July 23, 2008
We are constantly reminded by the ghastly profusion of programmes like The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent that an enormous number of people think they can sing; and quite a large number of people actually can sing, more or less. But here’s the thing – no-one can sing like k.d. lang.
Her voice is not only unique – perhaps some genetic experiment that managed to combine the voices of Patsy Cline and Peggy Lee, with just a smidge of Frank Sinatra, would have got somewhere close – but is an instrument of unparalleled technical virtuosity. From the very first note you are simply spell-bound by the heart-stopping beauty of the tone – rich, warm, golden, smokey, incredibly expressive of the pain of longing and betrayal – and also by what she can do with it; her perfect pitch, which never failed through an hour and a half of constant song, through deep notes and high, through gentle, thrillingly resonant murmurs and through full-on, brilliantly sustained power. (She would hold the microphone at a distance from her mouth for the most powerful notes, presumably in case she blew the sound system.)
This is clearly someone very committed to her craft, a superb master of it, who doesn’t leave anything to chance – her band of musicians were also master craftsmen, who between them were playing a wonderfully diverse array of instruments, from double-bass to banjo, by way of slide steel guitar and grand piano – but she was refreshingly unprecious about it, gently self-mocking, very direct and good-humoured and down-to-earth when she spoke to her audience.
The bulk of that audience were clearly fans, who greeted each new song with the delighted applause of long familiarity – I have to say I kind of lost touch with Lang’s career after the epochal Shadowlands, but everything she performed tonight was a marvel, including Western Stars, Constant Regret, Miss Chatelaine, Smoke Rings, and an absolutely show-topping rendition of Leonard Cohen’s Halleluia, which got her a well-deserved standing ovation. She’s famously a very plain looking woman, and no-one’s going to write home about her dress sense either, but I am here to tell you that when she finished each song and smiled at the audience as they were demonstrating how delighted they had been, she was just beautiful.
My only tiny niggle was that the pace of her selection was of a muchness, consistently balad, and it would have been nice to vary it a bit with something a tad more upbeat – and I wish I could have heard my very favourite song, Last Cigarette – but this really is just a niggle – it was a superb evening’s entertainment from a gigantic talent.
Her voice is not only unique – perhaps some genetic experiment that managed to combine the voices of Patsy Cline and Peggy Lee, with just a smidge of Frank Sinatra, would have got somewhere close – but is an instrument of unparalleled technical virtuosity. From the very first note you are simply spell-bound by the heart-stopping beauty of the tone – rich, warm, golden, smokey, incredibly expressive of the pain of longing and betrayal – and also by what she can do with it; her perfect pitch, which never failed through an hour and a half of constant song, through deep notes and high, through gentle, thrillingly resonant murmurs and through full-on, brilliantly sustained power. (She would hold the microphone at a distance from her mouth for the most powerful notes, presumably in case she blew the sound system.)
This is clearly someone very committed to her craft, a superb master of it, who doesn’t leave anything to chance – her band of musicians were also master craftsmen, who between them were playing a wonderfully diverse array of instruments, from double-bass to banjo, by way of slide steel guitar and grand piano – but she was refreshingly unprecious about it, gently self-mocking, very direct and good-humoured and down-to-earth when she spoke to her audience.
The bulk of that audience were clearly fans, who greeted each new song with the delighted applause of long familiarity – I have to say I kind of lost touch with Lang’s career after the epochal Shadowlands, but everything she performed tonight was a marvel, including Western Stars, Constant Regret, Miss Chatelaine, Smoke Rings, and an absolutely show-topping rendition of Leonard Cohen’s Halleluia, which got her a well-deserved standing ovation. She’s famously a very plain looking woman, and no-one’s going to write home about her dress sense either, but I am here to tell you that when she finished each song and smiled at the audience as they were demonstrating how delighted they had been, she was just beautiful.
My only tiny niggle was that the pace of her selection was of a muchness, consistently balad, and it would have been nice to vary it a bit with something a tad more upbeat – and I wish I could have heard my very favourite song, Last Cigarette – but this really is just a niggle – it was a superb evening’s entertainment from a gigantic talent.