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FYI

Early Days When Cowboys Found KD Lang A Bit Too Strange

Kathryn Dawn Lang, OC wasn't always the perfect singer and the toast of Music City. In fact, in her backyard in early days she was a force to reckon with, and some of the forces she had to reckon with weren't warm to her punked-up hillbilly persona. Ross Perlmutter explains.

Early Days When Cowboys Found KD Lang A Bit Too Strange

By External Source

Ross Perlmutter Facebook


“I have a very special board tape of kd getting fired, by the crowd, onstage at the Ranchman’s in Calgary.

The short story is that Neil McGonnigal and I booked her into the Ranchman’s for her Calgary debut. The place was packed with cowboys and local music people, and the first set went swimmingly. Halfway through the second set, some drunk cowboys thought: ‘Hey, waitaminute. This woman is a gawdamn punk rocker, and she’s making fun of our music!’ And they approached the stage. On the tape, you can clearly hear them say ‘you have to leave!’, and kd responds by saying ‘OK, we’ll just finish this set...’

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‘No, NOW!’

“Kd apologized with an ‘OK, buckaroos and buckarettes’ and that was it. We pulled her from the Ranchman’s and booked her right next door at another club called Longhorns, and that was the start of her rise to fame. That tape remains one of my most prized possessions.”

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Billboard Canada Managers to Watch 2026: The Rising Execs Guiding Angine de Poitrine, Hilary Duff, Mae Martin & More
Management

Billboard Canada Managers to Watch 2026: The Rising Execs Guiding Angine de Poitrine, Hilary Duff, Mae Martin & More

Canada's fast-rising managers on navigating a quickly changing music industry. Plus: Managers of the Year Matthew Burnett & Jordan Evans (Daniel Caesar) and International Manager of the Year Tommas Arnby (Yungblud) share their best advice.

Managers are architects of the music industry, driving Canadian careers as they reach stages all across the globe. Now more than ever, being a manager means wearing numerous hats, from signing deals to managing tours, rights, strategy and more. As much as it's about making crucial decisions, music management is about building trust and relationships. It’s about making sure all parts of the equation work together to succeed.

The talented people in this year’s Billboard Canada Managers to Watch list are responsible for some of the biggest moments of the last year in Canadian music, from blockbuster comeback tours to international treks, Juno Award wins, breakthroughs, major label signings and more. Between providing resources and building real-time impact, music managers are connecting musicians with fans and opportunity, crafting a tangible influence that is born locally, but undeniably impacting the whole world.

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