It’s been over seven years since Katherine Dawn Lang released her last album of original material (in the interim she’s delivered a Grammy Award-winning collaboration with Tony Bennett, 2002’s A Wonderful World, and covered the classic Canadian songbook with 2004’s Hymns From The 49th Parallel). Watershed, her tenth studio album, is worth the wait, however; the acclaimed songstress has picked up where she left off with a carefully-crafted LP that’s as lush as it is original.
Lang, taking the production reigns for the first time, sings in a distinctive voice, her gentle husk and rich, warm texture pervading the swoonsome, Bacharach-esque ballads ‘Je Fais Le Planche’ and ‘I Dream Of Spring’. Elsewhere, both the crackling cosiness of ’60s-style serenade ‘Thread’, and the smoky, sultry jazz-tinged ‘Sunday’ bear comparison to early Dusty Springfield. That doesn’t mean that Lang’s country roots have been forsaken, though: easygoing ditty ‘Coming Home’ and the heart-thumping ‘Once In A While’ shimmer with an underlying western vibe; closer ‘Jealous’ is an out-and-out dust-coated, Deep South gospel/banjo number. Lyrically, Lang seems lovelorn and lost on many tracks; ‘Flame Of The Uninspired’ hears her lament, “I’m in the corner licking all my wounds/Love’s come and gone all too soon”. Heartbroken or not, however, she’s conceived her finest work in years with Watershed – an album that rewards with every soothing listen.