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Rufus Wainwright

Rufus Wainwright

Photo: David Gahr

32 articles

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The Backpages Interview: Rufus Wainwright

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, 2 June 2001

When Rufus Wainwright’s eponymous debut album appeared three years ago, it was as though the golden age of maverick American singer-songwriters had never ended. ...

Audio interviews

Rufus Wainwright (2001)

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 24 May 2001

The young poseur talks at length about his new album, Poses, and about its songs; about the effect of his musical education, his childhood and his occasional brush with homophobia.

File format: mp3; file size: 59.5mb, interview length: 1h 04' 58" sound quality: ***

Rufus Wainwright (2005)

Interview by Maureen Paton, Rock's Backpages audio, 14 September 2005

The younger Wainwright talks about fighting his destiny to become a musician; his musical family background and traditions; his and sister Martha's childhoods, and his relationship with his father and mother; coming out and homophobia; HIV and AIDS, and his own promiscuity and addictions; his school days; his strengths and weaknesses, and his relationship with Martha.

File format: mp3; file size: 45mb, interview length: 46' 50" sound quality: ** (phoner)

List of articles in the library

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Rufus Wainwright: Roxy, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times, 5 June 1998

Wainwright an Engaging, Versatile Singer ...

Raise the Rufus

Profile and Interview by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 7 August 1998

The son of Loudon Wainwright III, this melodramatic young folk singer might be the next Jeff Buckley. Tom Cox meets him ...

Rufus Wainwright: Rufus Wainwright; Adam Cohen: Adam Cohen

Review by Chris Roberts, Uncut, September 1998

Impressive, capricious debuts from two sons of Sixties troubadours ...

Rufus Wainwright

Interview by Chris Roberts, Uncut, October 1998

THE LAUGH is marginally less startling than his debut album, a cabaret of flamboyant songs about April fools, matinee idols and imaginary loves, as big-time ...

Rufus Wainwright: Embassy Rooms, London ****

Live Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 21 May 1999

And mother came too ...

Fathers & Sons: Loudon and Rufus Wainwright

Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 11 November 1999

LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III, 53, was the folk-singing son of a famous Life magazine writer and came on the scene with several other "new Dylans" in ...

The Rueful Master Wainwright

Interview by j. poet, Stereotype, 2001

"A LOT OF SONGWRITING is revenge," Rufus Wainwright quipped, from his New York City hotel room. ...

The New Romantics: Ron Sexsmith and Rufus Wainwright

Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, June 2001

THEY ARE THE sensitive boys of Canadian pop. Both are acclaimed singer-songwriters, and both are unabashedly emotional. One is gay, with an impeccable musical pedigree, ...

Rufus Wainwright: "My Parents the Folk Heroes"

Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, The Guardian, 15 June 2001

THE WITTIEST REQUEST from the crowd at Rufus Wainwright's New York show last week was for ‘Rufus is a Tit Man’, a song written aeons ...

Parlour Of Vices: Rufus Wainwright's Poses

Review by RJ Smith, The Village Voice, 19 June 2001

BACK IN THE days of Stephen Foster, the piano was the centerpiece of the parlour. That was the room that women ran, the room where ...

Rufus Wainwright: Poses (DreamWorks)

Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, July 2001

AS RUFUS WAINWRIGHT is far too aware, the studied indolence that undercuts his artistry is also the essence of his appeal. ...

Rufus Wainwright Makes One Like They Used To Make 'Em

Essay by Michael Goldberg, Neumu, 14 July 2001

A young man following in the footsteps of Randy Newman and Van Dyke Parks records a masterpiece ...

Acting Casanova: Rufus Wainwright at the Town Hall, New York City

Live Review by Kandia Crazy Horse, Rock's Backpages, 23 February 2002

LIKE MEMPHIS crooner Al Green before him, Rufus Wainwright is L.O.V.E. To see him in concert, as we did last week in Manhattan, is to ...

