Greg Leisz

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Greg Leisz playing in the studio for John Mayer album

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The Forest Rangers – Greg Leisz

http://www.theforestrangers.com/greg.html

Greg Leisz is the Forest Ranger who actually served as a forest ranger for the US Parks Department. He perfected his craft on long and lonely stints in the Pacific Northwest wilderness. The word “ubiquitous” is usually placed in front of pedal steel player and guitarist Leisz’s name. And with good reason: His résumé is daunting, boasting spots with Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Joni Mitchell, Rosanne Cash, Ray LaMontagne, Dave Alvin, k.d. lang, Wilco, Bill Frissell, and the Ventures, to name a few. Not to be pigeonholed in just roots music, Leisz has also played with the likes of Beck, Matthew Sweet, Bad Religion, Smashing Pumpkins, and Brian Wilson.

Leisz spent his younger years catching acts like the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers in Southern California clubs. Part of his universal appeal — which certainly draws on the experimental nature of those influences — comes from an open-minded approach to lap and pedal steel, one that casts aside Nashville references. Leisz is also something of a stylistic chameleon: You can’t pin down a distinctive style for him because he chooses to serve and accompany a song rather than place his mark on it. His creativity and open- mindedness as a musician have allowed him to rove genres, usually in a manner not accorded renowned steel players.

In 2010, the Americana Music Awards bestowed the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award For Instrumentalist on Greg. Not bad for a Forest Ranger…

 

 

 

“If there was a house band playing at the Sons of Anarchy’s clubhouse every Friday night, the Forest Rangers would be the band,” says Bob Thiele. The Rangers – heard almost every week on the popular FX drama “Sons of Anarchy,” and prominently featured on Columbia Records’ soundtrack album for the show – wouldn’t be out of place hanging at the Teller-Morrow clubhouse in Charming, CA. And Thiele – who composes the show’s music and acts as leader of the Forest Rangers – could be considered the group’s equivalent of SAMCRO leader Clay Morrow himself.

The Rangers had their genesis when Thiele – a longtime fixture of the L.A. music scene, and son of the legendary producer, songwriter, and label executive Bob Thiele – and guitarist Dave Kushner of Velvet Revolver co-wrote the theme for “Sons of Anarchy.” Thiele was also drafted to compose original music for the show and direct recording for the series.

“By the time of the sixth or seventh episode of the first season,” Thiele says, “I began to see that this could be a continuing thing. This is an entity that has a defined sound. It has a core group of members. So why not?”

He adds, “If we hadn’t come up with a good name, we probably never would have had a band! There was a band back in the ’90s called Plexi that used to play on the Sunset Strip, they were a pretty good band. And they had a song called ‘Forest Ranger.’ Dave and I both liked the band and loved the song, and said, ‘How about that for a name?'”

Most of the “members” of the Forest Rangers – who to date have never played a live show, but wouldn’t mind if you asked – have long associations with Thiele and with each other.

“We all played with each other in the studio – on various records, demos, whatever,” Thiele explains.

“I go back with Davey Faragher to when I first moved out to L.A. 26 years ago. We landed on a session together – it was Lou Reed and Sam Moore doing ‘Soul Man.’ Davey was playing bass and I was playing all of Steve Cropper’s stuff on guitar. Phil Shenale and I have worked together for over 20 years. We were in the Royal Macadamians together. He can do anything!”

“I’ve known guitarist Greg Leisz for a long time. I was producing an album for Curtis Stigers at Columbia in 1998, and Greg was in the band. He’s just a phenomenal musician. And he was a forest ranger — real forest ranger! I found that out after the fact. Lyle Workman is blindingly good. He’s somebody I’d always wanted to play with, and never did until the Forest Rangers came up. We got together on the version of ‘Fortunate Son’ that’s in season one. He’s an incredibly versatile guitar player.”

“Drummer Brian MacLeod is one of these guys who plays really soulful but rock-hard. He’s very unique. For me, he plays like a band drummer. He doesn’t feel like a studio guy.”

