Jonny Lang: Turned Around, but on Solid Ground

Fargo will once again welcome its favorite son, Jonny Lang, in a concert on Tuesday August 26 at the Fargo Theatre. It’s been five years since area folks have seen him perform live. He did appear this past spring at the Jackpot Junction Blues Fest in Morton, MN, near Redwood Falls, but that’s about as close as he got.

HPR visited with Jonny Lang back in 2003 when he was touring to promote “Long Time Coming,” an album that attempted to reflect something other than the dark side of the blues boulevard he’d been traveling down for a long time.

It was clear then that he wanted to write songs of substance in a very different medium, without his signature gravely wail and flashy guitar work. Lang was in the midst of a deep transformation that almost had him leaving music altogether.

Instead, he stuck with music but wanted to do something else with it, changing many of his performance venues, foregoing the bar scene to play theaters, ballrooms, festivals, casinos, and resorts.

Lang’s songwriting ability emerged when he was barely into his teens, recording four songs he either wrote or co-wrote for his 11-song first album, the independently produced “Smokin’.” (That album was digitally remastered and re-released in 2002.)

As he moved from being a child prodigy of the blues to a veteran musician, he opened for Aerosmith, the Rolling Stones, Sting, and the legendary B.B. King. He gained the respect of other blues greats like Luther Allison, Lonnie Brooks, and Buddy Guy, all of whom have asked Lang to share the stage with them. He recorded as a guest with John Popper, Anders Osborne, John Mayall, and Willie Nelson. His work has appeared on the soundtracks of “For the Love of the Game” and “Blues Brothers 2000,” for which he also did a cameo appearance.

Whether in truth Lang really is a blues performer, he has been branded one. When asked whether his audiences approved of the changes in him and his music, Lang said, “The novelty of being young has worn off. At some point, the music had to speak for itself. Maybe we have lost some people because I’ve grown up, but I don’t think so.”

That was back in 2003. Since then, Lang has won a Grammy for “Turn Around,” a CD that wasn’t a blues album nor a pop/rock album. “Turn Around” earned Lang the Recording Academy’s highest award for the Best Gospel Album in 2006.

This album, however, isn’t like any gospel album I’ve ever heard. In fact, it could be just a mainstream blues/rock album with really good songs that have some depth. There are no big tags in it that say that the songs are gospel, and Lang admits that. “It’s not like a worship album,” he said last week.

Though Lang said five years ago that making “Long Time Coming” was a natural progression, he asserted that change, even in genre and style, was necessary. “If I had done another album like the last two, it would have been going against the flow of growing as a musician.” He was struggling to find a new voice for his music.

By 2006, there was something deeper inside him that needed expression. He returned to the heartfelt delivery of the blues style but used it as a vehicle for a new crop of songs about choices and change and finding meaning. The songs are strong, dynamic, well written. They show that Lang has finally found his own voice, one that can convey deep ideas about life without preaching or without sounding naïve.

Lang has been road tested and life tested. He knows the traps that are out there and the many crossroads people can come to. He writes from this. This is where real songwriting comes from, when a musician finally has something to say, has the experience to say it, and has the tools to be able to. There is an earnestness in this work that wasn’t present before.

As an A-list artist who came out as a person of faith, Lang has experienced some expected resistance to his work. However, he seems to think it was worth full disclosure. “It felt really good to make a record that expressed my personal feelings, just sharing my relationship with God through my music. It was very gratifying. And, to have it have a level of success like winning a Grammy was an extra bonus,” he said recently. “I really didn’t know what to expect. I think some people were thrown off by it. The biggest comment I get back is that even people who would probably be a little turned off with something like that [a gospel album] are saying, ‘I don’t feel like this is pushing it down my throat. I feel like you’re just sharing it with me.’… I know what it’s like to have a spiritual point of view kind of shoved down your throat. It’s not fun. I was just trying to come at it from the standpoint of sharing what happened to me. This was what I wanted to achieve and I think I got close to that.”

In the meantime, Lang is writing new material for his next album. “I haven’t started recording yet,” he said. “I would think I would start recording by this winter sometime, but I have no real idea when the album will be released.”

When Lang returns to Fargo next week, the first concert in his hometown in a very long time, area friends, family, and fans will see a much happier, more confident Lang on stage. He will be backed up by bassman Jim Anton who played on Turn Around, Tommy Barbarella on keys, drummer Barry Alexander, Sonny Thompson on guitar, and singer Jason Eskridge.

Barbarella and Thompson played with Prince for a number of years. Thompson joined Lang this past spring. The other members of his band have been touring with him since “Turn Around” came out two years ago. They are all from Minneapolis, except for Eskridge who is from Nashville.

The Fargo Theatre will offer an intimate setting for Lang to present his new material. “I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “My goal with what I do is really to try to relate to as many people as possible through the music. My hope for everybody at some point during the concert is that we can meet somewhere in one of the songs.”

He wants the music to resonate with listeners. “And they can walk away, understanding their situation a little more, to have a peace or have a healing, to whatever extent that it can be a blessing to people, is my hope.”

If You Go

Who: Jonny Lang
Where: Fargo Theatre
When: Tuesday, August 26, 7 p.m.
How Much: $45
Info: 701.239.8385