Chelsea Mourning: Wanting Rufus Wainwright

Comment by Kandia Crazy Horse, Rock's Backpages, September 2003

YOU’RE WALKING, you’re virtually running, exhilarated, exultant, across West 23rd Street, away from Chelsea where you’ve tripped the Apocalypse of Rufus Wainwright and at once ...

The Backpages Interview: Rufus Wainwright

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, March 2005

RBP: Is Want Two in any way the flipside to, or a contrast to, Want One? Or is it just a companion collection? ...

Rufus Wainwright: Want Two

Review by Nick Southall, Stylus, 11 March 2005

EXCESS, THY NAME is Rufus. How else do you explain starting the most important album of your career with a 6-minute pseudo-classical drone of a ...

Rufus Wainwright: Want Two

Review and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, April 2005

LATE LAST YEAR, Rufus Wainwright was a guest on Tom Robinson's BBC6 radio show, answering questions about music, life and celebrity while pointedly avoiding allusion ...

Rufus Wainwright: A Year Of Living Judy Garland

Interview by Andrew Purcell, The Independent, 14 February 2007

THERE IS AN anecdote that Rufus Wainwright enjoys telling about his childhood fascination with Judy Garland. "I wanted to be Dorothy – on good days," ...

Rufus Wainwright: Central Park Summerstage, New York, NY

Live Review by Kandia Crazy Horse, Harp, July 2007

FOR SOME of us, storming and misinformation almost derailed Rufus Wainwright's first Gotham appearance since his spring residency at the Gramercy Theatre. Yet it's a ...

Rufus Wainwright: Release the Stars

Review by Kandia Crazy Horse, San Francisco Bay Guardian, 31 July 2007

FULL CIRCLE    ...

Rufus Wainwright: Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall

Review by Jim Irvin, MOJO, February 2008

Not many would have dared step into Judy's ruby slippers and revisit her most celebrated concert, but this man did. Jim Irvin prepares to weep ...

Rufus Wainwright: Prima Donna: The Palace Theatre, Manchester

Live Review by Simon Warner, Rock's Backpages, July 2009

Wainwright or wrong? No rock in Rufus opera ...

Rufus Wainwright: Cash For Questions

Interview by Paul Moody, Q, April 2010

FOR THE RECORD, THEN, OUR INTREPID DIVA: DOES HAVE HIS LEDERHOSEN CUSTOM-MADE, WAS TEMPORARILY SENT BLIND BY INJESTING TOO MANY DRUGS AND, OH YES, SINCE ...

Rufus Wainwright

Report and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, May 2010

"WE DON'T shy away from the fire, us McGarrigle-Wainwrights," Rufus Wainwright laughs. "We're made of stern stuff." ...

Rufus Wainwright: All Days Are Nights – Songs For Lulu

Review and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Uncut, May 2010

Just voice and piano. Not as simple as it sounds, says Adam Sweeting. ...

Rufus Wainwright: What I Like

Interview by Rob Hughes, The Word, May 2012

Songwriting, film-scoring opera-pop dandy with formative Thomas Hardy habit. Puccini apologist and Family Guy fanatic. ...

Rufus Wainwright: Out of the Game

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 1 May 2012

FEW PEOPLE TWIST the opposing aesthetics of lush and stark with the dexterity of Rufus Wainwright, the chanteuse with the steady aim on broken hearts ...

Rufus Wainwright: Lyceum Theatre, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 2 May 2012

PERFORMING ON A West End stage normally reserved for The Lion King, Rufus Wainwright turned his glitzy London album launch into an intimate, emotionally charged ...

Rufus Wainwright: The MOJO Interview

Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, June 2012

WHAT WAS ON Rufus Wainwright's mind while making his new album, the sparkly, pop-ish, Mark Ronson-produced Out Of The Game? Only this. ...

see also Kate & Anna McGarrigle

see also Loudon Wainwright III

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