Kathryn Dawn Lang was country ... until she wasn't. A native of the Canadian province of Alberta, lang (who prefers her name lowercase) grew obsessed with Patsy Cline and country music in general before she was out of college. She joined the Patsy-focused country act The Reclines in 1983 in Edmonton. They released their first album, A Truly Western Experience, in 1984.
Styled as "cowpunk" by many, the album caught the ear of pub-rocker Dave Edmunds, who produced the band's next, rockier album, Angel with a Lariat. That album, in turn, found its way to Patsy Cline's one-time producer Owen Bradley, who in 1988 produced lang's solo debut, Shadowland, on Sire Records. Shadowland and the Reclines' final album, 1989's Absolute Torch and Twang, convinced lang that she was too adventurous—not to mention too gay and Canadian—for the 1980s country music establishment.
Torch and Twang won the Grammy for Best Country Vocal Performance, Female, beating out nominees Kathy Mattea, Dolly Parton, Roseanne Cash, and Emmylou Harris. The singer/songwriter got another boost when Roy Orbison asked her to join him in recording a duet of his song "Crying." That song also won a Grammy Award, for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals.
Ben Mink came into lang's life in 1985 when they met at Expo '85. He played violin, guitar, and mandolin in The Reclines before coproducing Absolute Torch and Twang. Together he, lang, and Greg Penny began a partnership in which musical visions mixed, inspired, and eventually fashioned settings that allowed lang to showcase her voice in impressionistic pieces that defied easy definition. The result was her 1992 breakthrough, Ingénue.
Rising to #18 on the Billboard 200 chart, Ingénue, a masterpiece that still seems fresh and new, has been reissued as a One-Step vinyl LP ($99.98) by Warner Music's new high-end venture, Because Sound Matters. To dispel any doubts about the process that has clouded the One-Step craze, Because Sound Matters makes it clear: "The original analog master tapes were directly used as our audio source for this One-Step pressing. This is the first time the analog tapes have been used as a vinyl source for this brilliant recording." (BSM One-Steps may also be cut from a digital source.) Mastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering with lacquers plated by Dorin Sauerbier, BSM One-Steps are pressed on 180gm Neotech VR900-D2 vinyl at RTI and packaged in Stoughton jackets.
A 2017, 25th anniversary vinyl reissue of Ingénue, on Nonesuch, had eight live tracks, a welcome bonus. This new Ingénue is a straight reissue of the studio album, with only the original 10 tracks. It is a quality product in every respect. (Released at the same time as Ingénue, a One-Step of Green Day's blistering debut, Dookie ($124.98), is another Because Sound Matters success that's worth the price.)
Ingénue is a collection of bravura performances, perfectly sequenced, that's meant to hook the listener into its dreamy otherworld. Along with Penny and Mink, the singer, who was also a coproducer on these sessions, fashions slow, elegantly composed, modern torch songs that allow her voice full rein. With its slow tempos, tasteful percussion, exquisite arrangements, and resourceful touches—Gary Burton on marimba and vibes; Greg Leisz on pedal and lap steel—the material on the album gives lang open space to phrase and savor every word. From the first notes of the opener, "Save Me," it's apparent that lang's artistic vision has moved on from any connection to country music. Its wider soundstage and improved dynamic range also make it obvious that this One-Step is a clear step up in audio quality from the original CD issue, which was well-recorded and mixed. Ingénue is a master class in how to create a sharply focused artistic statement, made even sharper by the One-Step's improved sonics.
From "Save Me," the album continues with the strummed guitars, electric guitar, keyboard support, and multilayered vocal overdubs of "The Mind of Love," a tormented inner monologue during which she admits, "I'm trying hard to escape/This constant pull towards ache," while hoping "Surely help will arrive soon/And cure these self-induced wounds."
The album's first and perhaps most memorable single, the flirty "Miss Chatelaine," is a prime example of how meticulously these tracks were assembled. The song opens with Mink's violin and viola; lang then begins a semi-autobiographical journey over a strummed guitar and castanets. Accordion by Teddy Borowiecki is added judiciously, as is a background string arrangement by Mink. Guitars become more insistent over the swaying, visionary musical setting. Lang's vocals, rich and deep, are rightly in the front of the mix throughout this track, and throughout the rest of the album.
"So It Shall Be," another folky torch concoction built to give lang maximum space to interpret, eventually becomes something of a festive march. The impact of her voice is tastefully amplified via multiple overdubs. Undulating strings, given new force in this One-Step, eventually trail off over lang's wordless vocals.
The album's grandest production number, "Season of Hollow Soul," is a rousing cabaret, enlivened by clarinet by Myron Schultz. What's best about the unique material on Ingénue is that along with being daring and singular, it's also supremely tuneful and naturally engaging. "Outside Myself " is buoyed by gorgeous melodic turns, an insistent piano, and a flowing tempo as lang passionately sings, "A thin ice covers my soul/My body's frozen and my heart is cold/And still so much about me is raw/I search for a place to unthaw."
Opening with strummed guitars and accordion, "Constant Craving," the only radio hit of lang's solo career, won the 1993 Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female. As Ingénue's closing statement, it seems absolutely right, eloquently embodying the searching and desiring that energize the album.
Did Ingénue single-handedly create a new genre—one that no one else could follow because they lacked lang's monumental vocal prowess and versatility? Perhaps. Whatever its larger significance, this was clearly a peak moment in a musical career that remains unique, an album utterly unlike anything else made before or since. It has never sounded better.
