k.d. lang is back in the studio

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langisms ~ a k.d. lang/arts group

k.d. lang is back in the studio
album due out february 2008

03:36 PM PDT on Thursday, July 19, 2007

By PAUL SAITOWITZ
Special to The Press-Enterprise

Singer k.d. lang's alluring multilayered voice is so
malleable that the singer who first penetrated the
music world as a windblown Canadian country punk is
now safely without a true genre tag.

She's been a part of countless duets -- Roy Orbison,
Madeleine Peyroux and Nellie McKay, to name a few.
She's had a huge adult contemporary hit with 1992's
"Constant Craving." She's taken home Grammy Awards for
Best Female Country Vocal Performance and for Best
Female Pop Vocal Performance. She's even had roles of
varying sizes in a number of films and TV shows.

But she hasn't issued a set of original material in
more than half a decade.

Singer k.d. lang plans for a new record to be
available by February.

Her latest effort, 2006's "Reintarnation," was a
compilation of her early country punk songs. Before
that, 2004's "Hymns of the 49th Parallel" was a set of
covers dedicated to musicians from her native Canada
-- Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, etc. And
2002's "A Wonderful World" was a record of standards
she did with Tony Bennett.

Recently she's been writing songs and spending time in
the studio. The plan is for a new original record to
be available by February.

"I have been doing so many classic songs and when
you're performing that stuff the bar is pretty high,
so now that I'm working on my own songs again I feel
like I'm taking it a little easier," lang said during
a telephone interview. "My own songs actually conjure
up a little bit more invulnerability."

To prepare for the new release and tour, lang is doing
a short stint across the country with old co-hort Lyle
Lovett. He and lang first hit the road together early in their careers in 1986 and have maintained a strong
connection.

Both have sustained careers that float somewhere
between the country, rock and pop worlds.

"We haven't planned on doing any particular songs
together on this tour, but I'm pretty sure you can
expect to see that," she said.

"It's always been really natural when he and I get in
the room together ... it's like some kind of osmosis."


Her choice of touring partner marks a return to her
roots. She is still somewhat supporting
"Reintarnation," though she plans on playing songs
from throughout her career.

Will lang reclaim her alternative country mojo on the
forthcoming release? "The songs I've been working are
really kind of all over the place, which is really
freeing as a writer," she said. "I don't feel like I
have to be pigeonholed into writing songs that fit
into one particular style so I just write what comes
to mind."

Still, lang expects to be mixing in other people's
material for the rest of her career.

"I grew up listening to great singers like Ray
Charles, Linda Ronstadt and Ray Orbison and they found a way to blend the two ... hopefully I'll be able to
stay on that path too," she said.