After the first time I went to see k.d. lang in concert (this is a few years ago now), I swore that if she ever performed near me again, I would always make the effort to go. Hers is a voice of a purity and strength that you rarely hear in popular music; it almost belongs in opera. Last night was the third time I have seen her and once again, it seemed utterly effortless. A soaring thing of beauty, her melifluous tones are as perfect as I imagine Streisand's would have been in 1986, but with burnished with a rich, warm fireside glow. It's also emotional: her version of Roy Orbison's Cryin' has had me doing just that when I have heard her sing it, and I am no weepy type.
As is inevitable at a k.d. concert, the crowd was chiefly female, though bizarrely in my corner of seats, I was surrounded by gay men. Maybe they decided to ghetto-ise us? I didn't see too many elsewhere. One thing was for sure, the five guys (I use the word advisedly!) on stage with our chanteuse were the heterosexuals in the room. k.d. introduced the band, then chatted with the audience, commenting how unusually quiet they were. Like a red rag to a bull, as she swung her guitar round to begin the next number, one cat-caller screeched: 'strap it on, baby!,' rendering our hostess utterly speechless. Well, she asked for it.
k.d.'s new record only came out on Monday and I had managed to listen to it twice, but still, at the show, the songs were effectively new to me, with the exception of I dream of Spring, and that kind of experience is a bit of a risk. What if she had made a twangy Bluegrass record? Or if it was a self-produced indulgence, devoid of melody and quality control? In addition, I went to the show with a friend who knows but a handful of her songs, so I was a little concerned what he would think. I'm always concerned for my fellow passengers (that Amy show last November had me apologising). However, on both counts, I needn't have worried. My companion for the evening was in seven shades of ecstasy, dying to go out and buy Watershed. And what about those new songs? The new record is tight and clean, with a variety of themes and styles. I've got all her post-Ingenue solo albums and listening again today, this is the first self-penned one that seems totally unforced, like she noodled about and did what she liked, till it was perfect.
And with a literally self-produced self-confidence, she seemed unshackled by the need to sing a set of greatest hits, instead relying on these strong new songs for the backbone of the show. In addition, she did three from the epic and brilliant Hymns of the 49th Parallel: Helpless, The valley and Hallelujah, but alas not Love is everything. Cryin' was also left off the set list, which was a little disappointing, but looking back, it was those second two Canadian songs which anchored the show and gave me my 'wow' moment (maybe that was enough with the cover versions at that point). As she crested the final chorus of The valley... 'we will walk in good company' ... it was clear to me, and most of the audience, how true that really was.
My first concert of 2008: a high benchmark to begin with.
k.d. lang The valley
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