Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Rediscovering k.d. lang





About 15-20 years ago, I had a decent collection of k.d. lang (thats how she writes her name, all in lower case), and then some friends came over and gushed over them and borrowed them. As in most things borrowed by friends, you never see them again. I was in New York last week and discovered my kind of candy store, it was a place called Bookoff - they sell second hand books, cds, dvds ... the difference being, they cleaned everything up first, even the cds, so the quality is as good as new. I went there twice in a week and spent hours poring over everything they have. How to beat $3 for a cd or $5 for a dvd, not pirated you know. I think I bought over 80 cds and 10 dvds. There among the ruins, they categorise according to the artiste's name, so it was easy, was a whole row of k.d. lang - I was estatic, grabbed the whole 4 albums taken from me before. I did that as well when I came across David Benoit and Malta, now that's what I call shopping.

Listening to kd lang again after such a long time, wow, she is still fantastic. She is basically a country singer but with genuine talent for harmonies and melodies. If you haven't heard of her before, go and have a listen and be mesmerised. She is like Patsy Cline updated for her times. Her full name is Kathryn Dawn Lang. I cannot describe her voice better than the music critic from New York Post who once said: "Few singers command such perfection of pitch. Her voice, at once beautiful and unadorned and softened with a veil of smoke, invariably hits the middle of a note and remains there. She discreetly flaunted her technique, drawing out notes and shading them from sustained cries into softer, vibrato-laden murmurs."

Enjoy... her music reminds me of ice teas, sitting on the verandah in the afternoon, watching the sunset ...aahhh...






3 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank for writing such kind words about k.d. lang. I'm her manager ... and a very lucky guy to manage the best singer in the world!

skpb said...

Yep Steven, kd is the best there is. Both you and Marin are indeed lucky to have such a outstanding singer in your stable.

skpb said...

Yep Steven, kd is the best there is. Both you and Marin are indeed lucky to have such a outstanding singer in your stable.