There is a paucity of quality female vocalists in the music charts today. While Britney and Beyonce break out their booty to make a buck, one woman stands alone.Canadian k.d. lang, now 46, performed the final date of her Australasian tour in Auckland to a near sell-out crowd.Devoting more than half of the 90-minute set to new material from her latest album, Watershed, a barefooted lang enraptured the audience with her remarkable vocal range.Pitch-perfect and soulful, Upstream, Thread and Coming Home saw her conquer early nerves and open up to the crowd.It was four songs in before lang finally had a chat, thanking the "good people of Auckland" and reminding them of the merchandise on offer in the foyer. But she needn't have worried.A delve into her classic 1992 album Ingenue brought Wash me Clean and Miss Chatelaine out from the archives, but the pinnacle of the show was still to come.Having introduced her outstanding five-piece band to the audience, lang paid tribute to Canadian songwriter Jane Siberry, whose work, The Valley, lang covered on 2004 album Hymns of the 49th Parallel. Her rendition was nothing short of magnificent, as the vocal swung from powerful to delicate.
A standing ovation 12 songs into the show was a fitting tribute.Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, also from Hymns, was next. And although the odd note was a bit ropey, at this point she could easily be forgiven.Familiar favourite Constant Craving picked up the pace, and a humorous, hillbilly acoustic number, Pay Dirt, got a few laughs, as did Jealous Dog, summing up "life as k.d. lang". The singer also displayed her newly acquired banjo skills.But momentum was lost with a couple of low-key encores. Tony Bennett's A Kiss to Build a Dream On and Shadow and the Frame, from Watershed, didn't overly stretch lang, and after 19 songs it was over.Whether you know of lang as a lesbian, a gay activist, an animal rights campaigner or a pro-Tibet protester, at the end of the day, who cares? She is one of the few artists whose live performances outshine her recorded studio work, and for that she should be celebrated. In one word ... genius.
