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Lang & band Wow Montreux!

At the age of 16, Fargo, North Dakota native, Jonny Lang, released a multi-platinum Blues album. Not bad for a young, white kid growing up in an area not really known for the Blues. By the time he was 18, Lang became one of, if not, the youngest performers to showcase the popular Montreux Jazz Festival. His performance is now available on DVD with the release of Jonny Lang: Live At Montreux - 1999.

Lang and his band put on a great near hour-long performance featuring nine songs from his two major label studio albums that he had out at the time. (Lang had self-released Smokin’ before getting picked up by A&M Records.) Lang performs with a fierce style of finger-picking and the use of a guitar pick as he seemingly tries to call up the spirit of Jimi Hendrix, emulating a lot of the same expressions throughout the entire set.

Lang’s set begins with Paul Diethelm (guitars), Billy Thommes( drums), Bruce McCabe (keyboards) and Doug Nelson (bass) jamming to “Still Rainin’.”  It continues on with the Sonny Boy Williamson song made famous by Alvin Lee & 10 Years After called “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl.” That’s followed by the funky Dr. John tune, “A Quitter Never Wins.” They also perform the hit “Breakin’ Me.”

One of the coolest songs of the set is the McCabe tune, “Lie To Me.” Between McCabe’s nice little solo spot and Lang’s burning up the fretboard, it’s easy to see why the title track of Lang’s debut major label release spent so much time on the charts. The show ends with the encore piece “Rack ‘Em Up.”

Once again, there are no extras on this disc, although it would’ve been nice to see what was probably the highlight of the night for the 18-year-old when he was invited onstage to perform with headliner B.B. King. (If anything, say… someone too young to really know King’s music was into Lang and saw the musical excerpt, they might be tempted to go out and by the King performance as well.)

The DVD is fullscreen, in English and can be listened to in DTS Digital Surround, Dolby 5.1 Surround or PCM Stereo. And if you want to hear more of Lang’s work, pick up his newest CD, Turnaround.

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