Another Canadian after The Cowboy Junkies, Lang here pays homage to Patsy Kline and similar female country stars, even working with stalwarts Loretta Lynn, Brenda Lee, and Kitty Wells on The Honky-Tonk Angels Medley. Tracks are a mix of honky-tonk Americana (like I’m Down To My Last Cigarette) to ballads (the wonderfully named Tears Don’t Care Who Cries Them). Most tracks are covers of writers from the golden age of country music, although Western Stars is a Chris Isaak song.
Lang also covers some more bluesy lounge songs and show tunes as well. Busy Being Blue is a languid Billie Holliday kind of number, while I Wish I Didn’t Love You So is pure show-tune (from The Perils Of Pauline). Support is provided by fiddle and steel guitars on the westerns, strings and saxophones on the lounge songs.
Because it revisits a bygone era, it doesn’t do anything new with the musically, but there’s no mistaking the power and versatility of Lang’s voice; each track is a mini-masterpiece of its particular style. When partnered with Lynn, Lee & Wells, she more than holds her own, the effect is a glorious homage, but far, far, too short.
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