You’ve probably heard the latest incarnation of the Beatles’ tune, “Across the Universe,” floating along radio waves recently. The distinctive croon featured in this cover song belongs to the critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright, who will be making a stop on his tour of the U.S. to perform at Oberlin this Saturday night.
The 28-year-old Canadian was quickly crowned as the new “it kid” after the release of his self-titled debut in 1998. Since then he has appeared in everything from Rolling Stone, to an Elton John album, to a Gap commercial. Underneath all the hype that surrounds his name, he is simply a good musician who knows how to caress a pretty tune with his clear, viola-like voice.

Wainwright, who is touring with a full band in promotion of his sophomore effort, Poses, is not the type who worries about following fashion trends in music. He isn’t afraid to try on old, gaudy styles without using face-saving irony. On both of his albums, Wainwright playfully dips into old Broadway show tunes, lounge ballads and even folksy gospel. Sweeping vocals, strings and piano lift his voice up to dramatic heights.

Somehow Wainwright manages to infuse his own character into his variety of dated influences. The taste of his music isn’t something that can be put into words, but it seems to be embodied in his syrupy tenor voice. Although rather nasal and sometimes droning, his voice never verges on being annoying or whiny. Everything else about his music, even his skillful piano playing and haunting melodies, seem to be upstaged by his own natural instrument.

The son of famed folk singer Loudon Wainwright III and Canadian pianist Kate McGarrigle, Wainwright was something of a musical prodigy in his home of Montreal. He toured with his mother’s folk group as a child and penned several Canadian film soundtrack cuts in his teens.

Junior Lucy Wainwright Roche, who helped book the concert at Oberlin and is Wainwright’s half-sister (they have the same father), described the young Rufus as being “enthusiastic, dramatic and adoring.”

Wainwright’s childhood was not carefree, however. His parents divorced when he was only three and he struggled with sexual-identity issues at an early age. After coming out to his family at 14, Wainwright decided to go to boarding school. It was around this time that he began to find his own voice and musical influences.
His struggles early in life didn’t leave traces of bitterness in his later music. Although many of the songs in Poses are shaded in melancholy, what stands out most in this new album is the artist’s refreshing idealism and capacity for love. His vulnerability is captured perfectly in the fast paced “California”: “Ain’t it a shame that at the top / Still those soft skin boys can bruise you.”

Wainwright is clearly still developing as a poet. And sometimes, with all of his hip cultural and literary allusions, he seems like the smart kid in class who’s always showing off to the teacher.. But you can’t really blame him for bragging just a little.

What Wainwright is really known for is being a natural performer. According to Rolling Stone, “he’s a young man so at ease with himself, his sexuality and his songs, he’s impossible not to like.” With his appealing onstage personality, tomorrow’s performance, sponsored by the College Concert Board, promises to be a thoroughly entertaining show..
Wainwright will be accompanied by his sister Martha, as well as Teddy Thompson on guitar and vocals, Jeff Hill on the bass and the Eels’ Butch on drums.