Meaning of kd lang's song - the valley?

Answer 1

This is a love song symbolizing one lover's journey from her "conventional" place (the valley, populated by "conventional" people, the Blackbirds) toward her lover, a woman who lives in the hills (presumably a more enlightened or accepting place). The first part of the song depicts the journeying lover's life before she makes the journey. Very naive, wondering what the day will bring, as if she has no control over how her day will go. She is guided by the light and the blackbirds. Then the valley gets dark - the people of the valley (blackbirds) are now judging her, and the woman has been deserted by them and by a symbolic shepherd and the staccato of his staff. She trusts that she is doing the right thing by journeying to the hills, but sometimes she feels that what she thought she wanted has been taken away. All along, the lover in the hills says that the journeying lover will walk in good company. In the end, when the journeying lover reaches the hills, her lover tells her that the shepherd is there and flowing (as opposed to the staccato of the staff earlier in the journey).