A reformed cowgirl reflects

The distinctive sound of kd lang's rich voice transcends every divide she has crossed, while she draws no distinction between genres. And, as her 50th birthday nears, she is looking forward to hearing her ageing voice, writes TONY CLAYTON-LEA

BY HER OWN admission, farmer’s daughter kd lang isn’t a prolific songwriter. She says she finds it an arduous experience, and prefers to live a quiet and private lifestyle: “I like to paint, cook, hang out with my dogs and swim. It’s normal. Once I get into the momentum of going on the road again, though, I love it. It’s always difficult to shift into the road frame of mind, but once I get going it’s amazing; I feel better physically and it’s actually quite rejuvenating. When I’m in the middle of on-the-road stuff I can’t even fathom why I live a quiet life. When I’m at home and have been reclusive for a time, however, I can’t imagine going back on the road. Once I make the transition, I’m fine wherever I am.”

It is lang’s transitory nature that has kept her on the straight and narrow path for most of her career. A little bit mainstream, a little bit niche, a little bit torch singer, a little bit country, she has dabbled in many music styles without coming across like a frantic dilettante. Another chapter in her career has opened with the recent release of Recollection, a comprehensive career retrospective that gathers together across three discs most of her many fine moments in song. There is a crude if often true rule of thumb that states a retrospective is the end of one thing and the start of another, the shaping of a life’s work in a neat and digestible chunk; lang, however, doesn’t see it that way.

“I don’t really think that’s the case here,” she says. “I’ve been with my record company for 25 years, we knew the Winter Olympics was coming up, and we thought it was a good opportunity to put those two things together – the celebration of a career with the celebration of the event. The primary good thing was the structure of the album – the first disc was my proper releases over the years, the second was soundtracks and duets and tributes and so forth, and the third disc was gems and live stuff. The structure gave us a lot more clarity. It also introduced me to people who might regard me as being one particular type of singer. But that wasn’t really part of the commercial reason behind it. It might have been on someone else’s behalf, but not mine. To me, there are no distinctions between genres.”

It has been that way from the start. Born in Consort, Alberta, Canada, in 1961, by her teenage years lang had become a skilled guitarist and pianist, and had dipped her toes in the classical and avant garde areas before deciding that her preferred method of self-expression would be through country music. But not any old country music. Like many people of her generation, she grew up with a dread of the genre, but as years passed its constituent parts – the wear and tear of love, the grind of life – began to appeal.

Her 1984 debut, A Truly Western Experience, was followed after three years by Angel With A Lariat; both records consciously avoided your average country music adornments, which meant many country radio stations refused to play them. 1988’s Shadowland seduced the most resistant programme controller, however, with its creamy Nashville textures (overseen by famed country producer Owen Bradley) and guest appearances from country music touchstones Loretta Lynn and Kitty Wells. 1989’s Absolute Torch And Twang converted even more of the disbelievers, but the intervening period between that album and the genesis of her next record (1992’s Ingénue) produced a stylistic about-face that replaced cowboy chaps with dinner-party frocks.

Trading Loretta Lynn for Peggy Lee, Ingénue was far removed from country music. It went on to win a Grammy and many other awards, although its concomitant success didn’t rest too easily on lang’s shoulders. She remembers such success, essentially, as not being able to align properly other people’s expectations of her with her own expectations of herself. By this point, she had come out as a lesbian and this, coupled with her emerging faith in Buddhism and her assertive stance on animal rights, placed her in line for anyone who wished to make a sarcastic remark.

What was she like in her early days? Was she as typically gauche, naive, insecure and unfocused as most people are before life and experience kick in? “No, in fact I was completely and utterly focused on the job at hand,” she replies, “and really full of energy and creativity. I was absolutely certain that I was going to succeed. The arrogance of youth? Probably there was arrogance and confidence, but really it was determination. It was my lifelong dream to be successful and have a career of the kind I have.

“As an artist, there is always a thread of dissatisfaction. There are things that I would still like to accomplish musically. My proximity and friendship with the likes of people such as Peggy Lee and Owen Bradley – who, when I worked with them, were in their 80s – rubs off on me. As a singer that’s something I definitely am focused on, to be able to maintain my voice through my life.” She maintains the quality and standard of the vocals through quite a level of discipline that has to be applied to the process. It’s a matter, she explains, of monitoring everyday life around the voice – what is eaten, the level of exercise, sleep, intake of what she unfashionably terms “libations”, and how and what she chooses to sing. These are all factors that impinge, she remarks, on the evolution and longevity of the voice.

Does lang know where her gift as a singer comes from? “As a Buddhist, I believe in sound and emptiness, so it’s obviously something that I guess resonates with me, as in being able to soothe or anoint people with my voice. Touching people with music is something I take most definitely on a spiritual level.

“For me, singing and spirituality are absolutely inseparable, and it was always that way. I’ve been a Buddhist my whole life, but have been a practitioner for 10 years. It makes me more grounded, more focused, more purposeful, and kind of refines life for me. It also makes me less self-consuming and ego-driven. It’s more about a greater purpose and a larger responsibility on a grander scale.”

WAS THERE EVER EGO and self-gratification at some point? “Sure there was,” she laughs. “I’m human.” She has long since found a balance, however. “There is a lot of fodder out there to level you – whether it’s criticism from the press or from your lover, or even not feeling completely confident in your own heart. The worst? It’s definitely your own voice, your internal editor/critic. I’m pretty hard on myself.”

She allows herself a moment of unselfish pride when the topic of officially opening the recent Winter Olympics is broached. “As a Canadian representing Canada, yes, of course I was proud of that, but as a human being, given the opportunity to connect with three billion other human beings – well, that was pretty incredible, and is not something many people get the chance to do. It was something I took on board very deeply. I wanted to do my best, and with my best intentions and motivations in place.”

The song lang performed was Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. Her version was first heard on her 2004 covers album, Hymns of the 49th Parallel, predating the song’s ubiquity courtesy of talent show amateurs and karaoke singers. It is fair to say that her version gently takes it out of Cohen’s arms and is now virtually her own. Was that her aim? “I don’t really see it that way,” she says. “I imagine that when Summertime first came out it got covered in the same frenzied manner, but time is the determining factor in what songs have staying power, and whose version is deemed to be the best. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter, and it certainly wasn’t my intention to try to own the song. It was just a song that moved me.” The sense that Hallelujah might become too much of a burden through its status as a showcase staple of her concerts is borne out by lang deciding to “retire” it from her set quite soon.

“I’ve been singing it for four years now, and certainly the performance at the Olympics was some sort of pinnacle. Obviously, there will be a lot of people expecting me to sing that song, but I’ve alerted my managers to the fact that, at this point, its life is short-lived.”

Next year sees lang celebrate her 50th birthday. Although “celebrate” might not be the word to use, she implies. “It’s just a number. Forty-five was a big thing for me, actually, because as a youngster I read that 45 was the prime of a woman’s voice, so for that reason I felt it was a romantic and dramatic age. Fifty, however, means nothing to me. I feel like I have a long way to go, if I’m lucky. And I feel I haven’t achieved certain things yet. Personally, I’m looking forward to the sound of my voice when I’m older.”

Recollection is on Nonesuch Records