 Over the last twenty years, k.d. lang
has lent her voice to an astonishing range of material, from
Nashville tearjerkers to Tin Pan Alley torch songs, from
playful cow-punk tunes to sultry, grown-up pop. With her
Nonesuch debut Hymns of the 49th
Parallel, the Alberta native brings it all back home,
metaphorically speaking, exploring the work of her favorite
Canadian songwriters: Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Neil
Young, Bruce Cockburn, Ron Sexsmith, and Jane Siberry. She
juxtaposes classics from iconic artists who were her
inspirations with equally brilliant material from
contemporary performers who remain her fellow travelers.
"These songs are part of my cultural fabric, my Canadian
soundtrack," k.d. lang says. "They have nurtured my musical DNA.
To recognize and honor the profound impact they have had on
me, my approach to interpreting these songs is to sing them
as honestly, as purely, and as true to how I heard them as
possible, with respect and reverence for the songs and for
the songwriters...as hymns...simply songs of praise."
k.d. lang was initially inspired to pursue this project after
touring with longtime collaborator Tony Bennett, with whom
she had recorded the 2002 duet album A Wonderful World,
a collection of standards popularly identified with Louis
Armstrong. k.d. lang told the Toronto Star, "It led me to
thinking about the Canadian songbook and my own musical
heritage. The more I thought about it, the more I thought
about the people who influenced me and my culture."
She considers it "a singer's job to cultivate standards
by interpreting" and on Hymns she does her job exceptionally
well. k.d. lang offers some of the most affecting vocal
performances of her career, thereby ensuring that all of
these personally treasured tunes will be appreciated for a
considerable time to come. She emphasizes the poignancy and
gravity of "After the Gold Rush," Young's cautionary tale of
environmental disaster, and renders Cohen's "Hallelujah"
even more compelling by taking it down to an intimate,
sensual scale. k.d. lang makes Cockburn's "One Day I Walk" a
plainspoken prayer and brings both worldliness and
vulnerability to Mitchell's "A Case of You," a barroom
soliloquy in which heart-sickness and homesickness
intermingle.
While it's thrilling to hear k.d. lang tackle this vintage
material, perhaps the most revelatory moments on Hymns
are also the most contemporary. She deftly negotiates the
musical and emotional twists and turns of friend Siberry's
gorgeous "The Valley" and delivers a rendition of Siberry's
"Love Is Everything" that's as otherworldly as k.d. lang's famous
cover of Roy Orbison's "Crying." (k.d. lang and Siberry have
worked together before: in 1991, the pair collaborated on
another hymn of sorts, the incantatory "Calling All Angels,"
for Wim Wenders' film, Until the End of the World.) She also
revisits her own "Simple," co-written with bassist David
Piltch, a no-minced-words declaration of love that she
originally recorded in 2000 for her dreamily romantic pop
collection, Invincible Summer.
She pored over the work of many artists before choosing
these songs. In the process, k.d. lang told The Rocky Mountain
News, she discovered "this thread that runs through
Canadian songwriting that is really beautiful. It's their
inherent understanding and incorporation of nature and the
elements into the songwriting to express emotions, both
spiritual and human." One can find it,
for example, in the austere seasonal imagery of
Sexsmith's "Fallen" or the moving evocation of a town left
behind that opens Young's "Helpless." For the album's cover,
k.d. lang chose a photograph by Andy Goldsworthy, whose
minimalist image of a winter pastoral scene struck k.d. lang as a
visual analog of the naturalism that unites Canadian
songwriters.
k.d. lang cut the tracks during five days of sessions at a Los
Angeles studio in May 2003. Accompanying her was a small
group of players who have recorded and/or toured with k.d. lang
for many years: pianist Teddy Borowiecki, bassist Piltch,
and guitarist and co-producer Ben Mink. Except for a version
of Joni Mitchell's "Jericho," drums are pointedly absent
from these tracks. As k.d. lang explained to the Toronto Star, "I
didn't want to use drums because I felt that drums would
instantly attach each song to a genre...I wanted each song
to stand on its own." However, they do feature strings,
arranged and conducted with understated grace by Eumir
Deodato, a veteran of sessions with artists ranging from
Astrud Gilberto to Aretha Franklin. "I wanted to express the
elegance that the songs all have," k.d. lang says. "Eumir Deodato
has an amazing capacity to understand the intimacy of a
track."
In May 2004, k.d. lang embarked on a symphony orchestra tour
of North America, relying on Deodato's subtle arrangements
to showcase selections from Hymns as part of a
career-spanning set. Along with Borowiecki and Piltch, k.d. lang
is joined on tour by guitarist Greg Leisz and drummer Danny
Frankel—as well as by a locally based symphony orchestra in
each city she visits. Early reviews have been stellar: The
New York Times called her "entrancing" and the Toronto Star
praised her "astonishing infallibility" as a vocalist.
As her audiences at prestigious venues such as Carnegie
Hall indicate, k.d. lang attracts a loyal and diverse,
multi-generational following. A multi-Grammy Award-winner,
she's recorded more than thirteen albums, including
collections of straight-up country (Shadowland), urbane
adult pop (Ingenue, which featured the hit "Constant
Craving"), sophisticated torch (Drag), and just a little
disco (for the soundtrack of Gus Van Sant's Even Cowgirls
Get the Blues). Hymns of the 49th Parallel
illustrates k.d. lang's impeccable taste and reveals the deepest
roots of her craft. For the length of an album at least,
there's no place like home.
—Michael Hill
Contact Grabow for more information or to book k.d. lang
for your next corporate or private event.
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