles and Wainwrights take turns on these tunes. His aunt Anna McGarrigle and her daughter Lilly Lankin sing on Wild Mountain Thyme as do sister Martha and half-sister Lucy Wainwright Roche who also contribute vocals to Hush Little Baby. Other collaborators include Brandi Carlile, David Byrne, Madison Cunningham and more.
Five songs to note
Three tracks elevate the album – the rendition of Neil Young’s Harvest; a reprise of Wainwright’s piece Going to a Town and The Mamas & the Papas hit Twelve Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon). Honourable mentions go the Peggy Seeger-penned Heading for Home and the American traditional Cotton Eyed Joe.
• Andrew Bird and Chris Stills join Wainwright on Harvest offering a unique arrangement that foregrounds their harmonies and Bird’s sinuous violin lines
• One of of the album’s more contemporary and topical pieces is Going to a Town from Wainwright’s 2007 album Release the Stars. New York’s ANOHNI (perhaps better known to some as Antony from the Johnsons) provides moving and mournful vocals to the stripped down arrangement. The song’s sombre emotion contrasts to others on the album
• Twelve Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon) is true to the 1967 original. Wainwright recruited Sheryl Crow, Susanna Hoffs and Chris Stills to fill the roles of Michelle Phillips, Mama Cass and Denny Doherty from the original band while casting himself as songwriter John Phillips. Wainwright told No Depression magazine, “We wanted to do exactly what The Mamas & the Papas did. We mirrored their harmonies exactly. We didn’t stray too far from the original. We did like a Library of Congress dissection of it. Like, ‘How does this song work? How does this arrangement work?’ It was just a way to be as faithful to the original as possible.”
• The charm of Heading for Home is the down-to-earth vocal from John Legend who’s more often associated with smooth radio-friendly ballads than folk sounds. This little known song from Peggy Seeger’s 2003 album of the same name is a wistful gem about aging and death. The cover suffers somewhat from a syrupy orchestral presentation.
• While Nina Simone sang it better in 1959, the oft-recorded Cotton Eyed Joe – which harkens back to the mid-1800’s – benefits from the subdued but passionate voice of Chaka Khan.
An interesting folk foray
Wainwright’s ambition to present a varied – sometimes idiosyncratic – swatch of folk music history is admirable. His fluid take on “folk” encompasses choices ranging from Schubert’s 1825 Nacht und Träume (oddly, the song is hummed and not sung) to Van Dyke Parks’ lengthy and lyrically arcane 2013 piece Black Gold. The forays into different folk styles and eras are interesting. But they’re likely lost on the casual listener who will hear a few excellent tunes alongside a number that are merely pretty. Overall the collection could use a bit more emotional contrast and grit and a few less songs.
Tune in. Turn on…!
01 July 2023
REVIEWS
At the time of writing the reviews on Metacritic give Folkocracy a 70 per cent rating based on nine reviews.
At the risk of sounding old, they really don’t make records like this anymore
Clash Magazine A collection that is deeply reverential to the Americanised folk music form, and which also gratefully repays the debt that Rufus Wainwright owes it.
Read more
Rufus Wainwright: Folkocracy – an illustrious feelgood duet party
The Observer The less good news is that although every pairing has juice in it – the inclusion of a Nicole Scherzinger-paired Hawaiian traditional is a great curveball – many of these songs feel like over-pretty drawing room star turns. Nothing here is slick, exactly, but much tends towards mellifluous pleasantness – even the songs about protest and murder.
He has never sung better on record, wresting control from a vibrato too often besotted with its own purring, like a cat stroking itself
Pitchfork The folk tradition looms large over the work of Rufus Wainwright. Approaching the craft as a white gay Canadian man for whom the canon of his own folkie dad was there to be overcome, Wainwright lavishes the cover material he recorded for Folkocracy with the appetite of a weary traveler sniffing a bounteous feast. This is an artist who set Shakespeare’s sonnets to music and belted “Over the Rainbow” at Carnegie Hall: He ain’t afraid of shit.
PLAYLISTS
On Spotify
On YouTube
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLG-pRIXeCU7f_ZQnS-O9AcDmbqGEipjXW
