This profile of Sarah McLachlan in NYT (gift link) is worth your time. I saw her play once, in (googles) 2003, as part of a SARS benefit at what’s now the Scotiabank Arena. I was too cool for her music and she still blew me away.

There’s lots I didn’t know about her in here. Here’s something:

As McLachlan’s profile grew, letters from stalkers mounted at Nettwerk’s offices, especially from an Ottawa programmer named Uwe Vandrei. They met once, and he slipped her a scarf. But after she read one of his pleas, she asked not to see more. Still, in the album’s opener, “Possession,” where bass pulses and guitars radiate above droning gothic organs, she worked to mirror his mind, to articulate his misplaced passions. When it became a hit, he sued, alleging McLachlan had lifted his words. Vandrei died before trial.

“I felt a strange sense of relief,” McLachlan said haltingly. “But then I thought, ‘Oh my God, this is somebody’s son. Should I have tried to reach out? Tried to talk some sense into him?’”

She’s coming to Toronto in June, and those lawn seats look pretty tempting.

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