Early kdlang album

Posted on 16 February 2005 @ 23:37 in k.d. lang, Music


I haven’t heard Angel with a Lariat for quite a few years now, so I played it during my drive to work yesterday morning.

Produced in 1987, Angel with a Lariat is the album kd released before she hit the big time, getting the attention of Owen Bradley, the late Patsy Cline’s producer, and recording her Shadowland album with him, and getting support from old-timers such as Loretta Lynn, Brenda Lee and Kitty Wells.

It’s a high energy album, lots of fiddles, driving drums, and most of all, enthusiasm from kd and her band. I burst out with laughter a couple of times, completely carried away by the joy that was pouring out of the speakers of my car stereo. This is a great example of what kd was about before she crossed over to Nashville and went on to become “mainstream”.

I googled for some of the songs’ lyrics, and here are some examples:

Last night I heard
A ruckus down the road
No time to lose and so away I go
I saw the lights
At the junction…
Pulled in my wheels
And checked the show

(turn me round)
(they’re) dancin’ round, round, round
(turn me round)
Square dancin’ round, round, round
And down and round
(turn me round)
They’re dancin’ round, round, round
(turn me, turn me, turn me)
They’re dancin’ round
(turn me, turn me, turn me)

“Turn Me Round”

Hey yo, told you before
Tell you when I find a decoy
Sittin’ in the water
With your hopes up high
Have you takin’ a nosedive hard, boy

“High Time for a Detour”

Starving, I’ve got this hunger
Growing from deep within
Carving an internal thunder
Oh a craving that wears me thin
Well, it`s hard to ingest
So many faces
I get my fill but still
Those passersby
Leave me empty
On a diet of strange places
It all should enhance my senses
Tell me why
Does the spice of loneliness
Seem all but tasteless
And lays there
To haunt me from inside

“Diet of Strange Places”

I love the brunettes, blonds
And the redheads, too
Love ’em since I don’t know when
I love ’em all right down the line
And then I start all over again
I start all over again

I got the bull by the horns
In a downhill drag
Things are better than they ever have been
I missed a lot of lovin’
In my lifetime
But I’m never gonna do it again, no
Never gonna do it again

“Got the Bull by the Horns”

Despite coming out in 1992, the signs were already there in this earlier album, especially in the above song.

Here’s the full song list:

1. “Turn Me Round”
2. “High Time for a Detour”
3. “Diet of Strange Places”
4. “Got the Bull by the Horns”
5. “Watch Your Step Polka”
6. “Rose Garden”
7. “Tune into My Wave”
8. “Angel With A Lariat”
9. “Pay Dirt”
10. “Three Cigarettes in an Ashtray”

Click here to listen to samples of some of the above songs

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