If you are a real music lover, now and then you buy something on a whim. Not because of any press you\u2019ve read. Not because you like the artist. Not because you\u2019re even familiar with the artist. Just because.<\/p>\n
And once in a while those whims pay off big time. <\/p>\n
Recently I purchased Jonny Lang\u2019s latest album Turn Around<\/i>. Now, I knew a little about Lang. I knew he was a blues artist. I knew he started as a child prodigy, of sorts, astounding the music and blues world at 16. And I knew this disc was his \u201cChristian\u201d disc. But I had never heard anything of his. <\/p>\n
Well, now I\u2019ve heard everything<\/i>. Shortly after listening to this disc, I located Lang\u2019s back catalog and have been inhaling it, listening to very little else. That\u2019s how good Turn Around<\/i> is. <\/p>\n
In turn, Lang sounds like an in tune Bob Dylan, a younger Eric Clapton, a white Prince — all of those, but none of them. I admit I do not have a depth of knowledge in the blues genre, but I know good music — and this is good music. Lang mixes funk, gospel, and the blues into a tasty gumbo jumble that comes out on the right side of unique. <\/p>\n
After a short intro piece, Lang gets down to business with a funky Stax type number, \u201cBump In The Road,\u201d all about a guy who\u2019s \u201cbeen on the wrong track with the wrong map.\u201d Musical highlights in addition to Lang\u2019s guitar, is Shannon Sanders\u2019 organ work. Sanders keeps the track chugging.<\/p>\n
From there Lang segues into \u201cOne Person At A Time,\u201d a joint with an Eric Clapton \u201cChange The World\u201d-type vibe, but bluesed up a bit more. <\/p>\n
Lang has taken some heat for being so blatant about his Christianity on this disc — and that\u2019s a shame. The music here is great and shows Lang\u2019s continuing maturation as an artist and performer. Yeah, his worldview is Christian — but so what? If his worldview were hedonistic, no one would be complaining. The guy\u2019s a brilliant musician.<\/p>\n
On his Web site, Lang wrote about Turn Around<\/i>: \u201cWith this album I want to focus, more than ever before, on my purpose in life,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve been so incredibly blessed. My wife and I just had our fifth anniversary. I get to do what I love for a living. But it wasn\u2019t so long ago that I was spiraling downward in a lot of ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
That downward spiral seems to be chronicled on the song, \u201cOnly A Man,\u201d Lang\u2019s apparent testimonial. Backed with only acoustic guitar and fiddle, and with his wife Haylie\u2019s vocal support, this song cuts like a knife in the hands of the Holy Spirit: “I grew up singing songs in church \/ With questions in my mind \/ Then turned my back and ran away \/ From God who gave me life \/ Then one night His presence fell \/ I wept and shook and then \/ I fell down and cried \u2018Dear Jesus, rescue me again.”<\/p>\n
And then the song digs in with Haylie singing the voice of God over Jonny\u2019s brokenhearted narrator — and in the process Lang exposes the moment he turned his life over to God: “I\u2019ll give you my burden, (I\u2019ll give you peace) \/ All of my desires, (I\u2019ll give you what you need) \/ Oh, what about these chains, Lord? (I\u2019ll set you free) \/ But they\u2019re so heavy. (Lay them at my feet) \/ I\u2019ll lay them at your feet, just promise you won\u2019t leave (I\u2019ll never leave) \/ So where do I go from here, Lord? (Just follow me, just follow me) \/ I\u2019ll follow You.”<\/p>\n
That\u2019s courageous. That\u2019s real. And Lang shares it with his listeners and the fans that have followed him since his 1996 phenomenal debut Lie To Me. <\/i>I had to pull the car over to give the song its due listen.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s nothing bad on this disc, but other highlights worth noting are the Steve Winwood-esque \u201cThankful,\u201d a duet with Michael McDonald; the title cut assuring listeners that it\u2019s never too late to turn around from the mistakes you\u2019ve made; \u201cMy Love Remains,\u201d a love song sung from God\u2019s point of view.<\/p>\n
I look forward to Lang\u2019s next release. I hope he has the courage to continue celebrating who he is in Christ unapologetically. The Christian music \u201cghetto\u201d needs Lang — and others like him — to show what can be done when you have the courage of your artistic convictions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":28769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7945],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-40265","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-jonny-lang","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40265"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40265"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}