Jonny Lang Lie To Me - The Best Contemporary Blues Album Around

There are some brilliant contemporary blues musicians around at the moment continuing the traditions of the original bluesmen, of which only BB King and Buddy Guy are left. They include, most notably, the likes of Joe Bonamassa and John Meyer - and also, in my opinion, the remarkable Jonny Lang. This album, Lie To Me, is outstanding for many different reasons - none more so for the fact that it was released just one day before Lang's sixteenth birthday. All considered, this is as mature a sound as you'll ever hear; polished production, immense vocals by the boy wonder, and great guitar playing too. It's quite unbelievable to think that somebody so young could have been part of a record like this, never mind fronted it.

Jonny Lang got his break after going to watch The Bad Medicine Blues Band, whose guitarist, Ted Larson, took it upon himself to nurture the young Lang and teach him how to play. Lang was quite clearly an enigma, and within six months was fronting this very band, renamed Kid Jonny Lang & The Big Bang. A&M Records picked him up in 1996, and Lie To Me was his first big label release a year later. In over ten years of touring Jonny Lang has undertaken support spots for The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, BB King, Buddy Guy, Jeff Beck and Sting. He was also invited by Eric Clapton to feature at his Crossroads benefit concert in 2004. He is held in very high esteem amongst Rock'n'Roll royalty, and this album is a prime example why.

The album opens with the thumping, electrifying title track Lie To Me. Lang's vocal is absolutely scintillating; his guitar playing piercing, the backing vocals searing, and the 3-dimensional sound amazing. Instantly the receptors are tuned into this fresh and vibrant sound. Darker side is a fantastic mid-tempo blues, once again magnetised by Lang's passionate vocal. Good Morning Little Schoolgirl is a quirky foot-tapper, though at first rather unsettling as a lyric: "Good morning little schoolgirl/Can I come home with you?" Then you realise that Lang was just fifteen when he sang it! All is fair in love and war, so they say. Still Wonder is a cool, smoky bar blues ideal for Lang's char-grilled vocal, Matchbox a foot-tapping twelve bar blues originally written by Ike Turner, Back For A Taste Of Your Love a Clapton-esque, funky-rocker, and A Quitter Never Wins a slow and intense ballad. Hit The Ground Running is rousing, and somewhat reminiscent of a James Brown classic, Rack 'Em Up a laid back swinger, When I Come To You another stunning ballad echoing Clapton's Bad Love era, and There's Gotta Be A Change a grooving guitar work out. The record ends with the softer, thought-provoking Missing Your Love, closing a brilliant 50:15 minutes of modern day blues magic from an outstanding young artist with his best years ahead of him.

This is one of those albums that is seemingly impossible to dislike. Wherever I have put it on I've had people asking about it, enjoying it, and more often than not, enquiring where they can buy it. Whatever genre of music you lean towards, I think Lie To Me holds universal appeal. An absolute winner in any collection.