Rufus Wainwright, in an appearance Thursday night at Lawrence’s Liberty Hall, demonstrated the talent and personality that guarantee his continued cult status and may give rise to an even wider audience.

With an immense personal charm that’s more self-effacing than arrogant and casual good looks, Wainwright is instantly likable.

Wainwright’s light touch and relaxed storytelling makes even risqugay humor nonthreatening.

A strong singer, his reedy baritone is better suited to mid-tempo folk-rockers like “California” and up-tempo pop songs such as “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk” than to ballads, where he tends to write to the middle of his range save for the occasional flourish.

Wainwright is the son of folksinger Kate McGarrigle and masterful singer/songwriter Loudon Wainwright III, best known for his career embarrassment “Dead Skunk In The Middle Of The Road.”

The younger Wainwright performed “One Man Guy” from the elder’s 1984 album, “I’m Alright.”

Wainwright’s sister Martha sang backup vocals and played acoustic guitar in the band, which also included Teddy Thompson on guitar. Teddy is the son of noted guitarist Richard Thompson.

A high point of Thursday’s show was a performance of “Hallelujah,” written by Leonard Cohen, whom Wainwright described as “the greatest living poet.”

Wainwright, born in New York but raised in Montreal, demonstrated his bilingual proficiency by performing his French “Complainte De La Butte,” his contribution to the film “Moulin Rouge.”

After the end of a set that included numerous, humorous celebrity anecdotes (Bob Dylan, Yoko Ono and Elton John), a heartfelt rendering of the Beatles’ “Across The Universe,” and closed with his excellent “April Fools,” Wainwright returned for an encore highlighted by the raucous “Instant Pleasure,” from the soundtrack of the Adam Sandler film “Big Daddy.”