POP MUSIC REVIEWS : K. D. IS A-OK

A star is born. Canada’s K. D. Lang and the Reclines might have come into the Roxy on Thursday with the kind of advance hype that’s hard to live up to, but in this case what you’ve heard is true.

Combining performance art instincts and a passion for country music, Lang is an ingratiating and unique artist. Backed by five musicians playing smart Western swing, polka and ballads with plenty of snap, crackle and Pop, Lang displayed a fetching vocal prowess--she may not have the range of her idol, Patsy Cline, but she can bellow and soar with the best of them.

As equally sincere singing a nugget like “I Never Promised You A Rose Garden” or clog-hopping to a square dance raver like her original “Turn Me Round,” she displayed a cool-headed control over material that in other hands might seem like a campy put-on. But even with her costume changes (from punk-rodeo to cocktail-floozy chic) and the band’s occasional helpings of corn pone, Lang’s affection for down-home sentiment proved that this was no joke.