Jonny Lang has still got the blues.
Lang said his new record is more rock than his previous efforts, but no doubt about it, he's still the same crooning singer/songwriter/guitar playing fool. He just finished writing and co-producing an album that he said he couldn't be happier with.
His latest album, Long Time Coming, is a touching journal of Lang's life for the past two years. Love is in the air on this album - Lang has that can't-get-you-out-from-under-my-skin kind of blues. And it's not just a romantic love Long Time Coming details, but a more mature understanding and love of life itself.
Lang made it big on the blues scene at age 13 and this year at 22, he's had somewhat of an epiphany. The album's effort seems to be completely dedicated to growth, reflection and the human condition at 22.
"I felt like this is the real me," Lang said in a news release. Lang fans shouldn't worry, although this album is quite a leap from his others, it is not unrecognizable. His trademark vocal quality and skills keep the album familiar.
This was a nice effort to break out of the blues box and head down rock 'n' roll lane, but as they say, you can take the boy out of the blues, but you can't take the blues out of the boy. Lang's rich, old blues-man voice exercises new things on this album; almost like he is still trying to find his place. It's not jarring to hear Lang in vocal acrobatics, but it says a lot about his need to transform what he has been for the past nine years.
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"This is the most complete thing I've done," he said. "On my other albums I felt like I was kind of pigeonholed as doing what a blues guitar player dude should do. But in my mind I'm not a blues singer. And I'm not a blues writer either. This record is more rock than any others, but there are a lot of different things going on here."
Lang isn't a blues singer or writer when compared to someone like B. B. King. Lang is more of a blues modernist; he's the blues voice of all twenty-somethings who have no idea what it was like when blues greats like King hit the scene. He gives a new generation of voice to the blues world, which is nothing to shrug off.
In line with the transformation/growth theme, Lang's co-producer on Long Time Coming is the acclaimed Marti Fredrickson who was behind Ozzy Osborne, Aerosmith and Faith Hill albums. Fredrickson didn't accept a good record - he wanted the best.
"It was incredible how well we worked together," Lang said. "It was pure chemistry."
Long Time Coming is testament to this. Who knows if this is rock or blues or both? But it's definitely inspired. This is a beautiful record, meant to be played loud and absorbed fully.
"I used to feel when I would sing or play guitar it would all go off into thin air and disappear somewhere," Lang said. "But now it feels like something is happening when I play music. It's not just to satisfy myself, but it's about giving my music and that makes all the difference."
