A Plucky Strike

NEW YORK — If there’s one celebrity whom nobody would peg as a smoker, it’s k.d. lang. Radiantly healthy and famously vegetarian, with a voice as smooth as a baby’s bottom, the Grammy-winning singer could be the anti-Joe Camel--a poster girl for clean living.

So chain-puffers and anti-tobacco activists alike may be a bit surprised by the focus of lang’s new album, “Drag,” which will be released today by Warner Bros.

Though the title is in part a coy reference to lang’s androgynous appearance--the cover shot, in which she’s wearing a tuxedo, is a takeoff on a classic photo of seminal gender-bender Marlene Dietrich--it’s more generally intended as a reference to smoking, which lang defines as the common thread linking the 12 songs on “Drag,” all of which were written and/or previously released by other artists.

With material ranging from a relaxed, playful version of Steve Miller’s “The Joker” (“I’m a joker, I’m a smoker, I’m a midnight toker”) to a lush, moody reading of the Peggy Lee hit ballad “Don’t Smoke in Bed,” “Drag” is a concept album that is bound to give new meaning to lang’s reputation as a torch singer.

Between performing on “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” and taping an upcoming VH1 special here last week, lang, who keeps homes in Vancouver and Los Angeles, takes a break in the coffee shop of a downtown hotel.

Dressed simply in jeans and a neat black shirt, her translucent skin and non-nicotine-stained teeth glowing in the late-afternoon light, the soft-spoken, good-humored singer does not look for an ashtray.

“I don’t smoke,” lang points out, smiling. “But I had sung a few songs about cigarettes earlier in my career, and I found that I really liked singing about cigarettes and coffee, which I drink on and off. The cigarette in particular has an interesting history.

“Back in Edwardian times, it was pushed on women as something that was cool and glamorous; then in the ‘50s it became rebellious. With the amount of information we have about smoking now, it symbolizes something completely different. It’s, like, a sign of the antichrist!”

In choosing songs for “Drag,” lang sought “to cover this complete spectrum, the pros and the cons. I didn’t want it to be a political record, or a judgmental record. I really wanted to just document what cigarettes have meant to society, how they’ve been used metaphorically.”

The singer points to such selections as “My Last Cigarette” and “My Old Addiction” as “darker sides of the album, where I’m dealing with the idea of addiction. You can have an almost romantic association with your addiction, whether it’s an addiction to cigarettes or heroin or a bad relationship.”

In contrast, lang’s interpretation of the old Hollies hit “The Air That I Breathe” is meant to evoke the sensation of “a cigarette after sex.” She laughs. “That’s the summation of [“Drag”], for me. It’s like a Nicorette--a cigarette-replacement album.”

Since 1989’s “Absolute Torch and Twang,” the Canadian singer has written most of her recorded material with creative partner Ben Mink. But she was too exhausted when her lengthy “All You Can Eat” tour ended last fall to resume songwriting. Conveniently, she had developed a vision for “Drag.”

“To me, interpretive singing is a dying art form,” lang stresses. “I think it’s important to take standards and give them a contemporary perspective. I’ve never been interested in a retrospective approach; I always try to mix the traditional with the progressive.”

Having already lent her skills as a song stylist to country-flavored and swing-accented music, in addition to mature pop ballads such as those on her platinum 1992 album “Ingenue,” lang wanted “Drag” to have a “jazzy, minimalist, organic” feel.

So she tapped Craig Street, noted for his work with jazz-based vocalists Cassandra Wilson and Jimmy Scott, to co-produce the collection with her.

“k.d. wanted to give her audience another side of herself with this project--to soften her voice a bit, not to belt as much. . . .,” says Carl Scott, lang’s longtime product manager at Warner Bros.

For her part, lang she won’t be touring again right away, admitting she’s still a bit tired. “When you write and record and then tour behind an album, as I did with [1995’s] ‘All You Can Eat,’ it’s a good two years out of your life.”

Adding to her busy schedule in recent months have been a couple of well-received television acting roles. In May, lang--who starred in the 1991 independent film “Salmonberries”--appeared as a hyperactive producer in the made-for-TV movie “The Last Don.” And in April, of course, there was the coming-out episode of “Ellen,” in which lang parodied her own image as an openly lesbian performer.

“I chose to change from k.d. lang to what I think of as a stereotypical dyke,” the singer says, chuckling. “So I had the [Mohawk] wig and the black leather vest and all these gay buttons. . . . It was really fun, and it was great to be there for Ellen [DeGeneres], because we’ve been social friends for six years. And if it was a positive moment in gay history, then I’m very proud to have been part of it.”

Before making “Drag,” lang took drama lessons, and her publicist says she is receiving more scripts to consider. But the road-weary singer seems happy to report that she has no additional acting projects lined up for the immediate future.

“I’m feeling domesticated right now,” she says. “I have a new dog, and I’m digging being home. And I’m really focused on getting this new album out and on its way. I try to constantly reevaluate what’s important to me--to grow as an artist, as a vocalist, as someone who works with other people. You gotta just keep moving forward, you know?”