Friday, February 19, 2016

Cindi Lauper: Country Star

Cyndi Lauper's country music album
"Detour" is to be released May 6.  
Cyndi Lauper is now a country singer, I kid you not.

Lauper is known for her long musical career, highlighted by the 1980s classic "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and for writing the songs for the Broadway smash "Kinky Boots."

She's got a long list of hits under her belt. She's smart, funny, a great writer. You can't deny that.

But Lauper, also known for her thick Queens accent, doesn't come off as a country singer. Early indications from her new country album "Detour"  

The album is all country classics that we've all heard and loved before; Most notably, she does covers of two Patsy Cline songs, "Walkin' After Midnight" and "I Fall To Pieces."

In the press release announcing that the country album will drop in May, Lauper said, "I spent a lot of time in my room singing with Patsy. I had to sing a Patsy Cline song - or two - because her voice was like one of my girlfriends. That's how close I felt to her."

Lauper gets some help in "Detour" from some big country music stars, singing duets with the likes of   Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Vince Gill and Alison Krauss. That's the track I most want to hear: Lauper and Krauss singing Dolly Parton's "Hard Candy Christmas."

Judging from the following YouTube video, in which Lauper sings the country classic "Heartache By the Numbers," she really does work as a country singer. It's not the best version I've ever heard of the song, but I definitely like it.

You go Cyndi!

Here's "Heartache By The Numbers" by Cindi Lauper:

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