K.D. lang is getting back to her Canadian roots, thanks to an old American friend, Tony Bennett.

Collaborating with Bennett on her 2000 release A Wonderful World not only earned her her third Grammy, it changed her life.

"I feel more settled," lang says from her Los Angeles home. "When I first started I was a bull coming out of the chutes. I was so excited to be making music. But over the 20 years of my career it's more fulfilling to hone my craft.

"I can't even begin to say how much he means to me. He's an amazing, gracious man. I keep wondering to myself, where does one go from here? An opportunity to work with someone like that is priceless.

"The thing I cherish the most is our friendship. I have an elder who taught me about singing a song, getting simpler and more intense in terms of the emotion and narrative."

Now, at 42, the singer born Kathryn Dawn is gradually dropping many of the wacky disguises that made the gender-bending singer impossible to categorize, beginning with the Patsy Cline cowpoke of her early days to her drag-inspired pinstriped pop singer.

That new focus comes through loud and clear on her new album, Hymns of the 49th Parallel, a glowing tribute to the Canadian singer-songwriters she grew up listening to. She'll play a selection of songs from the album, plus some old favourites, at the National Arts Centre tomorrow.

On Hymns, lang is backed by sweeping string arrangements of Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Ron Sexsmith, Jane Siberry, Bruce Cockburn and Leonard Cohen. The addition of a symphony orchestra, she says, immediately gives the music the resonance it deserves.

"Jane Siberry and Joni Mitchell are my favourite songwriters," says the Alberta native. "Joni is god for most female singers my age. These are songs I've loved all my life. They are my musical DNA."

The irony, she admits, is her most personal record to date came from Bennett between takes on the album.

"Tony would talk about the history of the American songbook," she recalls. "I thought that Canada should be doing it too. Canadian songwriters are connected to nature, the four seasons and the geography."

The one casualty of lang's mid-life re-evaluation is her own songwriting.

"It sucks," she laughs, showing a flash of the old prankster. "I'm not interested in songwriting right now. It isn't writer's block. I feel like I can't say anything deep right now. At least I can sing deep."