“Wainwright is funny and self-deprecating throughout, while his songs are richly observed. It made for an enjoyable evening at home with a likeable musician--and his famous friends.”
- The Times UK
Singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright, nominated for a GRAMMY® Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for his album Unfollow The Rules this year, is pleased to announce Zach Galifianakis and James Corden as this month’s guests for his micro-audience at his acclaimed Rufus-Retro-Wainwright-Spective! 2021, the virtual live-stream tour through all 9 of his studio albums. The tour has seen Wainwright perform his acclaimed albums in chronological order, one album side per date. Tickets for individual shows are $20.00 in advance and $25.00 day of show, and 4 show bundles are also available. Bundles come with the opportunity for fans to participate in intimate Q&A’s with Wainwright and other surprises. Go here to purchase tickets.
Galifianakis will be the guest for the two performances Out of The Game (February 5 and 12) with Corden joining for Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets and a special Rufus at the Movies show. Past guests have included Jamie Lee Curtis and husband Christopher Guest, Joel McHale, Darren Criss, Marius de Vries, Rain Phoenix, and Scott Dunn. More guests will be announced for the remaining shows. The live streams also help raise money for charities with the virtual audience donating to a cause chosen by the at-home guest during the shows. Zach Galifianakis has selected Poor People's Campaign for his charity and James Corden has chosen Broadway Cares.
Says Rufus Wainwright: “I was reluctant at first to take a look at my entire catalogue and start this retrospective but it has truly been an incredibly gratifying and enlightening experience for me and hopefully also my fans. So many songs I have not performed live in decades as I do not play them solo and thought they would need the lush accompaniment of a large band but with Brian Green and Jacob Mann on guitar and piano, I discovered new sides to my old material and felt that they really work also in a much more stripped-down version. I am so excited to be playing some of my songs for Zach and James, both of whom I have known and admired for a very long time. Normally when doing a show I have to do all the talking in between songs so it is nice to actually have a chat with someone you like and probably will make you crack up quite a bit. Apart from revisiting my entire catalogue, I have used this pause that this pandemic has put on touring also to write a lot of new material and start working on new projects from film to musical to TV and classical works.”
Rufus Wainwright was on the forefront of live-streaming with his IGTV Quarantunes Robe Recital series where each day he performed a song a day while playing in his bathrobe at his home. In June he upped the production with a performance of his new album Unfollow The Rules in a session at the old Hollywood Paramour mansion. Now with Rufus-Retro-Spective he takes a step further playing 45-minute concerts highlighting albums from his illustrious catalogue. Guitarist Brian Green and keyboardist/pianist Jacob Mann will accompany Wainwright in these concerts and fans will be treated to songs he has not played in many years with exciting new arrangements. On top of the songs from the albums, Wainwright will sprinkle in cover songs that fans can vote from over 100 that he has performed in the past, or has wanted to perform in concert.
Below are the dates for A RUFUS-RETRO-WAINWRIGHT-SPECTIVE 2021!
February 5 - Out of the Game (Side 1)
February 12 - Out of the Game (Side 2) + Fireside Chat
February 19 - Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets + Fireside Chat
February 26 - Rufus at the Movies (Soundtrack Songs)
March 4 - Unfollow the Rules (Side 1)
March 12 - Unfollow the Rules (Side 2) + Fireside Chat
March 19 - Rarities Part 1 + Fireside Chat
March 26 - Rarities Part 2
Go here to purchase tickets
February 5 -- Out of the Game: From “Out of the Game” to “Montauk”
I probably did not have more fun recording an album than “Out of the Game”. I worked with Mark Ronson and felt like the next big pop star. Guess what, the big breakthrough didn’t happen. I realized I was already somewhere where maybe all these people who are breaking through will never get. I have been in this business consistently for over 20 years. I am still in this ocean of song and business but I am swimming and keeping afloat where a lot of others have drowned over the years already. This album is sort of a reminder for myself that the game is always continuing and you got to keep inventing your own rules. “Montauk” is the song that mentions my daughter for the first time and it is one of her favorite songs so it will be special to sing that now that she lives half her time with us.
