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JONNY LANG
Amid the surge of prodigious blues guitarists in
the mid- s, Jonny Lang stood out as a true
wunderkind, rst picking up a guitar at the age
of and within a year becoming a full- edged
member of the Bad Medicine Blues Band from
his native Fargo, ND. e group renamed itself
Kid Jonny Lang & the Big Bang and put Lang
front and center, becoming a regular feature at
clubs around the northern Midwest and record-
ing an album, Smokin’, in . At age he be-
gan playing solo gigs and was signed by A&M
Records, which released his major debut, Lie to
Me, in . It quickly became a multiplatinum
seller, setting up a strong sophomore showing
the following year with Wander is World,
which was nominated for a Grammy. With a
voice as weathered as a blues shouter twice his
age and a blues style reminiscent of electric
pioneers Albert Collins, Buddy Guy, and B.B.
King, Lang was nevertheless still developing
his sound, despite having two Billboard top-
albums under his belt before turning . He
followed up with Long Time Coming ( ) and
Turn Around ( ), a pair of soulful discs in the
vein of Stevie Wonder and contemporary gospel
music, the latter of which saw Lang win his rst
Grammy. A set at Nashville’s famed Ryman
Auditorium was released as a live disc in ,
and Lang ended his drought of new material in
with Fight for My Soul, which eschewed the
hard-rock leanings of the previous two studio
albums for headstrong funk and R&B that sent it
to the top of Billboard’s Blues Albums chart. His
most recent disc, ’s Signs, marks a return to
his guitar roots and early in uences, such as the
raw styles of Robert Johnson and Howlin’ Wolf,
and features more of the searing six-string work
that put him on the map two decades ago. Jonny
Lang is making his fourth appearance at Ravin-
ia, where he rst played in .
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JUNE 2 – JULY 8, 2018 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE 119