Floating members include singers Katey Sagal (“Gemma Morrow” of “SoA,” and a former backup vocalist for Bob Dylan and Bette Midler), Curtis Stigers (the lead voice on “This Life,” the “Sons of Anarchy” theme), Gia Ciambotti, Kim Yarborough, and Billy Valentine; guitarists Val McCallum and Blake Mills; bassist Bob Glaub; and drummer Pete Thomas.

Engineer-producer Dave Way plays an important role in recording and shaping the Forest Rangers’ music, Thiele says: “Dave knows how to keep this thing moving. He’s got a home studio off Mulholland Drive, in a garage. Brian MacLeod says the Forest Rangers motto is, ‘Putting music back where it belongs: in the garage.'”

The music the Forest Rangers make is defined by the narrative demands of “Sons of Anarchy,” and how the music dovetails with the show’s ever-twisting plot lines.

Thiele says, “I have a pretty good idea of what it’s going to be, so the pre-invention of the song occurs – I know I want to do ‘House of the Rising Sun’ at a different tempo, or I know I want to do ‘Gimme Shelter’ with some Celtic elements in it. So I know what we’re doing before we get in there, at which point these guys say, ‘Great! Let’s play!'”

In the end, Thiele and the rest of the Rangers see their mission as keeping their music – which includes re-imagined versions of songs by Bob Dylan, Son House, the Who, the Rolling Stones, and Neil Young, among others – back in that garage.

“We feel like we’re 15 on these Forest Rangers sessions,” Thiele says. “We’re having a really good jam session, as 15-year-olds, but with our present-day technique. It’s not like we’re jamming to shred – we’re playing songs as if we’re 15 years old, saying, ‘Yeah, that’s cool!'”

Greg Leisz

A look at the career of Greg Leisz – he’s worked with k.d for over 18 years and first appeared on her 1989 album ‘ Absolute Torch and Twang ‘ . Has toured many times with her over the years and has played on a further six of her albums including Ingenue and Watershed.

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Interview by Matthew Duersten for LA Weekly News April 8th 2004

Greg Leisz has a “road face”: Divots carved in his sallow cheeks and crinkled maps around his boyish eyes make one think of a Walker Evans Dust Bowl Okie. Now in his 50s, he has traveled a long road to become arguably today’s most in-demand and prolific exponent of the pedal steel and lap steel guitars. He’s managed to forge a distinctive style — what he calls “head space” — from some of the least flexible instruments in the guitar pantheon. According to an oft-repeated quote from k.d. lang, Leisz “single-handedly liberated pedal steel from the bondage of country.”

 

Steel guitar in Leisz’s hands is less weepy, yeasty honky-schlock and more eerie, spare modern-retro — the dustblown primitive awash in the digitized city. He memorably introduced himself to modern radio with his alien-in-an-aquarium slide on “Save Me,” the gorgeous ballad that opens lang’s 1992 Ingenue. In the years since, he’s played on many pop-music touchstones: He’s fond of comparing himself to a plumber, so let’s just say he’s fixed pipes for Beck’s Odelay and Midnight Vultures, the Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and Fiona Apple’s Tidal; unclogged drains for Grant Lee Buffalo’s Mighty Joe Moon, Wilco’s Being There and Lucinda Williams’ Car Wheels on a Gravel Road; and put in new faucets for Joni Mitchell’s Turbulent Indigo, k.d. lang’s Absolute Torch and Twang, Dave Alvin’s King of California and Matthew Sweet’s Girlfriend. He’s also a full-fledged member of the international instrumental supergroup the Intercontinentals, with guitarists Bill Frisell and Vinicius Cantuaria, percussionist Sidiki Camara, oud and bouzouki virtuoso Christos Govetas, and violinist Jenny Scheinman.

