Baby Blues
September 17, 1998
by Anni Layne

Seventeen-year-old Jonny Lang wanders the world
 

When Elvis Presley released his first Sun Records singles more than forty years ago, DJs mistook him for a young black bluesman. If those same ignorant radioheads had heard teen phenomenon Jonny Lang play, odds are they'd make the same mistake.
Born forty-six years after the King, yet raised on the same diet of blues and R&B, Lang was crowned "child prodigy of the year" shortly after the release of his 1997 debut, Lie To Me. With the growl of a man and the guitar prowess of a John Lee Hooker, the then sixteen-year-old wunderkind was invited to open shows for Mt. Rushmore-worthy blues titans Buddy Guy and B.B. King, as well as the Rolling Stones and Aerosmith. Now a regular traveling bluesman with the road scars to prove it (he pulled out of King's Blues Music Festival last month due to a viral throat infection), Lang is preparing to introduce his second A&M Records release, appropriately titled Wander This World, on Oct. 20.

He can't legally drink, smoke or vote, but can do everything with a guitar except have it bring in the morning paper. On Wander This World, Lang explores nearly every important musical genre of this century: gospel on "Leaving to Stay," R&B on "Angel of Mercy," Stones-style rock on "Right Back" and even a little funk on "I Am."

Originally composed by Prince more than five years ago, "I Am" was never recorded or released before Lang made it his own. "That song was also written by my producer, David Z," Lang explains. "He just had a rough work tape, and the song originally was really, really fast with all these Star Wars gun samples. We slowed it down and made it greasier."

Another momentous track for Lang is "Cherry Red Wine" -- a song originally recorded by the late great Chicago blues guitarist Luther Allison, who died of lung cancer more than a year ago. In a tribute to his friend and mentor, Lang recorded the classic my-baby-done-me-wrong blues tune using Allison's very own guitar.

"He was just a good friend, and a really good person," Lang says about Allison. "And in almost all of his interviews he would mention young musicians. He was just always really supportive of me. There were a lot of people who weren't."

At first some dismissed Lang's work as a gimmicky rip-off of real blues -- or worse, a Johnny-come-lately to a young-white-prodigy field already inhabited by Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Derek Trucks. The starry-eyed teenager barely blinked. Instead, he studied masters like Stevie Wonder and began concentrating more and more on songwriting. Whereas only one Lie To Me song listed the young guitarist in the songwriting credits, four Wander This World tunes -- primarily soulful, anguished songs like "Breakin' Me" and "Walking Away" -- were penned by Lang.

"These songs accentuate my voice better than blues stuff," he says. "Soul stuff is more my bag, I was just too afraid to put soul songs on Lie To Me because I got pigeonholed as a strictly blues kind of guy."

This sophomore album was Lang's opportunity to make heads spin -- again. And just in case critics don't believe that the pained and poetic man they hear on Wander This World is the same scrawny boy they dismissed last year, Lang will continue his relentless touring schedule in support of the new album. He will perform more than a dozen European shows through November and then return home to support Wander This World this winter -- perhaps with yet another arena-packing legend.

"Going out on the road with [Aerosmith and the Rolling Stones], the biggest thing was being humbled," Lang says. "You know where you stand, and you get an idea of what it takes to make it. Basically what it boils down to is this: Great musicians are a dime a dozen, but it's all the really nice guys who are still there."