Natalie Cole returns to the stage after rough road

Concerts are canceled for all kinds of reasons, but Natalie Cole's was a topper: a kidney transplant this very week in 2009, which took priority over an M Resort outdoor show.

"What a great reason though," the singer says now, readying for a Saturday show at The Cannery. That transplant day was indeed dramatic. "What would you call it? A bittersweet day. My sister passed away while I was getting a kidney transplant."

Her sister Carole was battling lung cancer at a different Los Angeles medical center. "I was sitting with her in the hospital when they called me to tell me they had a kidney for me."

The donation came from a 22-year-old fan, after the singer told Larry King her hepatitis C had caused kidney failure. The dying fan's wish to be a "direct donor" fast-tracked Cole through the usually long waiting period.

"It was just a bizarre set of coincidences that led me to getting a transplant. It was just weird," Cole says. "I'm just so grateful, but the way that it went down was just a series of little things that no human hand could put together."

Now, the 61-year-old singer says, "You just have to keep pushing forward and not let things get in the way. I just don't let anything get in the way of my music."

Cole is known for both pop hits -- "Pink Cadillac" and the ubiquitous movie-preview song "This Will Be" among them -- and for "Unforgettable," the modern template for pop singers cutting a standards album. It's difficult for her to find new terrain, but she wants to record an album of international music.

"Any time you get a second chance at anything, you've got to do better," she says. "Second chances don't come often."

Tickets are $44.75-$68.95 for the 8:30 p.m. Saturday show at The Cannery, 2121 E. Craig Road; call 507-5757.