 

Being the All-Around Session Guy seems to fit his temperament. “It’s not that I don’t have an attention span to focus on any one thing,” he says. “I’m more interested in doing things I don’t already know how to do. That’s why I started playing guitar in the first place.” Born in Buffalo, New York, but raised mostly in Fullerton, Leisz started playing his mother’s Gibson acoustic at age 14, listening to what he calls “faux-folk” groups like the Kingston Trio. (In fact, one of Leisz’s first road gigs was with ex–Kingston Trio singer John Stewart.) After kicking around the latter days of the SoCal folk scene (with sidetracks to San Francisco and to Idaho, where he worked for the U.S. Forest Service), he took up pedal steel in 1973. “For every one name you leave out 10,” he says when asked to name his influences, adding, “I’d go out to these country bars in Downey — once I could get in — and see some totally obscure pedal-steel player who sounded as good as anything I’ve ever heard in my life. I didn’t even know the guy’s name. He probably worked in a factory. That’s the reality of that instrument.”

 

By 1976, he had done some tentative studio work and was in the rhythm section of the Funky Kings, playing R&B-meets-country-rock with future MTV Unplugged host Jules Shear and Eagles songwriter Jack Tempchin. Barely in his 20s and thrust into the vagaries of the music business, Leisz realized he “didn’t feel a real strong affinity with something that operated behind closed doors in boardrooms and had nothing to do with playing music.” Refusing a couple of lucrative offers to go on the road, he wandered back into the L.A. club scene and stayed there for the next 10 years. “I lived down in Laguna Beach, where a lot of good musicians lived. Bars like the White House, the Sandpiper and the Quiet Woman hired them to form these loose bands and play whatever they wanted — everything from John Coltrane to Merle Haggard. The audience wouldn’t realize what they were getting, namely stuff they couldn’t hear on the radio.” Leisz played in bands with unsung revolutionaries like steel guitarists “Sneaky” Pete Kleinow and Al Perkins or fiddler Byron Berline (all ex–Flying Burrito Brothers), “people that for me were just names on a record way back when, and I realized we were all on the same fuckin’ floor: Everybody’s struggling.”

 

In the ’80s, Leisz’s road ran alongside that of L.A.’s punk-rock generation, who not only shared his animosity toward the corporate music world but were also beginning to plumb the roots of American music. “I worked with John Doe by the time he was singing Hank Williams songs, but I didn’t even listen to X until much later,” Leisz laughs. “That was the hole in the sand that my head was in.” Prominent collaborations in the roots-oriented bands of Doe, Dave Alvin and Rosie Flores led to a call from k.d. lang.

 

Leisz says he goes out on tour with artists like lang, Joni Mitchell or Emmylou Harris to get away from the pressures of the studio. He notes the “double bind” of a studio musician: “It’s not like because session musicians are in the background they’re these meek little guys; they’re people who express themselves playing music. There’s some need to put an emotional investment in everything they do.”

 

 

 

In the studio, there’s precious little time for rock-star shenanigans — except, of course, for the rock stars themselves. “You have to know your place. What you have to say is not as important then as what someone else might have to say. You sit there thinking: ‘I know they heard what I just said. Am I being blown off? I think I am.’ Sometimes people won’t even tell you what’s going on. It’s rough. I’ve had guys get fired sitting right next to me. That’s close enough.”

 

As to the (extramonetary) rewards, Leisz says, “The highest compliment you can be given as a session musician is if the artist says, ‘That’s exactly what I was hearing in my head,’ and they are blown away when they say it.” He credits his time with the Forest Service as helping him cut whatever’s thrown at him in the studio. “I was up there for two days, and someone stuck a chain saw in my hand and pointed, ‘Go cut down that tree.’ And it was on fire! It seems totally unrelated to what I do now . . . but when you do things that come at you in life that seem almost impossible and it actually works out, it sets you up with a different kind of attitude. You are able to go into situations that before would have been terrifying.

 

Leisz could very well be booked solid for the rest of his natural life. Currently, he is producing Dave Alvin’s new album, Ash Grove, and in May he will go back on the road with lang. He maintains he is the worst guy to ask about how studio work has changed over the years — although he does maintain it’s a different world than it was before. Then again, other things feel the same and different simultaneously.

