Young bluesman heads for big time

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Jonny Lang is living a teen-age boy's fantasy.

The day before he turns 16, his major-label debut, "Lie to Me," hits record stores. He wows crowds
at a CD-release party with his blistering guitar work and soulful singing. And he graces the cover of Seventeen magazine's prom issue, which describes Lang as a "major babe." "It was really neat," Lang says of his birthday week. "Yeah, I had a blast."
Lang may talk like a teen, but on stage he is transformed into a Mississippi Delta bluesman. A charismatic performer, he sings with the grit and feel of someone who's known the blues. His mom calls him an "old soul." "That's actually just kind of the way my voice is set up, I think," Lang says. "Just kind of natural. I don't go ARRRRRGGGHHH."
"His voice and his fingers are an instrument of music," says David Z, who produced "Lie to Me"
and has also worked with Prince, the Fine Young Cannibals and Big Head Todd and the Monsters.
What's more surprising is Lang's background. He's a farm kid from North Dakota, not Sweet
Home Chicago. But it didn't take him long to learn his guitar licks and move from Fargo, N.D., to front a band in the Twin Cities. Now his star is rising. "Lie to Me," Lang's first release in a four-album deal with A&M Records, debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Heatseekers Chart of new artists. The album entered Billboard's Top 200 chat at No. 103 with a bullet and was No. 2 among blues albums. In three weeks, "Lie to Me" (priced at the introductory CD list price of $10.98) sold just under 25,000 copies -- 15,000 in the Twin Cities alone.
Lang will tour Hard Rock Cafes across the country with a series of all-ages shows in March and
April before a quick trip to Europe in May. "He's more on target than we could have made it on target," says James Klein, one of Lang's managers. Lang is modest about it all. He dresses in teen fashion -- open-neck striped shirt, a metallic ring on his pinkie -- for an interview in his managers' office above Bunkers bar in the Minneapolis Warehouse District. His blond hair is parted in the middle, and tortoise-shell glasses give him a bookish look. About his unassuming attitude, he says: "You always have to look forward to the bad experiences, too, as well as the good ones. You have to kind of take a jaded, modest outlook, I think, on everything." Lang follows the masters of blues guitar -- B.B. King, Albert Collins, Stevie Ray Vaughan -- and calls Otis Redding his favorite singer. But sometimes his youth shows through. While recording "Lie to Me" in Memphis and Minneapolis, David Z once remarked to Lang how his voice reminded him of a young Steve Winwood.
"He hadn't even heard of him. He said, 'Who's that?'," David Z said. Lang doesn't have a driver's license or even a learner's permit. He hasn't had time to take the test and he figures he won't be driving much, anyway.
But he does have a girlfriend, who lives in his suburb of Roseville. As for the screaming women
and girls who attend his performances, Lang says: "It doesn't get me going one way or the other."
And he's not "Kid" Jonny Lang anymore. He dropped the nickname, saying it sounded "like a
Vegas act." On "Lie to Me," Lang handles himself like a pro. He rocks Ike Turner's blues shuffle "Matchbox," dips into 1970s Memphis soul with Syl Johnson's "Back for a Taste of Your Love" and concludes with an aching ballad, "Missing Your Love," one of two songs he co-wrote with Dennis Morgan. And while he may moan his way through the blues classic "Good Morning Little School Girl," Lang is no longer in school. He dropped out, took lessons from a tutor and hopes to take his high school equivalency test soon. "School as an institution is secondary to me, but education as a whole isn't. However I get my education is kind of the tricky part, but I get it," Lang says.
He says he doesn't miss high school social life. "If high school dances were like they were in the
'50s, I'd probably miss them," he says. "But they're not. They're kind of cheesy." His mother, Marcia Langseth, hopes he'll continue his education. She says she makes sure Lang can socialize with kids his own age. "What's good about doing what I do is you find out who your real friends are. You can spot a 'fan-friend' a mile away," Lang says. In his short career, Lang already has suffered through the pain of breaking with a band. He recorded a regional album with The Big Bang, "Smokin'," that sold about 25,000 copies. But when Lang's managers wanted to switch drummers, the other band members went off on their own. The split came only four days before Lang hit the road with veteran bluesman Buddy Guy. But Lang quickly regrouped and says he's happy with his new band.
"They still kick my butt every time I go up there, which is great. I mean, it's perfect, it's exactly
what I need. And so do a lot of other bands," he says. Bluesman Luther Allison, who has the same management as Lang, predicts a great future for him. "Number one, he's a great young person and he's a nice kid. He's very disciplined," says Allison, 57. "I would play on a record with him any time, any place." For Lang, the question is whether he can sustain his music into adulthood, says Bruce Iglauer, founder and president of Alligator Records, a 25-year-old blues label based in Chicago whose artists include Allison. "There's a number of up-and-coming blues artists," Iglauer says. "In order to become giants, they have to make their own statements and not copy other people."
 

THE JONNY LANG FILE

ON HIS MUSICAL FUTURE: "Everyone wants to make me out to be this blues kid. I'm a musician first and foremost and I want to expand my musicality and branch out."
ON AEROSMITH: "I was into the whole alternative thing and I never listened to their older records until recently. I met Steven Tyler in Munich and he was hilarious. He's really into old blues stuff and he's all: `Man, we got this backstage room set up and we'll jam every night. You gotta teach me some of those licks.' I couldn't possibly teach that guy anything. He's a pro."