iFest Date/Time
Bud Light World Music Stage
April 30, 8pm
Genre
Blues/Rock
Bio
The Grammy winning, former prodigy instrumentalist, who topped the Billboard New
Artist chart with his first album at age 15, stands now as a mature creative force, made
more sensitive yet also toughened by life’s adventures. He’s learned what it means to
rise above hard times and to find meaning where chaos seemed to rule.
Artist chart with his first album at age 15, stands now as a mature creative force, made
more sensitive yet also toughened by life’s adventures. He’s learned what it means to
rise above hard times and to find meaning where chaos seemed to rule.
These insights, and the emotions they unleash, makes Turn Around the pivotal album of
Jonny Lang’s career to date – a passage that links the triumphs of his past to the
promise of his future.
Jonny Lang’s career to date – a passage that links the triumphs of his past to the
promise of his future.
A soul-stirring organ, played by Grammy-winning producer Shannon Sanders, forecasts
the surge of music that follows on Turn Around: the stomping funk of “Bump in the
Road,” the startling climax that closes “The Other Side of the Fence,” the electrifying
vocal exchanges with Michael McDonald on “Thankful,” and on the opposite extreme,
the work-gang chant that drives “Turn Around” and the profound intimacy of “Only a
Man” …
Turn Around is all of this and more, a tumble of musical colors that dazzle and soothe.
And in the end, they achieve coherence through the meaning that Lang conveys so
urgently.
“With this album I want to focus, more than ever before, on my purpose in life,” he
explains. “I’ve 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’t so long ago that I was spiraling downward
in a lot of ways, until God touched my life and set me on the right track. I feel a huge
debt to give glory back to Him for everything He has done for me. It’s the least he can
do.”
That said, Turn Around is not slotted only to listeners who have – or have not –
undergone this kind of transformation. It inspires, excites, and gets people on their feet –
but it doesn’t preach. “I understand that not everybody believes as I do,” Lang says,
“which is fine. I just want to sing about what’s going on in my life and let people make up
their own minds about that.”
