Hunter Wine Lure To Lang
Newcastle Herald
Thursday April 10, 2008
CANADIAN songstress k.d. lang was sitting in a Sydney restaurant during her last Australian tour when she ordered a bottle of Italian wine to go with her meal.
But the waiter returned with a different bottle."The waiter said, 'I'm sorry but the people sitting next to you want you to not have Italian wine, and they want you to try this wine instead'," she recalled.The wine in question was from Tempus Two Winery in the Hunter Valley."So I said okay and I tried it and I got a case of it immediately, and my partner Jamie and I devoured that rather quickly."Lang's appreciation of the Hunter Valley wine, and her relationship with the people of Tempus Two who had provided her with her first taste of it, played a big part in prompting the singer-songwriter to agree to perform at the outdoor venue in Pokolbin this weekend."I'm really excited about coming up and performing, I probably won't be able to do too much taste-testing because I'll be singing, but hopefully I'll abscond with a couple of bottles," she laughed.Lang told LIVE she was very particular about what she ate and drank before a show.Her preparations before a show often started first thing in the morning, and were very strict."Oh my God, I'm like a freak I'm like an Olympic athlete," she laughed."I start in the morning I get very, very focused when I'm on the road, warming up as soon as I wake up."I'm careful with what I eat and even how much exercise I do, and how much I talk, because everything is a component of getting ready for the show."I'm very, very strict."Really spicy food I can't have on a show day, really salty food I can't have on a show day, and dairy I can't really have on a show day."Lang said while she didn't want to sound unpatriotic, Australia was actually her favourite place to play in the world."It's definitely the best market for me. I have a really good relationship with Australia for some reason."The people are so great, the shows go so well, and just the food and the wine down here makes everything so much easier and a lot more fun."She kicks off this latest Australian tour, in support of her latest, self-produced release Watershed, with the outdoor concert in the Hunter on Saturday.She is also introducing her brand new "young and enthusiastic" band to Australian audiences on this tour."It's just a really relaxed atmosphere. People can have their picnics and it's not as formal as an indoor concert it's nice."I certainly, as an audience member, like that kind of atmosphere, and as a performer it's nice to break it up and do the outdoor performances as well."On Watershed, lang sounds very content and happy and she has combined the styles she has dabbled in since embarking on her professional career; country, jazz, and Brazilian sounds."There's a lot of contributing factors, but I am feeling very, very content."The record also saw lang move into the production side of the craft."The producing really came as a part of wanting to protect the songs and the early performances that are on the record."A lot of the performances are from the songwriting moments and are the very first recordings of the songs."There's a vulnerability and rawness in them that I wanted to protect and I think in that respect I took on the production as a way of maintaining those performances."There was a direction she wanted the album to take, but it was hard to define."I think that's one of the things that happens when you hire a producer, because then you have to try and translate your ideas to the producer."With that being gone I think what you have is a more clear result in the way that I hear music and where I wanted to take my music which is a real hybrid of styles."While she has sung with Roy Orbison, Burt Bacharach, and her pitch-perfect pipes have been lauded by some of the world's greatest musicians, producers and critics, lang said she was most proud of being able to make music for a living, yet not feeling particularly famous."It's a really nice balance and I think all of the experiences that I've had are great, but really the basic, everyday stuff is my greatest achievement."The youngest of four siblings growing up in a family whose culture was immersed in music, lang knew she was headed in the direction of becoming a professional performer from very early on."It was very much a part of my family fabric," she said.Her duet with Roy Orbison, Crying, catapulted her into the public arena, and her highly acclaimed 2004 album Hymns of the 49th Parallel also featured the songs of Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and Jane Siberry.But instead of the record sounding like a covers album, lang superbly breathed new life into each of the songs."I have to have some sort of emotional relationship with the song, it has to make me feel," she said."I have to really react to the song, I have to feel emotionally connected."K.d. lang plays Tempus Two Winery on Saturday, supported by King Curly and Slava Grigorian from 6.30pm. Tickets are still available through Ticketek. Ticket prices start at $90 for C Reserve, are $145 for B Reserve, and $195 for A Reserve. "There's a vulnerability and rawness in the recordings that I wanted to protect and I think in that respect I took on the production as a way of maintaining those performances."
© 2008 Newcastle Herald