 

“Before work dried up for him in L.A. and he went back to Oklahoma,” Leisz recalls, “Byron [Berline] used to tell me that there was a time when he would finish playing one session, walk to a studio down the street and they’d say, ‘Hey, Byron, didja bring your fiddle?’ I went down to Cello on Sunset recently to record for a band. There were four recording studios: In one, someone was producing a British band with a weird name; Jon Brion was in the next one with Fiona Apple; and in another, this young white rap kid. I could go into any one of those rooms and know at least one person. Yet I don’t feel that what’s going on in one room is really connected with what’s going on in another.” He laughs. “It’s like, the only thing connecting them is me.”

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Singer k.d. lang is admired both for her traditional pop and country skills and her restless desire to expand on those traditions. No surprise, then, that her current guitarists, Greg Leisz and Greg Arreguin, are possessed by the same retro-goes-radical spirit.

  
   

Leisz has played on most k.d. lang albums from 1989’s Absolute Torch and Twang through last year’s Invincible Summer. He is also one of L.A.’s busiest session players, with credits that include Joni Mitchell, Fiona Apple, the Wallflowers, Matthew Sweet, Beck, Melissa Etheridge, Shawn Colvin, Joe Cocker, Dave Alvin, Paula Cole, Bill Frisell, and many others. While he is best known for his adventurous lap- and pedal-steel playing (he has, according to k.d. lang, “single-handedly liberated pedal steel from the bondage of country”). Also, he is equally skilled at acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin and Dobro. “Last year when I toured with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt,” he says, “I think I played ten different instruments onstage.”

Meanwhile, Greg Arreguin is that rarest of guitarists, an avant-gardist with killer pop instincts. “Maybe it’s the Beatles influence,” he shrugs. “I’ve worshipped at their altar since I was a kid.” Arreguin has worked with straight-ahead pop acts like Seal, Chris Isaak, Tracy Bonham, as well as with sonic innovators such as Brian Eno and Jon Hassell.

Onstage with k.d. lang, the two Gregs have settled into a standard division of labor. “I play most of the hooks and signature melody lines,” says Arreguin, “and he does everything else, from straight rhythm guitar to the sort of improvisation Larry Carlton used to do with Joni Mitchell.” Leisz says he relishes the opportunity to play rhythm: “Doing straightforward, in-the-track rhythm stuff is fascinating. It’s much harder than playing lines and leads.”

Since Leisz and Arreguin must conjure the tones of a dozen years of k.d. lang albums, the stage is crowded with guitars, most of them Yamahas. “I’ve got five of them,” says Arreguin. “There’s a bitchin’ AES1500 archtop, which I like because it has a warm, woody vintage vibe, but without some of the defining idiosyncrasies of an actual vintage guitar. It’s great for getting the fat, midrange sounds you hear on late Beatles records. I have two acoustics, an LL500 dreadnought, and a small-bodied LS500 that I use high-strung (with the lower four strings tuned an octave above normal). The PAC303-12II is a nice electric 12-string. But the guitar I play most is an AES800B, a sweet solidbody with a Bigsby™ tremolo. Its DiMarzio™ humbuckers are super-warm, but with the right amp it can have a great sparkly sound. It’s fat in the best sort of way, with just the right low-mids.”

Leisz is also an AES800 fan. “I have two,” he says. “One I keep tuned down to D. The other is a custom-shop model with a longer scale that I tune all the way down to B. The scale isn’t as lengthy as that of most other baritone guitars or 6-string basses, so it plays more like a conventional guitar. And now I’m getting a third one with DiMarzio Virtual Vintage P-90s instead of the stock humbuckers. The humbuckers sound great, but the P-90s are a little better for the sort of twangy baritone stuff I’m doing.” Leisz also has an AES1500. “It’s a warm instrument with a nice acoustic sound and great bottom end,” he says.

Arreguin swears the k.d. lang gig is one of the most pleasant he’s ever had. “I call it the endorphin band,” he says, “because everyone is so cool, and they all play so ridiculously well. And I relate to the way k.d. switches styles often. I have very little patience for the jackboot of the roots music purists. I grew up in omni-cultural America, and unless you were raised without a radio, you probably did too. The way I see it, if you approach music with integrity, intelligence and heart, you don’t have to play according to any so-called rules.”

