K.D. Lang

When K.D. Lang released her first major-label album in 1987, she caused considerable controversy within the traditional world of country music. With her campy approach, androgynous appearance, and edgy, rock-inflected music, very few observers knew what to make of her or her music, although no one questioned her considerable vocal talents. That confusion never quite dissipated over the course of her career, even when she abandoned country music for torchy adult contemporary pop in 1992 with her fourth album, Ingenue.
In early 1986, K.D. recorded her first record, Angel With a Lariat, was produced by Dave Edmunds and appeared in the fall of 1986. The mix of '50s-styled ballads, kitschy rockabilly, and honky tonk numbers on Angel With a Lariat received good reviews, especially from rock critics. The album had heavy support from college radio as well as cutting-edge country stations. Though it was a mainstream hit in Canada and an underground smash in the U.S., Nashville resisted lang, especially her tongue-in-cheek concert appearances. As she was recording her second Nashville album in 1987, lang duetted with Roy Orbison on his old hit "Crying," which was recorded for the film Hiding Out. The single was released at the end of the year and was hit, marking her first appearance on the country charts.
Shadowland, her next album, became a sizable word-of-mouth hit, both in modern country and alternative music circles, which led to it going gold. The following year lang released the harder-edged Absolute Torch and Twang, which increased her mainstream American country audience, in addition to being a college radio and Canadian hit. lang won a Grammy - Best Country Vocal Performance, Female - for the album in 1989, and "Full Moon of Love" became a Top 25 hit in the summer of 1989. Before the release of her fourth album, lang declared that she was a lesbian in an interview in The Advocate, which could have been a risky proposition, since Nashville's industry was notorious for not accepting people that fell outside of the margins of the mainstream. However, the new album was not a country album. Ingenue was a set of adult contemporary pop that owed very little to country. Its first single, "Constant Craving," became a Top 40 American hit and won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, leading the album to platinum status in America, Britain, and Australia.
Ingenue won lang a new audience, but she didn't immediately produce a follow-up to the album. It wasn't until 1995 that lang delivered All You Can Eat, her full-fledged follow-up to Ingenue. All You Can Eat continued the pop direction of its predecessor, showing no traces of country. The was a moderate success, proving that she had a dedicated cult following. lang continued to follow her pop-oriented instincts on 2000's Invincible Summer, while embracing traditional popular standards on 1997's Drag (a collection of songs about smoking) and in her duet with Tony Bennett on his 2001 set Playing With My Friends: Bennett Sings The Blues. (lang also went out on the road with Bennett for a successful co-headlining concert tour.) In 2004, after Lang's contract with Sire Records ran its course, she signed with the artist-friendly Nonesuch imprint and recorded Hymns of the 49th Parallel, a collection of tunes by Canadian songwriters. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

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