Blues Revue
Issue No. 28  April/May 1997
by Bob Vorel

 If there is one single important element in the life of a practicing artist, the element that separates the wannabes from the success stories, it is the need to create.
This need, this drive becomes a life force unto itself, consuming all thought and desire into one encapsulated vision of what the world is about.  In the case of a musician, particularly a blues musician, it is a rich tapestry of instrumentals and vocals, woven tightly by time into an identifiable 12-bar figure that is, on the surface, seemingly without variation.  The 12-bar is in truth, as varied as the artist who performs it – a foundation, if you will, for the artist’s inspiration, much as the canvas is to the painter.

Once in a great while a musician comes along who really hits the mark: exceptional musicianship, heartfelt vocals and a passion for the music that thrills the soul.  Career obstacles abound and often, no matter the level of talent, it is impossible for that musician to find necessary support to grow quickly and achieve national/international status in a field already crowded with the high caliber of talent that we have in the blues arena.
 

 Without support, the artist wallows in anonymity and the fruit of his or her passion never is fully appreciated by the fans.  With the support of good management and a serious label, an artist has only to look to his own soul to see where the limits of his career achievements might lie.  Jonny Lang has this support, and he has looked into his soul to view the future.  Look past Jonny’s youth for a moment and reflect on his dreams and aspirations.  You will find the same spiritual fiber that links all great musicians from the distant Delta past to the present live performers: a natural ability and an overwhelming desire to create music that moves the soul.

If Jonny were just a guitar slinger, then he’d just be one of the really good young performers cropping up everywhere these days.  But it is Jonny’s vocals that separate him from the really good musicians and solidly places him in the ranks of the “about to be great!” R&B artist Syl Johnson’s manager quotes Syl as saying, “He is, bar none, the next big superstar!”  I agree with Syl and will even go one better.  If ever there was a young musician with the opportunity to eclipse the memory of Stevie Ray, I believe it will be Jonny Lang.

As a bonus, Jonny’s obvious attraction to the youth of America could possibly open a lot of doors to a younger and larger mainstream market for other blues musicians.  A lot of pressure for a boy of 16 years, eh?  Jonny’s response is: “Not at all.  You know, it’s what some people might take as pressuring situations, but it doesn’t bother me at all.  It’s going to better me as a musician in the long run.  So, I’m for that.  And whatever heartache or pressure is drawn from that is just like anything else; you have to go through the hard times as well.  It’s really an opportunity to better myself.”  Wise and philosophical words for one so young.

Jon Gordon Langseth, also known as Jonny Lang, was born on Jan. 29, 1981, in Fargo, N.D., to Jon and Marcia Langseth.  Jonny is the third of four children, with two older sisters, Stephanie, 27, and Heidi Jo, 24, and another sister, Jessica, just a year younger than he.  Jonny’s parents are divorced, with Marcia and Jessica living in Minneapolis and Jon senior and Jonny living in Minneapolis when not on the road.  You see, Jon senior is not just a father; he is also the road manager for the Jonny Lang Band, all the members of which are easily two to three times the age of the band’s star.

Jonny had an unusually normal childhood and upbringing.  He could have been the boy next door.  The only difference between Jonny and most 16-year-olds today, maybe even the one sitting in front of the television in your living room as you read this, is that Jonny knows definitely what he wants to do with his life, and he is committed to doing whatever it takes to get there.  “I guess I love music more than anything.  I don’t know where that comes from, but the passion to play music or to be involved in music in any way is something that I’ll always do.  You kinda gotta do it like you live life – like it’s your last day, your last note that you’re going to play.  But it’s just that I like it so much.”

Jonny’s affinity for music and performance didn’t happen overnight.  In his own words, Jonny comments on his early years as a budding performer: “I was the court (family) jester, but I don’t remember a lot of it.”  Jonny’s father remembers though: “We’ve got a video of Jonny doing ‘Beat it,’ the Michael Jackson tune, doing the moon walk when it was real hip and all that stuff.  He’s like 3 years old and singing this stuff.    He’s always wanted to be in front of the camera and in front of the people.  And the same way with joking, he’s got a great sense of humor and he likes to be out in front, singing or whatever it is.”

It was only three years ago that Jonny picked up the guitar for the first time.  He played a short stint on the saxophone in the school band, but it was a concert by a Fargo blues band that turned his head and his heart to blues and a career in music.  Jonny picked up the technical aspects of guitar and vocals so quickly that within a few months he was leading that band, the Bad Medicine Blues Band, and so its founders, Ted Larsen, became Jonny’s mentor and band-mate for the next three years.  As in all musical ensembles, change is inevitable.

Jonny is now leading a new group, the Jonny Lang Band, as fine a group of musicians as any leader could front.  But it is Jonny who kicks this group into high gear.  Head thrown back and mouth held open as if catching raindrops, legs marching to the drummer’s rhythms, Jonny shows no evidence of mimicry in his approach to entertaining.  His music, sometimes bluesy and sometimes rockin’, is rooted deeply in the blues with influences as diverse as Syl Johnson, Albert Collins, Albert King, Stevie Wonder and B.B. King.  His guitar attack is percussive and emotional with a raw edge to his tone that would have Albert Collins smiling approvingly.  “My picking style, I think, has the most to do with what sound comes out.  I use really heavy picks and pick really hard like you would do with your finger, and I also pick with my finger a lot like Albert Collins did - really heavy.”

