k.d. lang and the Reclines (1983–1989) Lang answered Jim Alexander's classified ad in the Edmonton Journal looking for a singer for his country-swing band. After a show at Devil's Lake Corral which drew over 500 people, lang joined with label owner and manager Larry Wanagas to form a Patsy Cline
tribute band, the Reclines, in 1983. They recorded their debut single, "Friday Dance Promenade", at Sundown Recorders. The first band featured Stu Macdougal on keys, Dave Bjarnason on drums, Gary Koligar on guitar and bassist Farley Scott. The Reclines regularly played Edmonton's popular Sidetrack Cafe, a local venue that featured live bands six nights a week. In 1983, lang presented a performance-art piece, a seven-hour re-enactment of the transplantation of an
artificial heart for Barney Clark, a retired American dentist.
A Truly Western Experience was released in 1984 and received strong reviews and led to national attention in Canada. In August 1984, lang was one of three Canadian artists to be selected to perform at the World Science Fair in
Tsukuba, Japan (along with other performing and recording contracts throughout Japan). Singing at
country and western venues in Canada, lang began to establish an appearance and style referred to as "cowboy punk". She was called a "Canadian
Cowpunk" in the June 20, 1985, issue of
Rolling Stone. She would later recall the inspiration for her defining look in an interview with the
Canadian Press: "I used to sew plastic cowboys and Indians on my clothes – just having fun with it on a budget. I was broke at the time, so I'd find things at
Value Village or get my mom to make me a skirt from the curtains she was about to throw out. I loved playing with the clothes as much as the music." Lang's career received a huge boost when
Roy Orbison chose her to record a duet of his standard,
"Crying", a collaboration that won them the
Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals in 1989. The song was used in the
Jon Cryer film
Hiding Out released in 1987. Due to the success of the song, lang received the Entertainer of the Year award from the
Canadian Country Music Association. Lang would win the same award for the next three years, in addition to two Female Vocalist of the Year awards in 1988 and 1989. 1988 marked the release of
Shadowland, an album of torch country produced by
Owen Bradley. In late 1988,
Shadowland was named Album of the Year by the Canadian Country Music Association. That year she also performed "Turn Me Round" at the closing ceremonies of the
XV Winter Olympics in
Calgary, Alberta, and sang background vocals with
Jennifer Warnes and
Bonnie Raitt for Orbison's acclaimed television special,
Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night. Lang first earned international recognition in 1988 when she performed as "The Alberta Rose" at the closing ceremonies of the
Winter Olympics. Canadian women's magazine
Chatelaine selected lang as its "Woman of the Year" in 1988. In 1990, lang contributed the song "
So in Love" to the
Cole Porter tribute album
Red Hot + Blue produced by the
Red Hot Organization. In 1998, she contributed "Fado Hilário" to the AIDS benefit compilation album
Onda Sonora: Red Hot + Lisbon produced by the same organization. In 1991, lang and
Jane Siberry collaborated on the song "
Calling All Angels", which originally appeared on the soundtrack for the film
Until the End of the World. The song was also included on Siberry's 1993 album
When I Was a Boy.
