The blues come in various shades, and two rich oil canvases were covered at The Canyon Club Friday night.
Reeve Carney opened things up as a one man band of indigo. His 45 minute set mixed his earnest and wide ranging voice with ominous guitar sounds to create a sweet and sour sauce of music and moods. His richly textured guitar created lurking rhythms, bass lines and melodies on expressive pieces like “Father’s House” and the film nourish “Checkmate” while he delivered street preacher messages about life on “Youth Is Wasted” and “Testify.” With the heart of an Irish balladeer, he created shadowy moods as he used a bow on his guitar while weaving stories on “Resurrection” and showed his vocal strength on a creative read by delivering the ballad portion of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” A winsome mix of Freddie Mercury and Howlin’ Wolf went a long way to set the evening’s direction.
The refreshing feature about Jonny Lang’s delivery of the electric blues is that during his 2 hour set, he doesn’t resort to the usual topics of “booze, broads and bucks.” Instead, with his vigorous team of Barry Alexander/dr, Dwan Hill/key, Court Clement/g and Andrew Perusi/b, he delivered electrifying solos along thunderous and stomping rhythms on pieces like “Blew Up (The House)” and he can shred the guitar with the best while singing with stark passion on “Don’t Stop (For Anything)”. But above all, Lang is one of the few this side of Rev. Gary Davis that can also deliver “The Devil’s Music” with a Godly message.
While the hues of blues are dark, Lang’s guitar cries while his voice is drenched in baptismal waters on “Turn Around” and the band’s vocal harmonies create a choir-like effect during a funky bass line and soft keyboards as the leader delivers tasty guitar droplets of notes while singing of redemption for one’s purpose on “Red Light.” Foreboding chords and voice sound like an Old Testament prophet on the bleak “Signs” while a ballad like “Great Day” is framed with gospel pulse and passion, promising a future hope.
Singing and playing acoustic guitar alone during the encore, Lang took the packed house to rural back porches on Muddy Waters’ “40 Days” while “Breakin’ Me” and “Lie to Me” released Lang’s inner Pagliacci before the band came back to close with a rhythmic climax.
Lang and company demonstrated that the message of hope can be delivered in even the blues-iest of mediums, speaking of joy to the world to the current generation in a language that can be understood. An inspiration during this time of year that celebrates the same message and Messenger.
Upcoming shows at The Canyon Club/Savan include Lee Ann Womack 12/09, Dennis Quaid 12/30, War 01/13 and Eric Johnson 01/20