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Administrative & Professional
Jorgensen Brooks Group
Counselor Finance and Accounting
Charles E. Gillman Company
Accounting Specialist Health Care
CENTRAL ARIZONA COLLEGE
DIRECTOR OF HEALTH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT Sales and Marketing
Everready Glass
Sales Reps Health Care
Sierra Tucson
Eating Disorders Program Coordinator Trades/Construction
RANCHO RESORT
MAINTANANCE POSITION Administrative & Professional
Tucson Urban League
CEO/President

Beneath the roughness of a one-take demo recording, K.D. Lang hears raw, untapped beauty.

On her latest album, "Watershed," Lang set out to capture that vulnerability without the benefit of overlays and studio polish. The bulk of it was recorded in one-take sessions or drawn directly from the demos.

Released eight months ago, "Watershed" was Lang's first album of original material in eight years and her first shot at producing. It debuted at No. 1 in Australia and sold well in her native Canada and in Europe. But "Watershed" has been slower to catch on in the United States, which doesn't really surprise the 47-year-old multiple Grammy Award winner.

"I think America is consumed with 'American Idol'ization of music right now. I think it's very, very, very hard to find a way to connect with people in terms of the media," she said in a phone interview from a concert stop in Atlanta last week.

"In other countries, there's still sort of a music industry left. In America, it's just kind of blown apart right now. Other countries are a little bit slower on the iTunes and everything else. I think that's why somebody in my age group, my demographic, can still sell records (abroad)."

Lang, who will play her first Tucson concert in a dozen years on Wednesday, crisscrosses genres on "Watershed," mixing shades of pop with flashes of jazz, with nods to her country roots and reminders of her "Ingenue" sound. Just when you think she's touched every base, she surprises you with snippets of bossa nova.

"I don't want to control myself one way or the other. I don't want to go, 'Oh, I have to be eclectic or I have to fit into a genre.' To me, as a listener, I don't apply that rule to myself, and as a performer, I don't apply that to myself," she explained. "It would be really detrimental to me to constrain my muse or my intuition like that."

Lang got her start in music with her Patsy Cline tribute band in the early 1980s. The Reclines recorded a couple albums and performed at country-Western clubs throughout Canada, earning Lang a following and the first of several Juno Awards — Canada's version of the Grammy.

Her distinctive look — tightly cropped hair, androgynous dress and cherubic face — threatened to overshadow her impressive alto, which easily transitioned from guttural twang to nuanced, jazzy smooth. When she earned her first Grammy in 1988 dueting with rockabilly king Roy Orbison on "Crying," the world took notice.

In 1992, Lang switched gears from country to adult contemporary with "Ingénue," which sold millions of copies on the strength of the No. 1 hit single "Constant Craving." The song snagged her a Grammy for best female vocal performance.

Lang is not shy about noting that "Constant Craving" remains her only hit in a career that seems nowhere near its last breath. She's respected worldwide, and her concerts leave audiences breathless with admiration. But she's also anonymous enough that she can sit barefoot in a city park and soak up the sun on a gloriously warm late fall day.

"I guess having the same haircut for 25 years, people recognize me, but they don't bother me," she said, then chuckled when she realized she has not had a professional haircut in four years.

"I have a little bit more cash in my pocket, but I have to live with the haircut. It's kind of, I don't know what it is. It's very, very complex," she concluded. "I definitely think it's a unique aspect of my personality."

What does the future hold?

"Surviving 25 years in the music business with only one hit is pretty amazing, right? I kind of feel like I'm going to be Tony Bennett," said Lang, who has recorded with the iconic singer and performed live with him.

"I have the desire to sing into my 90s or whatever, and I don't think that there's that many people that will be doing that. I don't think there are that many singers that will survive that long. So I feel actually that I'm going to be fulfilling a niche."