Artist Rufus Wainwright

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Rufus Wainwright

Singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright has managed to become the shining star of the Wainwright/McGarrigle clan, rocketing past sister Martha and even folk-hero father Loudon Wainwright III. Lately he’s seemed content to follow various passion projects, most involving live performance: a recreation of Judy Garland’s Carnegie Hall comeback show, the 2009 opera Prima Donna, and this year’s comprehensive box set House Of Rufus. Sadly, his mother, Kate McGarrigle, died last year after suffering from cancer. Wainwright’s 2010 LP, All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu, was recorded shortly before McGarrigle died, and it’s an inevitably somber and spare record. Wainwright’s voice rises from the despair with breathtaking beauty, in a friendly rivalry with his rippling piano. No world that produces music this lovely can be all bad.

Updated 08/04/2011