He is as comfortable onstage as he is in his own living room, and yet he concedes it wasn’t always that way.  “I’m very aware of everything that’s going on onstage.  I didn’t used to be, I guess.  I was kinda worried about what I was doing at first, but now I’ve learned from playing with good musicians.  It’s a give-and-take thing onstage and with the audience.  I don’t know what people are thinking, but I usually get a really good vibe from the crowd.  It seems like they are having fun and as long as they are having fun, I’m happy.”

Jonny’s gritty vocals and blues phrasing belie his young age and seeming inexperience. He has studied the works of the great singers before him, but he doesn’t fall into the usual career mistake of trying to sound like his heroes: “No, definitely not.  Just trying to gather what they’re thinking at the time, what they are singing.  What I’ve learned mostly is that spontaneity is the effect you want.  Phrasing is really key and I was not good at that at first, but B.B. King is just the master of phrasing.  B.B. put it all in the right place.”

But great performance is only part of the requirement to make “it.”  The recordings must come as well, and they had better be as hot as the live performance!  Signed to A&M records for the guaranteed four-record deal, Jonny’s first major label recording, Lie To Me, hit the stores in late January, and his video of the title track was scheduled to begin airing on MTV and VH1 in early February.  Jonny’s manager, Miki Mulvehill, states: “I think it is important to let people know that Jonny isn’t told what music to play, that it is basically his idea.  It’s not like the producer picked out all the music and Jonny didn’t have any hand in it or the stuff that he writes or the stuff that they perform onstage.  Jonny is molding himself. …  We went with A&M because they got it.  They said, ‘He’s really talented.  We don’t care if the first record is the hugest thing. …  We’re going to be at this for a long time.  Let’s make a lot of records.  Let’s grow with Jonny.’  That’s almost a word-for-word quote.”

When questioned as to whether he will end up a slick rock act, Jonny responds: “No. I mean I’m trying as hard as I can in my mind not to be the most commercial. …  I mean, the commercial route is necessary, some aspects, and if the time does come that I have to be commercial just to better myself or better whatever I am doing, then I’m for that.  But I try as hard as I can to stay with my blues roots.  I think ‘Lie to Me,’ the song, kinda goes that direction (blues rock).  All the music that I play will always have a very strong blues root; I mean it won’t be mistaken.  Put it that way.  That’s what’s in my heart.  I’ll always be a blues guitar player.”

When I heard the title cut, “Lie to Me,” I was struck by the passion that young Jonny brought to what I thought was a song about a woman who had done him wrong.  “No, actually when I was singing that song I was thinking of all the sharks out there, you know, trying to make a buck.  I think that’s what (songwriter) Bruce (McCabe) had in mind, too, but I could be wrong.”

I was concerned about Jonny on the road, his schooling and what he might be missing in terms of a normal teen-age experience, as well as curious about how the adults accompanying Jonny on the road handle the “angst and rebellion” that teen-ager goes through, if there was any.  “It would probably be pretty bad move to try to be rebellious against all the adults that I work with everyday,” Jonny says with a chuckle.

Getting his education appears to be a definite concern for both Jonny and his dad.  “I’m a sophomore in high school, working with a tutor,” Jonny says.  “I’m hoping to take my GED and graduate before we start touring in ’97.  Later on, you know, I’m into history, and there might be some things in the future that I might pursue in college.”  Jonny’s dad points out, “Johnny is a computer lover, and he is very likely to earn college credits while we’re on the road or at his leisure.”

Jonny’s manager adds:  “When people ask if he is missing out on school, is he missing out on going to the prom, is he missing out on being a kid, is he going to regret this in 10 years?”  Jonny interjects: “I would be missing out on being so fortunate as to find my goal in life so early.  I thank God every day that that happened for me.  So I would be missing out on another five years of what I love to do, creating a base for where I’m going.  And, you know, this is what I want to do.”

It may be a romantic notion to compare a young Robert Johnson to the youth of Jonny Lang, but there are similarities there if you look closely.  Robert had Son House and Willie Brown, and by all accounts picked up guitar almost overnight – a deal with the devil is how the story goes.  There are no crossroads or meetings with the devil in the Jonny Lang story, but Jonny does have Luther Allison, Syl Johnson, Jimmy Thackery, the recordings of Albert Collins, and a world that lives and breathes the music that he loves.  Jonny has also progressed in a short three-year span into one of the hottest new guitarist/vocalists to hit the blues scene - a short enough period of wood-shedding to be the basis for future myth and hyperbole.

Probably the single most consistent similarity to Robert Johnson or any of Jonny’s blues heroes is that need to create music.  And the dissimilarity for those inevitable detractors: He’s white and he’s 16.  But then Jonny’s manager quotes Robert Lockwood Jr.’s response to a heckler who critiqued Jonny at a recent concert.  The heckler said, “Not bad for a white kid.”  His response: “He’s not a white kid; he’s a bluesman."