Canadian Folk Messiah Created In Lab

Mumford and Sons, Monsters of Folk, Flight of the Conchords, The Imagined Village...these are the superstars of the New Folk Movement. They sell lots of albums, they pack the halls, they even have groupies: folk music is well and truly back! But what about the next generation? What's going to happen fifteen, sixteen years down the line when Britney Spears is considered to be a classic? Don't worry my pungent, hummus eating, bearded friends (you know who you are ladies) Rufus Wainright has been working on the problem....

In a brief post on his blog Wainwright has said that he and Lorca Cohen, Leonard Cohen's daughter, have become the parents to a baby girl:

"Darling daughter Viva Katherine Wainwright Cohen was born on February 2, 2011 in Los Angeles, California to proud parents Lorca Cohen, Rufus Wainwright and Deputy Dad Jorn Weisbrodt. The little angel is evidently healthy, presumably happy and certainly very, very beautiful."


Consider the musical heritage involved here. The baby's mother is Canadian writer and photographer Lorca Cohen, her grandfather on the mother's side is folk icon/genius Leonard Cohen. Her father is glamfolk god Rufus Wainwright, her auntie on her father's side is indy rock superstar Martha Wainwright. Her paternal grandfather is cult folk legend Loudon Wainwright III (currently having a revival with his recording of Carrickfergus in Boardwalk Empire) and his paternal grandmother is the late folk singer Kate McGarrigle, who passed away in January 2010. The baby was born on Groundhog Day which will always be associated in my mind with the hit You've Got Me Babe by Sonny and Cher. It's also the birthday of James Joyce...


Someone get that child a guitar.