Jonny Lang Biography
Born January 29, 1981, near Fargo, ND; son of a drummer; three sisters. Addresses: Home--Minneapolis, MN; Record company--A&M Records, 1416 N. La Brea Ave., Hollywood, CA 90028 Phone: (213) 856-2695 Fax: (213) 856-2645.
Those who subscribe to the notion that only age and a lifetime of hardships can produce a blues musician have probably never heard Jonny Lang play guitar. Just ask legendary bluesman Buddy Guy, who toured with Lang in the summer of 1998: "That kid has just got what it takes, man," Guy said to Sean McDevitt of Guitar magazine. "Someone told me once that blues is like whiskey. They keep whiskey in the barrel for so many years, and then they talk about how well it's aged. But I don't think that goes for him. I think this young man has just stepped in there sayin', 'I'm gonna prove you all wrong.' I think he's like a watermelon, man. He's ripe." Blues godfather B.B. King felt the same way, according to A&M Records, adding, "When I was young, I didn't play like I do today. So these kids are starting at the height that I've reached. Think what they might do over time."
The teenage Lang intends to dispel beliefs that he is just another child novelty and to gain an audience beyond the typical curiosity seekers. As he told Ray Rogers of Interview, "If you do anything that's unusual when you're young, people love to accentuate the novelty, and the press loves to exploit it. But I've always told myself I'm going to be rated as a musician, not by how old I am. I said, 'I'm not going to be good for my age; I want to be good period.'" Rogers added that in addition to his skill at playing blues guitar in a way that makes the music sing through with a voice of experience, "Lang also has the grace of someone untainted by the world, a free spirit whose music and very person refuse to be bound by class, race, age, or any other expectation."
In 1997, after the release of Lang's major-label debut Lie to Me, Guitar magazine readers voted the 16-year-old "Best New Guitarist" in the publication's annual readers poll, and the editors of Newsweek placed Lang's name on their prestigious Century Club list, a roster of 100 Americans expected to influence society and culture in the next millennium. Rock guitarist Jeff Beck realized Lang's talent as well and asked the young musician to appear with him at a ceremony for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Two years later, Lang shook the blues scene again, releasing Wander This World, an album that incorporated elements of soul, rhythm and blues, funk, and hard rock in addition to blues standards and originals.
Jonny Lang was born and raised outside Fargo, North Dakota. The third child and only boy in a family of four children, Lang enjoyed a pleasant upbringing. His father played drums, and his mother revered roots music and the soul of the Motown era, so the Lang household was always filled with inspirational grooves. Growing up, Lang had fond memories of singing Motown tunes with his three sisters and mother. "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," Lang told Rogers. Despite his exposure to soul at home, Lang never felt out of sorts with the music his peers listened to. As he told Rogers, "I was into Nirvana like crazy, and Stone Temple Pilots and Pearl Jam, too. But for me, it was more real to play roots music."
During his time in school, Lang's father wanted his tall, lanky son to play basketball in addition to learning music. But Lang only lasted two games, admitting to Rogers, "I liked it all right, but I'd have rather sat at home and practiced saxophone." Starting out with saxophone at the age of eleven, Lang (at the time a huge fan of saxophonist Grover Washington, Jr.) concentrated on that instrument for a year before turning his attention to blues guitar. Guitarist Ted Larsen, a friend of Lang's father and former member of Lang's band, obliged to teach the anxious youngster how to play guitar if Lang agreed to learn only by playing the blues. Thus, "I was a blues snob at 13 years old.... My teacher fed me records and I started learning early stuff," Lang conceded to Guitar magazine's Bob Gulla. Practicing as many as six hours every day, Lang delved deep into the blues tradition developed by some of the most celebrated guitarists in blues history. "The blues was such a great place for me to start," noted Lang, according to his record company, "with Robert Johnson, Albert Collins, B.B. King, Freddie King and all those guys. It's where it all started which makes it a really good well that you can always draw from."