 

 

 

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M.A.C Viva Glam II Lipstick

Back in 1997 k.d was the face of MAC’s Viva Glam II Lipstick , she was part of promotional campaign and tour with RuPaul

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Canadian Fashion Connection – MAC cosmetics

 

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Jonathan

 

MAC Viva Glam advert, 1997, with Ru Paul and K.D. Lang

Make-up Artist Cosmetics, or ‘MAC’ was founded in 1985 by Frank Angelo and Frank Toskan, (known collectively as ‘the Franks’.) They began their business making camera-friendly lipstick for professional make-up artists but the general public also bought their products at the first MAC outlet located in a salon in the basement of Simpson’s department store in Toronto.

In 1994 Estee Lauder invested in MAC, purchasing 51 percent of the company,  which allowed MAC to expand internationally. While business success was important, the company was also socially responsible and became known for raising millions of dollars for AIDS hospice care through the donation of all sales from Viva Glam lipstick. The Franks refused to use fancy packaging or a famous model’s face to promote their product. Instead, they chose the famous lesbian cow-punk singer K.D. Lang, and drag queen Ru-Paul to be the company spokesmodels, which rocketed the brand to fame in the late 1990s.

In 1997 Frank Angelo died of a heart attack during cosmetic surgery and in 2003 the company headquarters were moved to New York, but despite the changes to the company, MAC continues to be devoted to social responsibility. MAC cosmetics are not tested on animals, recycles its containers, and continues to support people living with AIDS.

http://www.macaidsfund.org/#/glam/campaignhistory

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_AIDS_Fund

Beauty that gives back – MAC 

 

Without a doubt, one of the most powerful brands in the cosmetics world has to be M.A.C. What beauty aficionado has not lusted after their products at some point or another? It’s reassuring to know that M.A.C is also behind one of the most effective charitable campaigns on record, Viva Glam.

Since 1994, the Viva Glam campaign has raised $218,000,000.00 (yes you read that correctly, two hundred and eighteen MILLION dollars!) for the M.A.C Aids fund. 

What is the M.A.C Aids fund? The M.A.C AIDS Fund’s mission is to serve people of all ages, all races and all sexes affected by HIV and AIDS.To partner with the bold, the visionary and the brave who confront the epidemic in countries and communities where people are most neglected, off the radar and at the highest risk. Responsive, agile and alert, MAF funds innovative programs that deal directly with the most marginalised, stigmatised and under-heard victims. MAF celebrates humanity, life, creativity and individuality. Making a difference, one VIVA GLAM lipstick at a time.

How has this been possible? Well, M.A.C underwrites the cost of all the lipsticks and lipglasses in the Viva Glam range, meaning that the full purchase price (not just the profits) of Viva Glam products (excluding local taxes) go straight to the M.A.C Aids fund. To top this off, the Viva Glam campaign has had some incredible spokespeople over the last 17-odd years.

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Interview from Obivious Gossip 1998

During her recent trip to Vancouver for the Fashion Cares AIDS benefit kd took the time to sit down with journalist Virginia Leeming to talk about AIDS, her lipstick and the politically correct.

Canadian singing sensation kd lang visited Vancouver briefly on Nov 13 to open the MAC cosmetics show to raise money for local AIDS charities. Before the event, she agreed to briefly discuss her involvement as a spokesperson for the Toronto-based cosmetics company. Dressed in black from head to toe, with a few straggly locks hanging, almost Elvis-style, on her face, she appeared to be wearing barely a brush of lipstick. Her handshake is a grip with strength.

VL: Do you have any idea how much money your particular lipstick colour (which is Viva Glam II, a pink shade) has earned?”

Kd: About four million. It raised a million really quickly when it first came out and that was like a year ago, so I think it’s about four million now. But altogether Viva Glam I (drag queen RuPaul’s fundraising red lip colour) and II, with Kids Helping Kids cars (card featuring drawings by children who are HIV positive), have raised over 15 million.” (The money raised goes to local AIDS charities).

I probably can’t think of an original question that you haven’t heard before as a spokesperson for MAC AIDS funs, but was there a special reason you got involved in the first place with MAC?

