Announcing the first big name for 2012, Doug Cox described k.d. lang as a superstar.
“She’s a household name,” the VIMF artistic director and executive producer said in an earlier interview before announcing lang this week as a MusicFest headliner.
Cox tried unsuccessfully to land lang for the 2011 VIMF.
“They actually phoned this year after they saw who we had last year (including Alison Krauss and Union Station, David Crosby and Rodney Crowell) and said she wants to come to it this year.”
Cox said the big-voiced singer originally from small-town Alberta could do just stadiums and concert halls if she wanted to, but she began last year to return to her roots.
“She came from the Canadian folk festival world … and that kind of kicked off her career. As a gift to the festivals, she’s coming back and revisiting her roots. She played quite a few festivals last year.”
He said her asking price is less than she could command, making her affordable for events such as MusicFest.
That’s not to say she’s restricting herself to festivals, because a tour of almost two months late last year began with 19 U.S. dates, including the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and the legendary Fillmore in San Francisco.
The tour concluded with 11 gigs in Australia.
Beside MusicFest, lang’s website (www.kdlang.com) mentions three other confirmed 2012 gigs, including the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Colorado.
At MusicFest, lang will be accompanied by her current band Sis Boom Bang composed of young multi-instrumentalist Americans Joe Pisapia, Daniel Clarke, Fred Eltringham, Josh Grange and Lex Price.
“It’s supposed to be a rockin’ show,” Cox said, adding that lang will close this year’s Courtenay festival on the Friday night.
“We normally have had our headliners come second last, but one of the other festival directors I talked to who had her at their festival last year said nobody would want to follow her.”
The headliner is riding positive reviews for her 2011 release Sing It Loud.
Calling it his biggest surprise of 2011, James Reed of the Boston Globe said, “Backed by a lean new band that knew how to frame and complement that big voice of hers, lang returned to form with an album that easily ranks as her most memorable in at least a decade.”
The restless singer, unwilling to stand still musically for long has come a long way in 25 years from the kitsch of her early alt-country style, evolving steadily through classic country with a Patsy Cline tribute (Shadowland), torch singing (Ingenue), theme albums (Drag) and Hymns of the 49th Parallel as well as other styles that included bossa nova and electronics.
A gifted interpreter, lang has sung songs by composers ranging from Steve Miller, Air Supply, Neil Young and Leonard Cohen.
A dream pairing with the late Roy Orbison resulted in a definitive version of his classic song Crying.
She has also dueted with singers as diverse as Jane Siberry, Bonnie Raitt, Elton John and Tony Bennett.
Her resumé includes three Grammys, eight Junos and the Order of Canada.
Other performers already announced for the festival from July 6 to 8 at the Comox Valley Exhibition Grounds include Buffy Sainte-Marie, Matt Andersen, Sam Baker, the Blackwood Two, Girlyman, Linda McRae, New Country Rehab, Red Chamber, Bob Stark and the 24th Street Wailers.
Cox promises other announcements about headliners, whom he said excite him as much as lang does.
“One of them is, in my mind, an equal status headliner. And another one … I think she’s one of the most interesting artists on the planet. She’s never played a festival before.”
