by MATTHEW HAYS

"This is something I've wanted to do for a long time," k.d. lang tells me, on the line from her L.A. home. And this something, as it turns out, is damn good. lang has assembled a varied anthology of great Canuck hits - "the Canadian songbook," she calls it - and recorded them on one album, Hymns of the 49th Parallel. Included are lang's tremendous renditions of Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush," Joni Mitchell's "A Case of You" and Jane Siberry's "The Valley." That Siberry song is "my favourite," reports lang, "ever since I first heard it."

A tribute to the Great White North was in order, says lang, due to our nation's kickass stances on so many social issues close to the Alberta-born singer-songwriter's heart. When former Prime Minster Jean Chrétien opted to abstain from the war on Iraq, despite intense pressure from the Bush administration, lang says she was filled with pride. Ditto on same-sex marriages, which the courts have set in motion in Ontario, B.C. and Quebec. "I feel like Canada's really coming into its own, in a cultural sense, and it's a really beautiful thing to watch." Set to perform at this year's Jazz Fest, lang paused to chat with the Mirror about Tony Bennett, how small-town Alberta life prepped her for the big leagues and Canadian and American Idol.

Mirror: This is such a beautiful album. When I was listening to it, though, I couldn't help but think of the rather tense relationship you've had with your home turf, in particular Alberta, where you took serious heat for your vegetarian stance.

k.d. lang: Don't get me started on Ralph Klein! His support of the Iraq war was really awful. In some respects, Alberta culture seems to paraphrase Texas culture. I don't know if it's because of the oil and cattle combination, or what it is, but I really just try to stay focused on the positive things about Alberta, which are the space and the sunshine. I don't want to open a political can of worms. I don't really need that. I've done it a couple of times. I'm just barely starting to get a foot back in the Canadian door! My mom still lives in Consort [Alberta]. I go back all the time. It's strange to go back. Everything looks so small to me now! And in the winter it's such a ghost town. I did love the emptiness too. I remember in my early days in Edmonton, being able to walk from one end of the city to the other along the river valley. I used to spend all my summers doing that.

Northern exposure

M: What's the biggest thing that's changed for you, having become so famous?

kl: Everything and nothing. I think one of the greatest assets I had is growing up in a small town. Fame is exactly the same as growing up in a small town - your life is an open book when you grow up in a small place. Eccentricities are normal. Everyone knows your business. It gave me a good training for being famous, for being so exposed.

M: What was the main thing you learned while recording and touring with Tony Bennett?

kl: I was always in awe of how positive and professional he is. He's like an Energizer Bunny, that boy. He runs circles around me. He really is very generous as a performer. He really does care about making the people entirely happy. He carries himself with such a joie de vivre. He's a consummate professional. I never got tired of watching him. Tony knows how to deal with a live audience like no one. To see that old school so alive through him was an unprecedented education. I don't think I can define the impact it's had on me.

M: Have you been watching American Idol or Canadian Idol?

kl: Not really. I think everything's instant now. There's always been a disposable aspect to our culture, but now there's even more of that. The mark of longevity, really, will now be how good you are on stage. Because anyone can make a record, if you can sing at all they can make you sound great because production techniques have become so amazing. But you either have talent on stage or you don't. I think it boils down to what you can do on stage.

At Place des Arts's Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier on Wednesday, July 7, 8:30pm, $49.50–$79.50

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