Second wind

This past November, Pangman and Parker marked the oneyear anniversary of her operation by releasing a country CD, Say Uncle!, which was recorded with their band, Lickin’ Good Fried, and produced in the couple’s home a few months before Pangman’s operation. At that time, her lung capacity had fallen to 27 percent and it was becoming increasingly difficult for her to sing. “My world had gotten very small,” she recalls. “Getting out of bed was a struggle. As soon as I sat up, I would cough for half an hour, and getting showered and dressed left me winded.”

Today, her lung capacity averages about 80 percent and her voice has returned stronger than ever. She’s had some setbacks — pneumonia and a viral infection — but remains optimistic about her future. “These kinds of wrinkles are to be expected in the first year,” she says simply. “The good news is that I can sing again. It’s not like being a singer is just a job for me — it’s who I am. To have my craft slowly taken from me was hard; to have it back is pure joy!” Pangman still fondly recalls the day she returned home from the hospital and told her husband to grab his guitar. “We sang a song by Connie Smith called ‘Darling Are You Ever Coming Home.’ Before the operation it was like I was singing through a straw, and now I had a megaphone. For me, November 4 will always be a joyous anniversary, but for some family out there it’s a sad one. I won’t ever know who my donor was, but I intend to honour the gift I’ve been given. I want the donor family to know the joy their generosity has brought back into my life.”

Review by Mary Dickie
Alex Pangman’s roots might lie in traditional jazz, but she swings a different way in Lickin’ Good Fried, the rollicking old-time country band she co-fronts with her husband, “Col.” Tom Parker. On their album, Say Uncle! (Rooster Sandwich Records), Pangman and Parker roll their way through a dozen originals and a couple of covers — including Roger Miller’s wacky “My Uncle Used to Love Me (But She Died),” whose lyrics provided the band’s name — accompanied by guitar, mandolin, fiddle and bass. The album was released on the anniversary of Pangman’s lung surgery, and it sounds like the couple is enjoying every sweet minute of their music-making.

Read more
Top 10 albums of 2009
ELLE Interview: Harrison Ford
ELLE Celebrity: Jennifer Connelly

Read more in our Living and Celebrity channels