Rufus Wainwright reveals the secret to recording the perfect cover: ‘You have to treat it like life or death’

It’s difficult to imagine “Hush, Little Baby” as anything other than a nursery rhyme or a sentimental children’s song.

But for decades, the lullaby, which dates back at least 100 years, was considered a folk standard: a source of raw material with which to shape new musical forms.

The song was first popularized in the 1950s by folk singer Jean Ritchie, who recorded the song as a simple ballad over an Appalachian dulcimer. A decade later, Bo Diddley sang an adapted version of the lullaby’s lyrics over a shuffling rock ’n’ roll rhythm, creating a sound that changed the course of popular music. In the hands of folk singer Joan Baez, the song became a tender expression of parental love. Nina Simone’s rendition features a virtuosic piano arrangement that dances between darkness and light.

Few contemporary artists understand the art of musical reinterpretation quite like Rufus Wainwright, whose new album of folk covers, “Folkocracy,” includes yet another take on “Hush, Little Baby.” Joined by his sisters Martha and Lucy, the typically comforting tune is transformed into something edgy, even menacing. Over heavily strummed guitar and mandolin, the song builds toward a tense crescendo, conveying the sense that all the material things on Earth couldn’t satisfy the “sweetest little baby in town.”

“Folkocracy,” which arrived Friday, is an unpredictable collection of reimagined folk classics, with contributions from some of the most compelling voices in pop music. Among the album’s 15 tracks: a sombre murder ballad with Brandi Carlile, a rootsy new take on Neil Young’s “Harvest,” a slow-burning rendition of “Cotton Eye Joe” with Chaka Khan, plus appearances from David Byrne, John Legend, ANOHNI and other members of Wainwright’s sprawling musical family.

“I think you have to treat it like a life or death situation,” Wainwright explained, when asked about his approach to performing covers. “It has to have that same intensity.”

The Canadian-American singer, who turns 50 in July, has described “Folkocracy” as a “birthday present to myself.” But the project is also clearly the work of a vocalist who holds himself to the highest standard of the craft.

Wainwright’s voice — richly textured, leisurely but tightly controlled, imbued with theatrical vibrato — is the kind that could sing a phone book or a Substack newsletter. But it takes more than a practised singer to discover new meaning within a pre-existing piece of art, or to add emotional dimensionality to a beloved original.

“I recently read the greatest line about music I’ve ever heard,” he told me. “I was flipping through a book of poetry by Fernando Pessoa, a Portuguese poet and writer from about 100 years ago. There’s this poem where he says ‘sing as if you’re listening.’ That was so enlightening to me, because that’s my belief: that the heart and soul of being a great interpreter is to sing a song and listen to it at the same time; to really inhabit in it this holistic way where all of your senses are in service to the music.”

Wainwright has long struck a balance between songwriter and performer. Since his self-titled debut in 1998, he’s released half a dozen albums of original material, written an opera and recorded a live Judy Garland tribute album at Carnegie Hall featuring a 36-piece orchestra.

When I spoke to him over video last month, he had just wrapped up a five-night residency at New York’s legendary Café Carlyle, where he performed songs by composer Kurt Weill.

“It was a great success,” Wainwright said, wearing a striped blazer over a graphic white T-shirt, between bites of lunch at a Hollywood restaurant. “Those songs are incredibly challenging and so I’m rather proud of myself,” he added, stifling a cheeky laugh. “Now I’m going to focus on me a little.”

When COVID-19 hit, Wainwright was forced to stay put at his home in Hollywood — where he lives with his husband (and manager), Jörn Weisbrodt, and his 12-year-old daughter — after years of travelling the globe. This turned out to be a “liberating force,” he explained, allowing him to be present for his family, to practise his piano playing, to spend time illustrating. In 2020, he released his ninth studio album, “Unfollow the Rules,” which earned him a Grammy nomination in the Traditional Pop Vocal category. Last summer, he released the virtual live album “Rufus Does Judy at Capitol Studios.”

“This well of creativity erupted and all these songs that I’ve been holding at bay were ready to come forth,” he said.

But the impetus for “Folkocracy” comes from a “somewhat dubious source,” he admitted with slight mischief in his voice: he wants to win a Grammy.

“I’ve always had a problem being categorized,” he continued. “I did a little research and realized that there are all these categories that have to do with folk music — American Roots, Traditional Folk, whatever — I realized I should just make a bloody folk record.”

Of course, Wainwright has deep roots in the world of folk music. He was born in Rhinebeck, New York, to American folk singer Loudon Wainwright III and Canadian folk singer Kate McGarrigle. After his parents divorced, he moved with his mother to Montreal. By 13, he was touring with the McGarrigle Sisters and Family, a group consisting of his mother, his aunt Anna and his sister, Martha.