Yeah, well you know, like there’s a lot of organisations looking for a celebrity spokesperson. Really, because of a lot of different parallels in our values. They are Canadian, they were the first company not to test on animals, they recycle, they’re kinda pc and I try to keep concerned with that. But also because of their really strong commitment to AIDS. And 15 million dollars (raised for HIV/AIDS programs) for a cosmetic company, plus they have a black drag queen for their first spokesperson and a lesbian for their second, that’s pretty cool.

You’re not a lipstick lesbian are you.

Yes, I’m a professional lipstick lesbian. Not a practicing one, but a professional one.

I understand you have beautiful skin. Can you tell me, is that genetic or does it come from creams?

I’m Canadian; ever looked at Canadian skin? It’s really beautiful. My mother has astonishing skin.

So it isn’t always the creams you put on?

No, no, it’s genetics and water

So you lead a pretty healthy lifestyle?

Pretty healthy. I’ve been slippin’ a little bit lately, because I took a year off. That’s good. I needed it.

Would you like to add anything to our interview?

Well, I guess my whole purpose of being here is to raise awareness and to raise money. You know the fight against AIDS is definitely not over. Far from it. If people abandon an issue after it has lost its glamour, it’s still something that we have to fight against.

I don’t think we have seen the full brunt of it yet. Especially in continents like Africa.

Yeah, especially when you get statistics like one in four people in Kenya.

The next day, kd and Phillip Ing, MAC’s artistic director, hopped on a plane bound for Sydney, Australia, where more stores are being opened, and to bring their AIDS awareness to the land of Oz.

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The Album by James E.Perone

The Album by James E.Perone

ABC-CLIO, 31 Oct 2012 – Music – 1256 pages

The Album: A Guide to Pop Music’s Most Provocative, Influential, and Important Creations contains critical analysis essays on 160 significant pop music albums from 1960–2010. The selected albums represent the pop, rock, soul, R&B, hip-hop, country, and alternative genres, including artists such as 2Pac, Carole King, James Brown, The Beatles, and Willie Nelson. Each volume contains brief sidebars with biographical information about key performers and producers, as well as descriptions of particular music industry topics pertaining to the development of the album over this 50-year period.

The author takes a short look at Absolute Torch and Twang which is quite interesting.

click on title of book

 

k.d.lang & The Reclines – Pullin’ Back The Reins

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k.d.lang & The Reclines – Trail of Broken Hearts

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Absolute Torch and Twang – k.d.lang & The Reclines

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A look back at the third album by k.d and The Reclines released 1989 and for me one of her best and a 5 star album. It sees her songwriting and singing maturing and a fresh approach to country music.

Absolute Torch and Twang is the third album by k.d. lang and the Reclines, released in 1989.

Contents

Track listing

  1. “Luck in My Eyes” (k.d. lang, Ben Mink) – 4:10
  2. “Three Days” (Willie Nelson) – 3:17
  3. “Trail of Broken Hearts” (lang, Mink) – 3:24
  4. “Big Boned Gal” (lang, Mink) – 3:08
  5. “Didn’t I” (lang, Mink) – 3:39
  6. “Wallflower Waltz” (lang, Mink) – 4:22
  7. “Full Moon Full of Love” (Leroy Preston, Jeannie Smith) – 2:49
  8. “Pullin’ Back the Reins” (lang, Mink) – 4:23
  9. “Big Big Love” (Wynn Stewart) – 2:29
  10. “It’s Me” (lang, Mink) – 2:20
  11. “Walkin’ in and Out of Your Arms” (lang, Mink) – 3:03
  12. “Nowhere to Stand” (lang) – 4:27

Personnel

Production

  • Producers: k.d. lang, Ben Mink, Greg Penny

Chart performance

Album

Chart (1989) Peak
position
Canadian RPM Country Albums 8
Canadian RPM Top Albums 29
U.S. Billboard Top Country Albums 12
U.S. Billboard 200 69

Singles

Year Single Peak chart positions
CAN Country CAN US Country
1989 “Full Moon Full of Love” 1 — 22
“Three Days” 9 — 55
1990 “Luck in My Eyes” 10 — —
“Big Boned Gal” 23 — —
“Pulling Back the Reins” — — —
“Trail of Broken Hearts” — 87 —

