Rufus Wainwright reminisces about his folk-oriented upbringing on tranquil and relaxing Folkocracy

For nearly 3 decades into his career, he’s been hesitant to make anything that could be shelved as folk. “[The genre]’s sadly quite heterosexual,” he said during a recent interview after claiming that it’s a “macho environment”. But that might not be the only reason: his parents were also acclaimed folk singers. Along with them and his siblings, Wainwright used to entertain his grandmother by putting on classic folk performances. Unfortunately, as he grew up, he had a constrained relationship with his family; his father wrote songs that discredited him, and there was often fierce competition among them. Folk, presumably for him, entails grim memories that, at the time, he wished to stray away from.

Now a successful artist, whose works vary from baroque-pop albums to operas and soundtracks, Wainwright is hit with vivid montages of the past, the days when he discovered that he was born to be a singer. An idea of creating an album that pays homage to folk music then came about when he, nominated for his previous album Unfollow the Rules, attended the Grammy Awards in 2021. “The older I get, the more I appreciate how valuable my folk knowledge is,” he said. An eclectic collection of 15 covers, he titled it Folkocracy, a term coined by Neil Tennant that is used to catalogue “folk dynasties” such as the Wainwrights themselves. It includes remakes of yesteryear hits, country classics, and native songs.

Many artists are invited to Folkocracy as guests – John Legend, Brandi Carlile, David Byrne, Nicole Scherzinger, and even his siblings – which adds to it a communal, tranquil, and relaxing overtone. Aside from a few exceptions, Wainwright brings these collaborators onto the stage, singing the selected folk classics along with them, just like he did with his family as a child. He hums the melodies of Peggy Seeger’s “Heading for Home” with John Legend; drums on the piano with Chaka Khan on Nina Simone’s live performance of “Cotton Eyed Joe”; harmonises with Andrew Bird and Chris Stills on Neil Young’s classic “Harvest”. It’s a record that feels like a cosy hub of creative minds reminiscing about their memories – unhurried and finely reflective.

Sadly, that’s much about it. While the songs Wainwright chose to cover are diverse and often undeniably traditional – some, namely “Shenandoah” and “Cotton Eyed Joe”, were composed as early as in the late 19th century – they are hardly correlated in terms of themes on Folkocracy, establishing the record merely as a loose, disconnected compilation of musical pieces that he finds intriguing. It can’t be denied, though, that the core of Folkocracy budded from this very idea; he only wishes to revisit his roots, raising more awareness of these folk masterworks for the younger audience along the way. Perhaps this album can be regarded as a starting point for many people who would like to dive into the sphere of folk, discovering the many glories and captivating stories hidden underneath.