k.d. lang: Back to the emotional basics

A WOMAN who favours the use of lower-case letters for her name rather than capitals, k.d. lang claims to have given up intellectualizing country music. She has wrestled with the contradictions of being described as a New Traditionalist and has found herself locked in a paradox. Different as they are, singers such as herself, Randy Travis, Dwight Yoakam and K.T. Oslin are modernizing country music by reviving the past. "I want to protect and covet it," lang says, "but I don't want to see it suffocate."