Search - K.D. Lang :: Even Cowgirls Get The Blues: Music From The Motion Picture Soundtrack

Surprise

entity3sf | Western New York | 08/18/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My socially instilled biases kept me from ever giving K.D. Lang's music a listen. Then I watched the video; Who wrote that music?! Who sang that music?! It was K.D. Lang. Now I understand. She wrote some incredibly beautiful music for this movie. The quality of the album is consistent from track to track. It's a clear 5 stars. I can't really understand anyone giving it less."

I love it

loteq | 04/09/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I pull this out every year or so and give it a good play. Her voice is as beautiful as ever but the soundtrack has the added attraction of variety. I just feel like I'm riding over the plains on horseback through the whole thing. Very relaxing and beautiful. I think if you like kd lang at all, you will appreciate this very much."

Based on a great book so the music makes sense

Leah Osad | Second Peter, Chapter 2, Minnesota | 01/17/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My appreciation for EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES is based mainly on the novel by Tom Robbins. The first song, `Just Keep Me Moving' is based on the theme of hitchhiking. Sissy Hankshaw, played by Uma Thurman in the movie with extended thumbs, is a champion hitchhiker. "Moving" and "freedom" form the theme and the feeling of the music. It was easy to be a fan of the book, and the CD might be easier to appreciate if it included the words of the songs instead of its brief description of events at the Countess's Rubber Rose Ranch without mentioning the whooping cranes who fail to finish their migration after the cowgirls hook them on psychedelics. The movie was a failure because the attempt to build creative tension for a climax based on a shootout between cowgirls and federal agents did not live up to the low standards of credibility usually expected for a Hollywood western. But allowing a romantic team like k.d. lang and Ben Mink to compose the music for the film was brilliant.



The CD gets to track 8, `Lifted By Love,' before the line "I long to be lifted" combines all the "lifted high, carried by ..." images of the film into a musical statement. Then track 9 is an `Overture.' Violin coming out of nowhere leads into orchestration of all the themes used in previous track titles like `Myth,' `Apogee,' (only 37 seconds) and `Virtual Vortex' (44 seconds). Then a minute waltz precedes track eleven, "In Perfect Dreams."



In perfect dreams, you can fly, it seems.



Next, `Curious Soul Astray' pictures life as a child would, wanting it all.



Loving and laughing and longing to fall

A curious soul astray.



I ran for the wisdom and glory

Away, away, I ran



`Ride of Bonanza Jellybean' is a bit rocky. It stops, starts again, but no words. `Don't Be A Lemming Polka' sounds like a barn dance.



I'm gonna run high as can be

I looked behind to see them following me



Lemmings, head for the cliff

Round 'em up.



Banjo dominates `Cowgirl Pride' at the end of the CD. I personally believe that this CD shows how well musicians can do when they have a particular story to tell, and these tunes are much more to my liking than the introspective set of songs lang and Mink wrote for `Ingénue' in 1992. I wouldn't even know what to say about `all you can eat' from 1995, which I have not listened to in 2006."