February 12 -- Out of the Game: From “Bitter Tears” to “Candles”
“Candles” is the song that really deals with the death of my mom. Lulu was the album that accompanied her death but it takes a long time for emotions to pour into music and this is the song that helped me through her death the most and was written in response to it where the Lulu songs were written long before she passed. On the recording my entire family plays an instrument or sings from Lucy to Martha, Loudon to Anna McGarrigle. Most songs in this show are very much about male desire and love but it certainly takes a very different turn in the end. Giving them what they want and then taking it away is something I have always enjoyed doing.
February 19 -- Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets: From “When Most I Wink” to “Farewell”
Lyrics are the hardest for me to write, they definitely take the longest. Melodies come much easier. Writing songs to Shakespeare Sonnets was amazing as Shakespeare’s lyrics are just perfect. Not really able to do all these songs though as they were originally written for the Berliner Ensemble a German language theater company where Brecht/Weill’s Threepenny Opera premiered. Some of them are in German and some of them were written for the entire cast so need a chorus to perform them and I have not been able to clone myself just yet. I will keep on trying but I feel that musically I have really achieved inhabiting and expressing multiple personas with. But you will hear some of the Sonnets here that I hardly ever perform solo and in different arrangements than the ones that are on Songs for Lulu.
February 26 -- Rufus at the Movies (Soundtrack Songs): From “Hallelujah” to “One More Chance”
Technically this show is not really part of the album retrospective but with every rule, there is a rule that it needs to be broken. Some of these songs have actually probably become my biggest songs and many people today know me as the guy who sang “Hallelujah” on the Shrek soundtrack. But I also wrote songs for Disney, Brokeback Mountain and other mainstream and indie films so here is a bit of a buffet.
March 4 -- Unfollow the Rules: From “Trouble in Paradise” to “Peaceful Afternoon”
This is the third version of these songs from my latest album. The record “Unfollow the Rules” is a condensed retrospective of my entire catalogue in itself. It brings back all the themes and presents them in a more concentrated, more essential way. The album is lush but if you would take one piece away the entire construction of the songs would collapse. This show ends with “Peaceful Afternoon” which for me is really the center song of this album finding peace and happiness at home, being content with where you are and of course it also sings about the place from which you will hear and see all of these 18 shows.
March 12 -- Unfollow the Rules: From “Only the People that Love” to “Alone Time”
There is the full studio version of these songs on the album and a live version with string quartet from the Paramour Session, and now an even more stripped-down version of these songs. I love constantly changing the way these songs are heard and performed. Every great painter makes studies for their paintings and this is one of these studies that hopefully contains everything that the mature songs have. Hear song-writing and producing in the making. Our living room is where most of these songs were written. Where on my first and second album, I was yearning to transform into Icarus, to travel to Grey Gardens, to escape to Barcelona, to wander on 5th avenue in flip flops, with “Unfollow the Rules'' I have arrived home, artistically and physically in a space that gives peace. After 18 shows I feel we all have a bit of a right to say that we came “home”. I hope you enjoyed the journey and feel it was a homecoming for you as well.
Rarities
Part 1 + Fireside Chat (March 19, 2020)
“Rarities”: From “Money Song” to “In With the Ladies”
It is hard to say why songs don't make it on an album. Sometimes you don't know why you lose touch with a friend and I guess it is the same with songs. But then when you play them again, you love them again like a long lost friend. If you own the House of Rufus box set you will probably recognize some of these songs but I am not totally sure yet whether I will follow exactly the order and list of the songs on the Rarities CD in the box set.
All streams will be available for rewatch for one month after the live stream event.
Rarities
Part 2 (March 26, 2020)
“Rarities”: From “Cowboy Song” to “Dreams and Daydreams”
These are really treasures from the early days of my artistic songwriting. I have changed as an artist immensely, matured as a human being and it will be exciting to revisit these old songs. I am curious what they will sound like with my voice today that has gone through so much. I was surprised when I revisited a lot of the songs on my “All These Poses” tour and how my singing and interpreting had changed, and I am sure the same will happen with these.
All streams will be available for re-watch for one month after the live stream event.
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