Jay Lang – Blues Vol. 1
Self- released
11 Tracks – 42 minutes
Jay Lang is a Mississippi native who grew up in the Delta, where he attended many local blues festivals featuring the Piedmont and Delta styled blues. T-Model Ford was an early influence. Later he moved to Oxford, Mississippi where he played with members of the Burnside family and started his first band, Jay Lang & The Devils Due. Jay has since moved to Wisconsin, but his focus is still on the music he grew up listening to and playing. This is his third album release.
The album grew out of the pandemic. During his downtime, he reviewed his backlog of unrecorded songs and determined the time was right to do an acoustic record. The album consists of ten original songs and one cover. Jay plays guitar and bass on most cuts along with providing all vocals. He is joined on some cuts by Paul Taylor or Brad Porter on drums, Harold Tremblay on harmonica, Eric Carlton on piano, Bob Dowell on trombone on one track, and with Nate Robbins playing bass on tracks 8 & 10.
He opens the album with a solo on “Sweet Honey”, who he says is “long, tall and fine”, “she knows how to do it right, drinks corn whiskey and wine much too light”. He quickly establishes a fine finger-picking style on the guitar and a smooth voice clearly suitable for the blues. On “No Name”, he proclaims he is “going back to Mississippi knock the dust down off my shoes / going back to Mississippi got nothing left to lose” “nothing has changed except now I have no name”. “Hopalong Tracy” is a fun song telling the story of a woman who “only got one leg but she’s every bit a lady / don’t see too well one eye is hazy/ don’t look too close the other one is lazy / Hopalong Tracy she don’t care / head held high and debonair”. “Can pick off a fly with a BB gun”. Jay again takes a solo for the song.
Harold’ s harmonica joins on “Short Skirt” as Jay tells a woman with a skirt up above her knees ” I got just what you need”. Bob’s trombone gives “My Sweet Mama” a New Orleans feel as Jay says “she looks sexy with that red dress on, gonna shake me all night long”. “Bootsy’s Walking in the Rain” again features Harold’s harmonica in another character study of a man “who has nothing left lose, but nothing to gain” and “he has cobwebs in the corners cause spiders living in his brain”. “He has a bottle in both hands”
Charley Patton’s “Shake It, Break It” is the sole cover on the album. Eric’s funky piano joins with Eric’s fine guitar playing. “Too Much” establishes that he “was not born no seventh son, ain’t no rolling stone, the sky ain’t crying, I ain’t lying no meat shaking on the bone”. “I got troubles, got no second chance, make the best of what I got, take the devil out for a dance”. Harold’s harmonica adds to the dismay of the song. And all of that leads into “Pine Box” dealing with the inevitability of death and his acceptance of it coming citing, “When I die, bury me in an old pine box. I don’t need nothing fancy, just fill my grave with rocks”. Eric has a barrelhouse piano rolling along in this one.
He establishes himself as a “Snake Oil” salesman proclaiming “nothing approved by the FDA, a little gypsum weed, some prickly ash, chariots of sour mash…a miracle drug for all your needs, your hair will grow and will cure the lame”. “Give you a deal, two for one”. He closes the album as he started with another solo and stating, “I’ve Been Saved”. and knows “he’ll be saved when Jesus visits him on his dying bed”.
Jay is a talented songwriter with some interesting stories to tell, all of which just adds to his warm vocals and intriguing acoustic and slide guitar work. While his solo efforts stand out, his band’s performers provide an added range and edge to every song, each of which are clearly from the Delta. A fine effort for Volume 1. Watch for Volume 2.
