Comparable to
John Fahey,
Robbie Basho, and
Leo Kottke,
Peter Lang was among the acoustic guitarists who came out of the "picker" genre in the '60s and '70s. The pickers, as they were called, played unaccompanied solo guitar and made instrumental folk their specialty.
Lang isn't as well known as either
Fahey or
Kottke, although he is a talented and expressive musician in his own right. A lot of pickers recorded for
Fahey's Takoma label, and it was for Takoma that
Lang, in 1972, recorded The Thing at the Nursery Room Window. This is essentially a folk recording, although
Lang's brand of folk easily incorporates elements of southern country blues, bluegrass, and Appalachian music.
Lang is an impressive improviser, but he doesn't beat his listeners over the head with technique. Although the Minneapolis native has impressive chops, he never lets them get in the way of his down-home charm, and he never has a problem coming across as warm, unpretentious, and earthy. The Thing at the Nursery Room Window originally came out on vinyl in 1973 and was reissued on CD in 2000, when Fantasy added three bonus from either the 1974 Flying Fish date
Lycurgus or the 1978 Waterhouse session
Back to the Wall.