Grammy Awards and mainstream success Lang won the
Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for her 1989 album
Absolute Torch and Twang. The single "
Full Moon Full of Love" that stemmed from that album became a modest hit in the United States in the middle of 1989 and a Number 1 hit on the
RPM Country chart in Canada. In 1989, she sang a duet, "Sin City", with
Dwight Yoakam on his album ''Just Lookin' for a Hit''. The 1992 album
Ingénue, a set of adult-oriented pop songs that showed comparatively little country influence, contained her most popular song, "
Constant Craving". That song brought her multi-million sales and much critical acclaim. Coming out as
lesbian the same year saw several US country stations banning her music, and she faced a picket line outside the
1993 Grammy Awards ceremony where she would receive the
Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Another top ten single from the record was "Miss Chatelaine". The
salsa-inspired track was ironic;
Chatelaine, a women's magazine, once chose lang as its "Woman of the Year", and the song's video depicted lang in an exaggeratedly feminine manner, surrounded by bright pastel colours and a profusion of bubbles reminiscent of a performance on
The Lawrence Welk Show. She received a writing credit for
the Rolling Stones 1997 song, "
Anybody Seen My Baby?", whose chorus sounds similar to "Constant Craving". Jagger and Richards claimed to have never heard the song before and when they discovered the similarity prior to the song's release, were flummoxed as to how the songs could be so similar. Jagger discovered his daughter listening to a recording of "Constant Craving" on her stereo and realized he had heard the song before many times but only subliminally. The two gave lang credit, along with her co-writer
Ben Mink, to avoid any possible lawsuits. Afterwards, lang said she was "completely honoured and flattered" to receive the songwriting credit. She contributed much of the music towards
Gus Van Sant's soundtrack of the film
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, and also did a cover of "
Skylark" for the 1997 film adaptation of
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. She performed "Surrender" for the closing titles of the
James Bond film
Tomorrow Never Dies. In 1997,
Drag, an album of cover tunes dedicated to "smoke" (specifically cigarette smoking), was released. The album cover and booklet photographs show lang in a man's suit, referring to
cross-dressing as another possible meaning of the word "drag". The songs on
Drag include "Smoke Dreams", from the '40s,
Steve Miller Band's "
The Joker", "Smoke Rings", the theme from the
cult film Valley of the Dolls, and eight other smoke-themed songs. In 1999, lang ranked No. 33 on ''
VH-1's 100 Greatest Women in Rock & Roll
, and she ranked No. 26 on CMT's 40 Greatest Women in Country Music'' in 2002, one of eight women to make both lists. Throughout all her success, Lang continued to perform barefoot.
2000s In 2003, she won her fourth Grammy Award, for
Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for her collaboration with
Tony Bennett on
A Wonderful World. In 2004,
Stephen Holden of
The New York Times wrote: "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. She balanced her commitment to the material with humor, projecting a twinkling merriment behind it all." In the same year, lang released
Hymns of the 49th Parallel, which featured cover versions of songs by iconic English-speaking Canadian singer-songwriters:
Bruce Cockburn,
Leonard Cohen,
Joni Mitchell,
Ron Sexsmith,
Jane Siberry, and
Neil Young. According to the Canadian Record Industry Association (CRIA), in April 2006, the album went platinum in Canada selling over 100,000 copies. In December 2007, the album reached double platinum status in Australia selling over 140,000 copies. Also in 2004, she sang the song "Little Patch of Heaven" for the
Disney film
Home on the Range. On July 29, 2006, lang performed her hit "Constant Craving" at the opening ceremonies of the
Outgames held in
Montreal,
Quebec, Canada. In 2006, she paired with singer
Madeleine Peyroux on a cover of the Joni Mitchell song "
River", for Peyroux's album,
Half the Perfect World. That same year lang was featured in
Nellie McKay's second album,
Pretty Little Head, singing with McKay in "We Had it Right". As well, lang sang a version of
The Beatles' "
Golden Slumbers" for the
Happy Feet film soundtrack. She also sang a duet with
Ann Wilson on the
Heart singer's solo album
Hope & Glory covering the
Lucinda Williams song "Jackson". In 2007, she teamed up with one of her childhood idols,
Anne Murray, on a remake of Anne's hit, "
A Love Song", that was featured on Anne's album
Anne Murray Duets: Friends & Legends. On February 5, 2008, she released an album of new material entitled
Watershed. It was her first collection of original material since the release of her 2000 album
Invincible Summer.
2010s Lang's first complete greatest-hits collection was released on February 2, 2010, on the Nonesuch label as
Recollection. In 2010, she was in Nashville, working on a new album, titled
Sing it Loud. The Nonesuch album was released by lang and the Siss Boom Bang in a spring 2011 release. The band toured North America in summer 2011. In 2012, she moved from Los Angeles to
Portland, Oregon. In 2016, lang collaborated with
Neko Case and
Laura Veirs on the album project
case/lang/veirs. She participated in the Leonard Cohen memorial celebration "Tower Of Song" in Quebec in November 2017, performing "
Hallelujah". She is featured in the song "Lightning Fields" by
The Killers from their 2020 album
Imploding the Mirage. In the song, her verse begins with the line: "Don't beat yourself up, you laid good ground" and continues for several more lines.
Makeover, a collection of classic dance remixes made from 1992 to 2000, was released on May 28, 2021. 2021 also saw a number of lang's earlier recordings reissued on vinyl.
Semi-retirement In 2019, lang said in an interview that she considers herself semi-retired and may not be writing and recording new songs in the future. "I'm not feeling any particular urge to make music right now. The muse is eluding me. I am completely at peace with the fact that I may be done." ==Film and television appearances==