Rock
& Pop - CD Reviews - Rolling Stone
Jonny Lang: Wander This World (A&M)
For whatever reason -- it just sounds good, I guess -- Jonny Lang would
have you believe that
he has stretched beyond the blues since his dramatic 1997 major-label debut,
Lie to Me. But
anyone familiar with that album and its follow-up, Wander This World, would
have a hard time distinguishing
between them. On Lie to Me, his blues were already laced with healthy doses
of soul and
R&B, and they continue to be.
The seventeen-year-old Lang, there can be no doubt, is a certifiable
prodigy. His guitar playing
is at once precocious and ferocious, a fevered attack reminiscent of the
late Luther Allison
(whose "Cherry Red Wine" Lang incinerates to close this set). On the downside,
Lang still
oversings at just about every moment. Of course, trying to sound meaner,
older, blacker than
you are has been a flaw of the white-boy blues since back in the day --
Clapton was guilty of it
as recently as From the Cradle.
Lang co-wrote three of the tunes on Wander, and they're good ones.
The seething ballad
"Walking Away" is particularly strong. Lang leans into it with all his
might, and the song
withstands his assault -- which too little of his material is able to do.
As a result, you tend to find yourself
waiting for the solos, and they never disappoint. Really, as a player,
Lang is simply
frightening. And if an equally expressive voice -- as a writer, as a singer
-- is yet to come to his
young-man blues, he's got plenty of time to burn. (RS 800)
ANTHONY
DECURTIS