* En anglais uniquement
Modern blues in the '90s had a weird phenomenon of teenage blues guitarists rocketing to popularity with their first album. The entire trend culminated with
Jonny Lang, a guitarist from Fargo, North Dakota, who released his solo debut album,
Lie to Me, when he was 15. At the age of 12, he had attended a show by the Bad Medicine Blues Band and began playing with the group. Several months later he became their leader, and the newly renamed
Kid Jonny Lang & the Big Bang relocated from Fargo to Minneapolis and released their debut album,
Smokin', in 1995. The LP became a regional hit, leading to a major-label bidding war and culminating in
Lang's signing to A&M Records in 1996. Early in 1997, his major-label debut,
Lie to Me, was released to mixed reviews; the stronger effort,
Wander This World, followed late the next year.
Lang's next release,
Long Time Coming, arrived in 2003 and garnered often withering critiques for its turn toward over-produced hard rock mixed with sometimes heavy-handed religiosity; 2006's gospel-informed
Turn Around was more favorably received.
Live at the Ryman was issued by Concord Records in 2010. After a seven-year hiatus, he announced details of his sixth studio album,
Fight for My Soul which was scheduled for release in September 2013; it peaked at number one on Billboard's Blues Albums chart.
Lang released his next album, the politically charged
Signs, in September 2017. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine