Listen to Cyndi Lauper Cover Patsy Cline’s ‘Walkin’ After Midnight’ (WSJ Exclusive)
The song appears on her upcoming album 'Detour,' out May 6
Cyndi Lauper returns this spring with her eleventh album “Detour,” a collection of country covers recorded in Nashville that finds the musician exploring new sonic territory.
One of those songs is a rendition of “Walkin’ After Midnight,” made famous by Patsy Cline. Lauper’s version premieres on Speakeasy today below.
Lauper says she has a unique connection to the song, as it reminds her of her early days as an artist.
“In the ‘80s, when I was famous, I wasn’t able to go out much,” she says. “I didn’t want to live with the whole bodyguard thing. I hate that. At that point in my life, I just stayed in and my friend worked at MCA and sent me all these Patsy Cline tapes. That was like my best friend and I sang and sang with her.”
On “Detour,” Lauper tapped veteran session musicians Dan Dugmore (Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor) on steel pedal guitar, guitarist Tom Bukovac (Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood), Willie Weeks (Eric Clapton, Randy Newman) on bass and Chad Cromwell (Neil Young, Dolly Parton) as her backing band. Willie Nelson joins her on a version of his song “Night Life,” Emmylou Harris contributes vocals alongside Vince Gill’s guitar on the title track, and Alison Krauss lends her voice on Carol Hall’s “Hard Candy Christmas.”
“Detour” is Lauper’s first album since 2010′s “Memphis Blues,” a blues record that found her collaborating with greats like Allen Toussaint, B.B. King and Johnny Lang.
For Lauper, who in recent years struck Broadway gold as the composer and lyricist of “Kinky Boots,” finding new genres to explore has been necessary.
“I sang [in the early ‘90s] with k.d. Lang at some convention and she said, “You know, I detect a little country in you.” But I kept chasing that treadmill, riding that other wave – but it doesn’t come like that. Once you understand you’re not going to be like Madonna or Prince or Billy Idol – you’re going to be you – and your path is going to be different, then you can embrace it and say “Hells bells.”
“Detour” is out May 6 on Sire. Listen to “Walkin’ After Midnight” by clicking through to the original article by Mike Ayers at wsj.com