k. d. Lang was my wife’s lesbian crush. She made the pilgrimage to see her perform live twice in quick succession, during those heady days when the gender-fluid superstar first altered the zeitgeist with her meteoric power. k.d.’s vocal prowess was undeniable, and other-worldly. And, coming from the hinterlands of Canada she seemed to me, in 1989, like an alien from another planet. When I saw that sexy photo spread she did with Cindy Crawford for Vanity Fair, I got the message, the rhetorical question was posed so loudly and clearly: how could anyone resist such universal charisma?

The eponymous Big Boned Gal of this country swing tune is an anthemic standard bearer. She is Rosie the Riveter for a rising tide of all sexually ambiguous creatures, no matter what body they happen to have been born into. “Be proud, darlin’s,” it proclaims. Strut your stuff, and they will all bow before you. Kathryn Dawn Lang OC AOE was always uniquely and proudly herself - unapologetic, with a honey toned, multi-octave instrument, and the soul to persuasively woo everyone across the Kinsey scale.

She says she may be done, now. “The muse is eluding me,” she says. I hope not. She recently appeared at a tribute to another master vocalist, her former duet partner Tony Bennett, who himself stayed his musical course for 8 decades. Maybe Tony’s muse will inspire her to do the same.