Jonny Lang: Prodigal Son Of The Blues


hunter60
Humble student
Joined: 06/12/05
Posts: 1,579
hunter60
Humble student
Joined: 06/12/05
Posts: 1,579
01/05/2012 12:30 am


Jonny Lang: Prodigal Son Of The Blues
By Hunter60



If the blues are to survive, it all hinges on new talent. A continual development of young blues guitar slingers coming up through the ranks, paying their dues, doing their time on the road and earning their stripes. There is a lot of talent out there and a lot of it comes from places that you wouldn’t expect to fall within the ‘accepted’ blues geography of Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas or Mississippi. One place you might not expect to see a stellar blues musician to step out of is Fargo, North Dakota. Which is exactly where Jonny Lang started his career.

Jonny Lang, born Jon Gordon Langseth on January 29th, 1984, grew up in a music-friendly home. His father, a railroad engineer, played drums casually and his mother, a fan of roots and rhythm and blues music, often sang around the house. The only boy out of four children, Lang often times found himself singing along with his mother and three sisters around the house. In an interview, Lang said “It was pretty easy for me to identify with blues music after that because blues and soul are pretty close in a lot of ways. I could just hear it and mentally decipher it”. But he was not narrow in his choice of the music that moved him. He notes that he was “into Nirvana like crazy, and Stone Temple Pilots and Pearl Jam too. But for me, it was more real to play roots music.”

As far as his initial excursions into musical instruments, Lang’s first foray was the saxophone. He spent a year studying the instrument before turning his ear to the guitar. Lang’s father happened to be friends with local guitarist Ted ‘Lightnin’ Boy’ Larsen (guitarist and vocalist for Fargo’s own Bad Medicine Blues Band) and the friendship led to Larsen teaching Lang the guitar. Lang told Bob Gulla of Guitar magazine that “I was a blues snob at 13 years old … My teacher fed me records and I started learning the early stuff.’ His love affair with the blues was ignited. Lang took to the guitar hard spending 6 hours a day with the guitar in hand.

According to A&M Records, Lang found inspiration in musicians like Robert Johnson, Albert Collins, B.B. King and Freddie King. “It’s where it all started and which makes it a really good well to draw from.”

He progressed quickly and eventually joined up with Larsen’s outfit, becoming their lead guitarist and vocalist at the age of 15. The band renamed themselves as Kid Jonny Lang and The Big Bang. The band took to the North Dakota club scene and word spread quickly of their fiery lead guitarist who just happened to be an actual ‘kid’. The band cut and released a disc titled ‘Smokin’ on a small independent label, which sold approximately 25,000 copies. Feeling somewhat limited in North Dakota, the band relocated to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Like so many young hot shots, Lang and his band rolled into Minnesota feeling that they were the next best thing. But in the major metro of Minneapolis, Lang faced a harsh reality. In a Guitar magazine interview, Lang said “It didn’t take long to see that there were a whole lot of bands that kicked our asses.”

Competition being what it is, it forced Lang to get in and work or go home and going home was not what he had in mind. The band worked the clubs constantly with Lang venturing out to do some stage work with other local acts. One in particular, Doctor Mambo’s Combo, had an affinity for the young guitarist, bringing him up on stage and basically forcing him to improvise with them during their sets. The local scene in Minneapolis was, and still is, a monstrous music haven with a tremendous mix of styles setting the soundtrack. Despite his deep and heartfelt love of the blues, his time on the club scene also provided him a wide musical education as well as allowing him to develop some serious contacts.

One of those contacts was David Z., a producer of some renown for his work with Prince, who had seen and heard Lang in the clubs. David offered to produce a demo for Lang and as a result of that demo; Lang was offered a recording contract with A&M Records.

His major label debut, the million seller Lie To Me, was a truly gritty and bluesy affair that caught quite a bit of national attention. It caught a lot of blues fans off guard as well given that the guitar work had the edge of a veteran and the vocals belonged to a haggard blues man who had been sitting for too many nights in smoky blues clubs on Chicago’s South side. (Little Feats Paul Barrere once described Lang’s teen-aged voice as ‘the voice of a man who had been drunk for three or four years.’)

In 1998, Lang released his follow up disc Wander This World, although a blues disc per se, there was evidence of a sense of departure for Lang and the lingering tendrils of some of those influences he had been picking up. He revealed a growing sense of maturity and a willingness to experiment a bit – including some West Coast funk and a few tracks that carried a bit of a gospel tinge.

His third major label album, Long Time Coming released in 2003 was a bit of a disappointment to the pure blues fan. After a 5-year layoff from recording, Lang came back with an album where it seemed as he was trying to distance himself from the blues. In Long Time, the album bounces around a bit, never really settling on an identity but flirting more with a more general rock feel and somewhat unconvincingly at that. It was if Lang was turning in the pork pie hat and sunglasses for spandex and glitter and that’s just something he doesn’t wear well.

2006’s Turn Around was again another attempt for the young man to find himself. Not just as a musician but as a man. Turn Around was not his about face and heading back to the blues but rather a gospel record of sorts. But despite your spiritual leanings, there are some good things on this record. Again Lang shows off his increasing maturity as a vocalist and his guitar skills are simply amazing for a man of his age. Granted his song writing still has a ways to go but he’s not afraid to take long leaps and chances all along the way.

Despite his steps away from his blues roots over his young and still developing career, Lang returns to the red clay with 2010’s Live At The Ryman. Recorded at Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium, Lang stepped back and roared with a terrific showcase of his exceptional guitar skills. The centerpiece of the recording is a 10:15 crank fest called ‘Red Light’.

Lang is an interesting musician to watch develop. Each release is different in its own right and yet the underlying skills Lang wields are evident on every one. But with Live At The Ryman, it’s almost as if the prodigal son is on his way back home.
[FONT=Tahoma]"All I can do is be me ... whoever that is". Bob Dylan [/FONT]
# 1
cowboy_in_id
Registered User
Joined: 05/28/10
Posts: 2
cowboy_in_id
Registered User
Joined: 05/28/10
Posts: 2
01/13/2012 9:13 pm
A truly great blew singer/player. "Lie to Me" has to go down as one a great blues recordings ever. Especially considering the guy's age.
Thanks for catching me up with his continuing evolution.
R
# 2

Please register with a free account to post on the forum.