Live at the Ryman
Artist: Jonny Lang
Sayrai Music
Time: 12 tracks / 79:57

Jonny Lang's latest release, Live at The Ryman is almost 80 minutes of funky pop/gospel/blues-rock: raw, sweaty, and devoid of studio sweetening. As opposed to the studio, this live environment adds an even more visceral quality to Lang's vocal intensity - practically threatening to get you a little bit messy if you stand too close to your speakers. With just enough rough edges to sound like a bootleg recording but enough sonic power to deliver the goods, let's be thankful that this emotion-fueled blues revival meeting escaped Nashville's music machine unpolished and sounding real. Blues ain't pretty. 

Of course, Jonny Lang isn't blues for the purist – aside from the solid, slow blues of “A Quitter Never Wins,” with its blistering, painful guitar solos and tasty piano work, Lang tends to flavor his blues with plenty of gospel-influenced R&B, soul, pop, rock and funk. With an impressive back up band featuring Jimmy Anton's strong bottom-end bass playing, Tommy Barbarella lending a classic rock/gospel sound on keyboards, Sonny Thompson on supporting guitar, Jason Eskridge on back-up vocals, and the thunderous power of Barry Alexander on drums, Lang segues neatly from song to song, starting off with a one-two punch: the staccato groove of “One Person at a Time” and the rollicking  “Bump in the Road,” from his last studio album. 

Live at the Ryman covers a good variety of Lang's signature stylistic devices, vocally and with guitar. His voice can be raw and ragged, even to the verge of a primal scream (listen to what he does on “Turn Around” - powerful, nasty stuff) or soulfully sweet, providing classic Detroit harmonies, as he does on “Thankful.” Slipping in and out of falsetto phrases and issuing bluesy vocal licks, his voice registers all of the requisite emotional intensity of the best of today's blues singers. Of course Lang's guitar work speaks for itself – tight, powerful licks fly off the fretboard, his soloing often building to an agonizing climax, sounding as if the guitar itself is begging him to stop. Are there some questionable 'pitchy' moments? Yes, thankfully. This is real music being played by real people, featuring not only the shining moments but the transcendent, if occasionally messy ones, as well. This is a performance that sweats. You can keep your pitch-correction, thanks....

Along with Jonny Lang material, we get to hear a fine version of Stevie Wonder's “Livin' For the City,” as the band takes the song to church and runs with it. In a quieter moment near the end of the set Lang goes solo with his guitar and treats us to an elegant instrumental moment featuring the familiar melody of “I Love You Lord (and I Lift my Voice).”

 Lang wisely forgoes the usual set of female back-up singers, by the way, and keeps the supporting vocals in-house – producing the best sounding male back up vocals since Edgar Winter's White Trash delivered their version of blue-eyed funk at the Apollo way back when....

Throughout the album, lyrical themes of brokenness and redemption are plentiful. This is not so unusual in blues music, but Lang manages to bridge several musical genres that might otherwise be less prone to reference Christian spirituality under normal circumstances – and when this band goes more directly in a gospel music direction the result is decidedly, and refreshingly, more testosterone-infused than usual. This sounds like anything but a Sunday School picnic.

Live at the Ryman can be ordered digitally through iTunes or Amazon, or on CD exclusively through Lang's online store at www.jonnylang.com. 

Bert Saraco
www.myspace.com/expressimage 
http://expressimagephoto.tripod.com

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While we usually think of Americana as that soft convergence where folk, country and blues traditions meet up for a drink, there is a sweatier, more electric version. Jonny Lang embodies that blend of gospel, soul, funk, R&B and electric blues.

Lang is in his element live. The music and emotion aren’t so much free to flow as something he propels. Lyrically, he leaves the blocks running, with a sense of direction in each of the first few songs. His states that his purpose is “to change the world… one person at a time” and reminds the needy listener that “the road that you take might lead you astray, but it’s never too late to turn around” without letting his driving purpose be upset by any little “bump in the road.” After all, “A quitter never wins.” It’s refreshing to see such a natural blend of faith-based and everyday songs, especially played so well.

His band is right with him throughout, Tommy Barbarella’s swampy organ filling out behind him and Jim Anton’s tight bass often sparking off on some high runs up the fretboard. All the time, they play with one eye on where the bandleader is going.

Lang’s own technique is impressive. He may misjudge a fret occasionally, but when he gets the pluck-and-pedal sounds he achieves on “I Am” you have to sit up and take notice. Vocally, this is a tour-de-force, with angst flowing as freely as his sweat, but balanced by some sweet falsetto.

While he is strong across the boards (he does have help from Jason Eskridge on the more gospel pieces) the highlights for me come on the slower blues pieces, where there is space for the inherent emotions to rise and fall and rise again, such as on “A Quitter Never Wins” (how has his guitar still got a neck after that solo?) and the faster and more intense “Give Me Up Again.” With so much energy expended on so many tracks, it is easy to overlook the tender, understated “Breakin’ Me"... and of course, the encore “Lie to Me” is concrete, pouting funk.

As befits an artist who moves between genres, he wears some influences on his hat. “Red Light” borrows a bit from Bob Marley; “Give Me Up Again” starts of like a cover of “People Get Ready” and it is a joy to hear an instrumental (if unaccredited) snatch of Laurie Klein’s “I Love You Lord.”

I was surprised that an artist with several albums behind him was unable to come up with more memorable tunes for a live collection. But if these are not songs with clean melodies that pop up in your head for days after hearing them, they are certainly solid while listening to them. They are growers, too. (Just a warning: great as it would have been, the twelve-minute “Livin’ for the City” was not on my copy; it seems to only be available on download).

Altogether, this is a highly intense and emotional set with a broad range of styles, which Lang and his band play with equal skill.

Derek Walker