Before long, Lang progressed enough to begin paying his dues in clubs in North Dakota with an outfit called Jonny Lang and The Big Bang. Soon thereafter, club goers spread the word about the young teenager with a remarkable talent, and Lang and his band recorded an independent-label album entitled Smokin', a release that sold an estimated 25,000 copies. However, Lang felt that he had outgrown the confines of North Dakota and relocated to Minneapolis, a move he defined as "a very humbling musical experience." Full of ego as a consequence of his success in his native state, Lang immediately realized he still needed practice. "It didn't take long to see that there were a whole lot of bands that kicked our asses," he admitted to Gulla.
Motivated by the competition, Lang jumped into the Minneapolis club circuit with his band. One group that greatly inspired him to improve his technique was Doctor Mambo's Combo, a group that would frequently invite Lang on stage with them during their sets and force the teenage guitarist to improvise with them. He also made connections in Minneapolis with a number of former Prince cohorts, namely producer David Z, who offered to help Lang record a demo tape. Based on the demo with David Z, Lang received a contract offer from A&M Records.
Playing with some of the greatest blues legends in history, though, came to represent some of Lang's most memorable experiences. "Playing with B.B. has probably been the biggest thrill of my life," Lang admitted to Gulla. "Talk about humbling. I'm sitting next to God here. I just wanted to sit next to him and listen, not play at all. But he let me play, so I just... actually, I didn't know what I was doing. You don't wanna go 'diddly diddly diddly dee,' and play all these notes, 'cause B.B. will shut your ass up with one little 'biiinnggg,' and everybody will go wild. You can't be more tasteful than B.B. It's impossible."
Despite his admiration for the forbearers of blues, Lang also considered taking alternate musical directions, a contemplation resulting largely from his move to Minneapolis, a city where he could not ignore the music being created in other areas of music all around him. He admitted that when he first started playing blues, he was strictly a purist and refused to try anything else. Thus, after opening his eyes to other styles and using blues as a solid foundation, Lang released his follow-up album, Wander This World, in the fall of 1998. While Wander This World continued down the path of traditional blues, the album also incorporated a variety of unexpected musical destinations such as soul, rhythm and blues, and funk. For example, on the textured, mid-tempo title-track (written by band members Paul Diethelm and Bruce McCabe), Lang's seemingly aged vocal passion and finger picked guitar takes root amid Diethelm's accompanying Dobro. And the song "I Am," written by David Z (who produced the album as well) and Prince, featured a soulful funk sound, a thumping bass line, and a jazz saxophone.
"Playing funk on guitar is a different mind-set," Lang concluded to Gulla. "Junior Wells' stuff, or Buddy Guy's stuff like 'Good Morning Little School Girl' is so funky, you just have to listen to it. Funk is my favorite thing to play. I love funk more than anything. I could play rhythm guitar all day and be happy." One of Lang's friends from Blues Brothers 2000, Cropper, who Lang felt was one of the best funk guitarists, also came on board for the project. "Steve is so inspiring. He added the soul vibe to the whole album, so it's like listening to a Stax recording." Cropper's subtle technique sounded especially evident on the gospel-tinged "Leaving to Stay."
Lang's own heartfelt ballad "Breakin' Me" and the acoustic lament "The Levee" also forced critics to realize that the young star's career was only just beginning. He silenced those who labeled him as a fleeting child prodigy, demonstrating that not only could he draw from the rich blues tradition, but he could also learn to spread his creative wings in new directions with a sense of self-awareness rare in adults, let alone teenagers. The distinguished blues guitarist Luther Allison said of Lang before his death in 1997, as quoted by A&M Records, "Jonny Lang has the power to move the music into the next millennium by reaching the ears of a new generation. The great musicians have the power to break all of the 'isms'--race, age, sex, et cetera. Jonny Lang is one of those musicians."
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