What are you working on these days?
I have a new album “Someone Will Take Care of Me” coming out in the spring, so a lot of time lately has been devoted to recording-studio work. I’m also just starting to work on an opera — or something like an opera — with the ensemble Newspeak, novelist Andrew Sean Greer, and stage director Emma Griffin.  I’m not yet allowed to say what it’s based on, but religious delusion and schizophrenia play significant roles.  Also, Cornelius Dufallo (aka Neil) and I are starting a project performing songs for voice and violin with digital looping.  This might also include the Bliptronic 5000 that my brother just gave me for Christmas.

Do you keep up with technology?  What tools work for you and which ones have you found to be overrated?
I do keep up with it, especially now that I have my Bliptronic 5000.  I’m on Twitter and Facebook and I design and maintain my own website.  I also blogged about my last big piece, “Thirteen Near-Death Experiences,” while I was composing it.  I wouldn’t necessarily single out any technology as “overrated,” but I would say that the internet favors informational knowledge over procedural knowledge and is therefore potentially threatening to critical thinking.  As for music, I think many creative musicians make the mistake of using technology to generate ideas when they should be using ideas to generate technology.

Are you single or coupled?
I’m in a nine-year relationship with Yvan Greenberg, who is the director of Laboratory Theater and also a graphic designer.

Do you give PDAs? (public displays of affection)
Absolutely, with anyone and everyone who will accept them.

Are most of your friends from the music world or not?
Many of my friends are creative musicians — composers, songwriters, bandmembers.  I’m not friends with too many classical performing musicians.  They somehow always seem put-upon.

How does your sexuality and general background play out in your creativity?
I think growing up gay in a conservative Texas town and a religious family has taught me a lot about empathy, a theme that I almost always incorporate in my songs.  I believe our ability to imagine ourselves in other people’s shoes is directly connected to our ability to think and act creatively in the world.

What’s the gayest musical thing you’ve ever done?
I wrote a custom-made love song for a gay couple from Cincinnati, Paul and Jack, based on interviews with them.  It’s called “The Men We Used to Be” and it’s on my album “Other People’s Love Songs.”

Was coming out tough or a pleasure?  Sudden or gradual?
Coming out was tough and gradual.  It didn’t really happen until I was 19 years old.  I had internalized a lot of the so-called “Christian” morals that had been taught to me as a child in South Texas.  I thought maybe I was ill and could be cured.  I moved away from Texas to attend Interlochen Arts Academy, where there were (as I hoped there would be) out and proud gay people.  Believe me, at that time there were no out and proud gay people in South Texas, and this was before the internet worked well enough to be a resource for me!  Unfortunately, my first gay relationship was with a Catholic boy who promptly switched sides and blamed me for trying to turn him gay and called me an agent of the Devil.

Fortunately, my parents have come a long way in the last ten years.  I have my very supportive (straight and recently married) brother, Aaron, to thank for that.  I’m not sure about the rest of my family, and I’m not inclined to bring up the subject with them.  I’ve also basically left behind most, if not all, of my friends from growing up in South Texas, although they might be more accepting now.  Only Facebook will tell.

Photo credits:
With flowers: Samatha West
Album cover: Luke Batten and Jonathan Sadler of New Catalogue.
In performance (with Kathleen Spove): Jim Baldassare.

When she walked on stage of the Swyer Theatre in The Egg on Saturday night in Albany, she got down on her knees to discuss — and demonstrate — the difficulty of maintaining proper ergonomics when pleasing a man.  Intimate acts and private body parts continued to be the overarching theme of the night.  For an anatomy lesson a loose and drooping microphone cord became a prop. It was often hysterical, especially when her malleable face punctuated the one-liners.

For the capacity crowd of devoted fans, none of it could have been shocking or unexpected. Cho built her reputation on being blatant, but her single-mindedness felt new.  She’s been married since 2003 and in a recent interview said that it was an exclusive relationship. So one wonders if all that talk of messing around with men and women alike was distant memories, pure imagination or wishful thinking.

Cho’s routine only briefly touched on some other familiar themes — such as her Korean ethnicity and her clueless but loveable mother — that have given her acts more heft and poignancy in the past.  She did speak of being mistaken for other semi-famous Asian women. Her response: “No I’m the one from Grey’s Anatomy.”

Actually, she’s the one from “Drop Dead Diva,” currently running on Lifetime.  Explaining how each episode lately has a female guest star popular with gays, she boosted, “We’re the Gay Pride Edition of the Love Boat.”

Cho’s newest material is original songs, mostly ballads with sweet tunes and raunchy lyrics.  Her singing voice is unexpectedly soft, even lovely. As for the guitar playing, it’s rudimentary strumming, but as she said, if Madonna can do it, how hard can it be?

Two opening acts were surprisingly good. Ian Harvey wasted no time in coming out as a female to male transsexual who likes girls and told of learning to deal with passes from gay men.  Aided by an array of wigs, John Roberts gave a rapid-fire series of impersonations of familiar but annoying archetypes from contemporary life — the vegan lesbian, the gay pride mom, the coked-up comedian.

Harvey and Roberts joined Cho for some final songs, including a tender dialogue between a dog and his owner.  And Cho finally gave one of her best bits, impersonating her mom and for the first time with a wig and granny glasses.

There’s more than just music in the Wainwright gene pool. Also, self-deprecating humor and the general ability to entertain. All this came through Saturday night at The Egg, in the concert by Rufus Wainwright with an opening performance by his half sister Lucy Wainwright Roche. (Their father is the folk singer Loudon Wainwright.)

Lucy offered a handful of fine original folk ballads but she could consider working in stand up comedy as well, or maybe just write a family memoir. Her mom is Suzzy Roche of The Roches, while Rufus’ mom is yet another folkie, Kate McGarrigle. According to Lucy, they all get obsessed analyzing each other’s song lyrics.

But it was Rufus’ night. His fans nearly filled the Hart Auditorium and roared with approval at such signature songs as “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk” and “My Phone’s on Vibrate For You.” His set stretched for more than 90 minutes, featured at least two new songs, plus several numbers with Lucy, and ended with three encores including Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” from the “Shrek” soundtrack.

Wainwright’s many recordings, including last year’s “Release The Stars,” are mostly characterized by original songs in lavish arrangements created with a string of collaborators. But this was a solo night with no backing band or recorded tracks and the material still held up beautifully.

Whether at the piano or with an acoustic guitar, Wainwright proved to be an able instrumentalist as well as a powerful singer. While retaining an immediately recognizable vocal sound, he’s lost most of the nasal wail from a few years ago. In songs like “Beauty Mark” and “Nobody’s Off The Hook,” he went seamlessly from a clear head voice into a warm baritone.

Yet things were frustratingly uneven when trying to catch the inventive imagery of his lyrics. Though every word came through in the politically charged “Going to a Town,” some more romantic ballads were often a mush. Not that he seemed to be hiding anything. Gay cruising and the beauty of men came through regularly.

Like his sister, Wainwright likes to chat with the crowd and his humor and interests were also revealing. He got Michael Phelps’ name wrong but he cheered on Barack Obama, or Barack “Oh-Body!” having liked what he saw of the senator on the beaches of Hawaii.

Originally appeared in Times Union, 8/18/08