k.d. Lang (credit photo: Nonesuch Records 2011)

k.d. lang is coming out again. No, not that way.

After two decades as a solo artist -- and years of musical introspection and exploration -- Alberta's best-known vegan-Buddhist singer-songwriter is emerging from her musical shell and returning to band-driven torch 'n' twang on her fittingly titled 13th album Sing it Loud.

"I just get on these tangents," explains the 49-year-old lang from her Los Angeles home. "I spent the last 10 years really focusing on the subtleties of singing and studying the crooning style. And before that it was the pop thing, and before that it was seven years of the country thing. And just this year, all of a sudden it's like this different thing, this different perspective. I didn't really know it was coming. And I don't even really know what to call it. But it's definitely more extroverted. And it just feels right."

It doesn't sound bad either. Co-written and cut on the fly in Nashville with her new quintet The Siss Boom Bang -- featuring former Guster member Joe Pisapia and members of her touring band -- Sing it Loud (available as a 10-song CD or a 14-song download from lang's website) marries rich countripolitan sophistication to earthy Memphis soul to create lang's warmest and most welcoming work in many a year.

With a summer on the Canadian folk festival circuit on the horizon, lang got on the horn to talk musical chemistry, the joy of live performance and making a Glee-ful noise.

Your 2008 CD Watershed was very intimate and homemade. Is Sing it Loud a reaction to that?

No, it just happened. I was doing soundchecks on the Watershed tour and playing guitar, and I found myself doing country songs. I thought, 'Well, that's interesting; I'm gravitating back toward that.' And a fellow Canadian who was working for me doing monitors was also doing sound for Guster. And he said, 'k.d., you've got to meet my friend Joe.' So I met him backstage in Nashville at the Ryman Auditorium, the Grand Ole Opry. And I just clicked with him instantly. And then I went down to Nashville, and Joe and I wrote two songs the first time we got together. It was just instant chemistry. And Joe had a studio, so it unfolded really naturally and very, very quickly. We recorded eight songs in three days, and then another three songs in two days. It was really fast.

That is fast. Did you just know in your gut it was good or did you second-guess it?

I didn't second-guess this at all. Not for one second. The second everybody walked in the room, it was totally palpable that this was the band. You could taste it. The synergy, the energy, the musicianship, the personalities -- everything just fell into place. And it was July 4 weekend, so the name Siss Boom Bang came from that -- it was spontaneous and combustible.

The album is a real mix of sounds and styles -- Nashville and Memphis, Roy Orbison and Dusty Springfield. Was there a plan? What were you going for sonically?

All of the above. But we weren't trying to direct traffic too much because it all happened so fast that we didn't spend time trying to retrofit something into a style. It was really just the players and the instruments that were lying around, and what felt right. But Joe and I had talked about what we wanted the record to feel like. We wanted it to be soulful and unpretentious and make people feel good. And I knew I wanted to tour Canadian folk festivals and that when I stepped out onstage, I wanted those songs to play themselves. So I was thinking ahead a little.

You seem to like keeping fame at arm's length. How do you feel about stepping back into the spotlight and promoting yourself? Is it a necessary evil?

It's probably that I have a really s---ty short-term memory, and every time I think it's going to be great and then ... no, I'm just joking. Yeah, it's definitely a necessity. But it's not an evil. It's just part of the process that gets me to where I want to be, which is in front of an audience. I love singing live. That's what it's about for me, being a great performer. When my life is over and everything is boiled down to the last drop of k.d. lang tincture, that's what it's about. I want to be good onstage.

So if you couldn't write or record any more, would singing live be enough for you?

No (laughs). That wouldn't be good enough. I love the recording process because it gives me a chance to shape my path. Making the records, to me, has always been a portal into who I am onstage. It allows you retrospection and introspection and perspective into where you're going and what you're doing with your music.

How does your spirituality affect your art?

It's inseparable. I only became a practitioner 10 years ago, so it's only been since then that things have really kicked into high gear for me spiritually. And I've gone through many variations and perspectives on my relationship to music over those 10 years. Where it's taken me now is to this point of celebration and freedom in my relationship with music.

You sang You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch on Glee. Some artists aren't fans of the show. What do you like about it?

You know what? I've got to be totally honest with you: I've never watched the show. I don't know anything about Glee except that it's hugely popular. My manager called me and said, 'I think you should do this.' And I said, 'I'll do it for you this one time.' I just did it for my manager. It took me like half an hour.

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