Jonny Lang - Lie To Me (1996)

Jonny Lang is of Norwegian descent and was born in Fargo, North Dakota. He started playing the guitar at the age of twelve. He got his start playing guitar for his friends on the Vallager's porch at their lake place. He would play everything from modern hits to the classics; even performing an astounding rendition of Jimi Hendrix's take on the National Anthem. After his father took him to see the Bad Medicine Blues Band, one of the few blues bands in Fargo. Lang soon started taking guitar lessons from Ted Larsen, the band's guitar player. Several months after Lang began, he joined the band, which was then renamed Kid Jonny Lang & The Big Bang.
Jonny Lang cut his debut album in Memphis when he was just 15, and, upon its release in 1996, the guitar prodigy from Minneapolis instantly became one of the leading lights of modern blues. He's a fast and flashy player whose approach rests equally on technical assurance and musical intelligence.
“Lie to Me” is his second studio album and like his peers Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Chris Duarte, Jonny Lang is a technically gifted blues guitarist, capable of spitting out accomplished licks and riffs at an astonishingly rapid rate. That doesn't necessarily mean the album has much emotional weight Lang can deliver the style, but not the substance, simply because he still needs to grow as a musician. Lang does boast an impressive array of licks and instrumental technique, but he needs something more to make “Lie to Me” a substantive record.
Sizing up a dozen songs, he gets a pleasing, razor-sharp sound out of his ax while building excitement in his lead lines thankfully, he steers clear of cliché and bombast. As a fledging singer, he acts out the lyrics of Ike Turner's age-old shuffle "Matchbox" and his own romantic ballad "Missing Your Love" with surprising poise and believability. Kudos to producer David Z for surrounding Lang with alert, first-rate sidemen and for helping select good material from Turner, Sonny Boy Williamson, Tinsley Ellis, and others.

Track listing

01.  "Lie to Me"   (Bruce McCabe/David Z)  - 4:11
02.  "Darker Side"   (McCabe)  - 5:07
03.  "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl"   (Sonny Boy Williamson)  - 4:15
04.  "Still Wonder"   (Kevin Bowe)  - 3:45
05.  "Matchbox"   (Ike Turner)  - 3:29
06.  "Back for a Taste of Your Love"   (Syl Johnson/Darryl Carter/Brenda Johnson)  - 3:32
07.  "A Quitter Never Wins"   (Tinsley Ellis/Margaret Simpson)  - 5:56
08.  "Hit the Ground Running"   (Michael Lunn/Jeff Silbar)  - 3:31
09.  "Rack 'Em Up"   (McCabe)  - 4:07
10.  "When I Come to You"   (Jonny Lang/Dennis Morgan)  - 4:58
11.  "There's Gotta Be a Change"   (Gwendolyn Collins)  - 4:11
12.  "Missing Your Love"   (Lang/Morgan)  - 3:53

Credits
Jonny Lang - vocals, lead guitar
Bruce McCabe - piano, clavinet, backing vocals
Bekka Bramlett - backing vocals
Billy Franze - rhythm guitar
Dennis Morgan - acoustic guitar
Doug Bartenfeld - rhythm guitar
Rob Stupka - drums
David Smith - bass guitar
Tom Tucker - engineer
Mark Pagliaro - Guitar Tech

Notes
Released:  January 28, 1997
Genre:  Blues Rock
Length:  50:55
Label:  A&M Records

© 1996