Awards

Grammy Awards

Year Winner Category
1989 Absolute Torch and Twang Best Female Country Vocal Performance

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Review from the Chicago Tribune by Chris Heim

k.d. lang and the reclines

Absolute Torch and Twang (Sire) (STAR)(STAR)(STAR)

If lang`s first album was high energy, rock-influenced twang and her second, the solo release “Shadowland,“ was smoky, Patsy Cline-inspired torch, this third effort is an inspired combination of the two. Nothing ever gets quite as rowdy as lang`s rough-cut debut, though several songs are guaranteed to set some toes tapping. And if lang takes a more modern approach to both style and production values here, her powerful singing still comes straight from the text of classic country. Lang wrote or cowrote nine of these songs. While they, too, reveal distinctly modern sensibilities, they retain some of the best of country traditions, not the least of which is an almost surreal air of melancholy.

Rolling Stone Review by Holly Gleason 1989

Absolute Torch and Twang’ – the third major-label LP by Canadian chanteuse K.D. Lang and the second with her band the Reclines – splits the difference between the unbridled high spirits and shit-kicking backbeat of Angel With a Lariat and the more studied, Patsy Cline-influenced studio scapes crafted by legendary country producer Owen Bradley on Shadowland. The result is a record that’s thoughtful and mature.

There are more obvious records Lang could have made, ones designed to make her a country queen. Instead, she opted for songs that challenge her abilities and make a case for artistic vision.

Easily one of rock, pop or country’s most accomplished vocalists, Lang has grown more subtle. On “Pullin’ Back the Reins,” she drapes her smoky alto over the lyrics with a sensuousness that throbs. There’s nothing overt about her performance, yet it’s one of the most sultry moments on vinyl this year.

Only “Big Boned Gal,” with a rubber ball bass line, the pitter-patter percussion of “Luck in My Eyes” and the low-impact Western swing of “Big Big Love” move Torch and Twang onto the dance floor; the Reclines spend most of their time inhabiting languid, aching moments. Much of the material is painful, but it’s a good, often cathartic hurt that Lang delivers.

In some ways, this is The Many Moods of K.D. Lang. She sings a hushed gospel number (“Nowhere to Stand”), a near flamenco (“Trail of Broken Hearts,” with its nylon-string guitar) and a big ballad of heartbreak (“Three Days”). Lang’s primary interest is in capturing the essence of emotion and staying just this side of understatement.

With the Reclines at her side, Lang is in her element. The transistor twang of guitar on “Didn’t I” and the sawing fiddles throughout make this an authentic barn dance the post moderns can relate to – and that’s no small feat.

This album isn’t gonna win her any points with the Nashville Network or country-radio programmers, but it shows what country music, when intelligently done, can be: high-plains music for the thinking man and woman.

Absolute Torch and Twang

reviewed by

Published April 1st, 1999

This is tough one. I struggled between kd lang’s Shadowland and Absolute Torch and Twang. Torch and Twang won out. All the critical hype that surrounded this CD was earned. Listening to her voice with its range and control makes you think what a sad thing it is to have to endure Mariah Carey (Oscars) and Shania Twain (Grammys). While I have not been impressed with her last two efforts (Drag, which is very similar to Shadowland, but without the fever, and All You Can Eat), that is all the more reason to return to Torch and Twang. Time has not diminished the impact of its songs. The love ballads are tough but tender love, such as: “trail of broken hearts.”

trail of broken hearts
looking back at you
now and from the start
these words will travel true

The spare lyrics let lang use her voice to swell beyond the words and touch the pain of a broken heart. Along with the love serious ballads, “full moon full of love,” and “pullin’ back the reins” there are the lighter “its me,” “big boned ga,” “luck in my eyes,” and “big big love.” Each song on Torch and Twang projects near prefect musical mastery.

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k.d.lang signing autographs 1989

k.d.lang promoting ‘ Absolute Torch and Twang’ at The Record Bar , Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, N.C 1989

photographer Billy Green

link to more of his work

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18578905@N02/sets/

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