Jonny Lang: Lie To Me

The mainstream acceptance of blues kids like Kenny Wayne Shepherd and 16-year-old Jonny Lang is both gratifying and frustrating: It's refreshing to hear the often staid genre infused with new blood and perhaps even new ideas, but what could these pampered, technique-driven white kids have to say about heartache—or, for that matter, life The Fargo-born Lang has played plenty of live shows to get where he is today, but how much soul-searching and dues-paying and blues-having has he done Still, listen to Lie To Me, his big-time debut, and you'll hear an impressively assured batch of songs that show off a legitimate sound, both vocally and musically. Meeting at the midpoint between countless old-school Chicago bluesmen and the first album by Black Crowes, Lang's songs are confident and commercially viable. Does he have anything new to say Of course not: Lang only shares co-writing credit on two of these tracks, and those don't exactly contain any revolutionary pearls of creativity. Lang may revolutionize the blues someday, but in the meantime he'll have to settle for playing them competently.