Introduction
In a rare 1990 performance captured on YouTube, Canadian icon Stompin’ Tom Connors invites fellow Prairie legend k.d. lang on stage to sing two spirited songs—“Lady, k.d. lang” and the rollicking “CA-NA-DA (Cross Canada).” This moment fuses Connors’s hard-stomping folk-country authenticity with lang’s crystalline vocals, celebrating both personal friendship and national pride.
Stompin’ Tom Connors, born Charles Thomas Connors in 1936, built a career around telling Canadian stories in song, releasing over 300 originals between 1964 and 2013.
On his 1990 stage show, he introduced k.d. lang as “another Canadian icon,” sharing the spotlight and a stomp-along board that has become his trademark.
Kathryn Dawn “k.d.” lang, a Alberta-born singer-songwriter active since 1981, brought a mezzo-soprano warmth and pop-country savvy that had already earned her multiple Juno and Grammy Awards by 1990.
In “Lady, k.d. lang,” Connors spins affectionate lyrics about his friend’s rise—from Edmonton dive bars to Olympic stages—with playful guitar chords underpinning lang’s soaring harmonies.
Recorded live in front of cheering fans, the song feels like a personal thank-you note set to melody, capturing both Connors’s down-home charm and lang’s polished poise.
Watching lang light up the stage, you sense the genuine admiration between two artists who share a love for Canada’s wide-open spaces and proud traditions.
Next up, Connors launches into “CA-NA-DA (Cross Canada),” originally released on his My Stompin’ Grounds album on June 30, 1971.
With its sing-along chorus spelling out “C-A-N-A-D-A” and lyrics mapping a coast-to-coast journey, the tune exemplifies Connors’s gift for weaving place-names into catchy folk anthems.
As lang stomps along beside him, each “Cross Canada” refrain becomes a communal celebration—inviting listeners to clap, sing, and feel at home from Newfoundland’s bays to British Columbia’s Rockies.
This duet matters because it blends Connors’s grassroots storytelling with lang’s modern artistry, reminding us that Canadian music thrives when its voices unite.
It’s a snapshot of two friends honoring each other’s journeys, a moment of joy that still clicks when you hit play today