There was no introduction. k.d. lang walked onstage wearing a plain black and white shirt and black pants. A guitar was slung across her back and she was barefoot. Smiling, lang took her place in front of the microphone at the American Songbook series and suddenly, the lush, warm assurance of her voice filled the Allen Room. She didn't say a word until her fifth song. She didn't have to, her songs tell it all. Consider the line from her opener, "Upstream"—"The punch line is I always swim upstream." Behind her, a crackerjack five-piece band with steel guitar, bass, banjo, percussions, lent the song a bossa nova sway.

Like her latest CD, Watershed, lang presented bits and pieces of her life and her career, from the country music days that ended in disappointment to the mature optimism nestled within her poetic, intensely personal and articulate lyrics. She gave a nod to her fellow Canadian writers, including the emotional songs of Jean Siberry and her reverential rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." Singing Neil Young's "Helpless," she recalled the comfort of a prairie town in north Ontario.

This, like all her songs, is inhabited with honesty and passion, with phrasing, shading and articulation. She has a range of deep resonance that soars to celestial heights and lulls to a hypnotic line in the spellbinding "Close Your Eyes" and "Thread." She delivered songs of throaty lament, like, "Wash me Clean," immaculate and haunting with, "You swim/ Swim through my veins," and the rhythmic, "Constant Craving," written with Ben Mink. She had fun singing, "Smoke Rings" (Gene Gifford/Ned Washington) with keyboardist Daniel Clarke on accordion, a sly '40's mix of sex and humor—"Puff, puff, puff, puff your cares away."

lang has an understated sense of humor, a confidence as she wanders he stage, connecting with musicians and audience. She asked if it was all right to come off the stage and sing before the front tables. She ventured even further into the audience, up the steps, singing to the audience.

Speaking of the influence of Buddhism and her dedication to happiness, peace and self-confidence, k.d. lang saluted the universal human spirit.

k.d. lang appeared at Jazz at Lincoln Center on February 26, 27, 28, 2008

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Cabaret Scenes
February 26, 2008
www.cabaretscenes.org