Wainwright is a descendant, in other words, of a folkocracy. “My friend Neil Tennant from the Pet Shop Boys coined that term,” Wainwright said, listing other preeminent folk families: the Thompsons in England or the Seegars in America (“the Habsburgs of folk.”)

“I’m very fortunate to be in one,” said Wainwright, “and I and I like to celebrate that fact. We’re not talking about vast fortunes or Hollywood contracts. It’s about the music, and about beauty and excellence.”

“Folkocracy” arrives at a time of renewed interest in folk music. Despite growing fears of AI-generated music, many of the year’s biggest releases — Lana Del Rey, Feist, boygenius — pay homage to the gentle beauty of folk’s halcyon era, and contain references to the vivid storytelling and intricate harmonies pioneered by recently passed legends like Gordon Lightfoot or David Crosby.

“I think there’s a well-founded fear that the robots are going to control everything,” Wainwright said. “There seems to be this real desire for humanity and imperfection and everybody communing in real time, singing songs that have survived the test of time.”

Among the oldest songs on “Folkocracy” are “Shenandoah,” a traditional folk ballad believed to have originated among fur traders; “Arthur McBride,” a nearly eight-minute anti-war song, likely of Irish origin, and “Nacht und Träume,” a 19th-century composition by the German composer Franz Schubert. Wainwright approaches all three with gentle intensity and musical restraint, luxuriating in ancient melodies from around the globe.

For the cover of Neil Young’s “Harvest,” Wainwright hands the keys to multi-instrumentalist Andrew Bird. “I’ve performed ‘Harvest’ for years,” Wainwright said. “I tend to do it in a more lugubrious fashion: a lot slower, a lot more seductive. But Andrew Bird’s direction (made) it more upbeat, a bit more masculine.”

But the finest moments on “Folkocracy” occur when Wainwright creates space for his high-profile collaborators to shine. On “Cotton Eye Joe,” Wainwright and R&B/soul legend Chaka Khan reimagine the traditional country folk song as a sultry duet, inspired by an obscure live performance by Nina Simone in the 1950s. “I heard it 30 years ago and it totally changed my life,” he said.

“It was such a thrill to sing in the same room as her,” Wainwright added when asked about working with Khan, whom he describes as “a force of nature. “She was doing exactly what she wanted and it wasn’t at all what I had planned. There was a second of dread, where we were like, ‘Oh, my God, this is going to collapse and not work.’ But by the end, it was so brilliant.”

Another highlight is “Going to a Town,” a stunning cover of Wainwright’s own song from his 2007 album “Release the Stars.” Featuring stirring backup vocals from English-American singer ANOHNI — “one of the most underappreciated artists” — the melancholic cover finds heightened significance at a time of increasingly harmful anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and legislation.

“I selfishly wanted one of my songs on the record,” Wainwright said. “‘Going to a Town’ ties very much into one of the aspects that I love most about folk music, which is this political element: a willingness to speak truth to power and to engage in civil society, or be uncivil in civil society.”

“Tell me, do you really think you go to hell for having loved?” Wainwright and ANOHNI sing in subtle harmony, as a string section dances in the background. “I’m so tired of America.”

Throughout our conversation, Wainwright repeatedly hints that, moving forward, he plans to pivot his career away from the studio and toward the musical theatre stage. “I’m working on a lot of Broadway stuff, West End stuff, none of which I can announce right now, but I would really like to focus on that universe.”

If that’s the case, “Folkocracy” feels like a fitting close to the first half of Wainwright’s varied career — joined by friends and artists he admires, singing his favourite songs. On the album closer, the nostalgic classic “Wild Mountain Thyme,” he’s surrounded by family — his aunt, Anna McGarrigle, Canadian folk legend Chaim Tannenbaum, his sisters, Lucy and Martha, and his cousin Lily Lanken — for a fitting tribute to his roots.

“The album is a celebration of the old and the new,” he explained. “It’s important to me to bring some of the younger artists into the folk world, to spread the knowledge that I was gifted. A lot of the folk figures who I work with on this album are from a generation now on its way out. Not to be morbid, but that’s true,” he said, pausing. “It’s important to celebrate them and use all we can while they’re still here.”

This summer, he’ll hit the road for a string of international dates in support of “Folkocracy,” and to mark the 25th anniversary of his debut album.

“For me, it’s about cleaning house,” he said. “Hopefully, by the end of the year, I’ll have somewhat of a clean slate that I can create a whole new career on … now I’m almost 50 and raring to go.”

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