Customer Reviews

Cedar Grove

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I came across this CD in a bargain bin, but after listening to it as many times as I have, I would now consider traveling to Australia for the sole purpose of seeing this guy live. The musical creativity coupled with the sly intelligence of the lyrics make this a rarity deserving of far greater renown. I can only hope that Jeff will provide us with more material in the very near future. Now would be fine with me. This is blues with a Harvard degree, if you ask me.

i saw jeff lang live in tilba, australia, and he is as brilliant live as he is on 'cedar grove'. he has a wonderful bluesy but funky feel in all his songs, and such amazing energy in his perfomances and original songs. i have nothing but admiration for jeff lang, and i look forward to hearing more of his CD's.

First heard Jeff Lang on Prarie Home Companion and was enchanted with his impressive (but not bombastic) and confident slide guitar work and probing lyrics. Lang has a wonderful a blues/folk/rock hybrid sound that in a more just world would guarantee radio play time. The songs have a great grove, but without the crunch of heavier rock purveyors. This is a great find.

Please do not confuse with Johnny Lang who has a clumsy, tasteless and self concious approach to blues.

Jeff is going to produce some brilliant music over his journey and he's got a monster talent to take with him. Having heard Jeff play live on eight occasions in Australia I can testify that his star is in the ascendancy and his voice is growing in strength and character. You'll hear it on later releases. The common feature of Jeff's playing at the great East Coast Blues Festival in Byron Bay is that when he starts up the wings of the stage fill with musicians from all over the world who obviously hear something very special. As for the reviewer whose comment that this is what passes for blues in Australia, I did cringe and get angry. It's gotta be good ol' home-grown USA rehashes of Son House, does it? Heard of Dave Hole, Jeff Achison, Chris Finnen, Pete Cornelius, Phil Manning? Nup, didn't think so. Besides, am I losing the faculty of sight because I haven't seen a THIS IS A BLUES RECORD sign stamped on any of Jeff's records. What made you this it was going to be total blues rather than a fusion? Commentary based upon bigotry and profound ignorance is pitiable. As we say here, pull your head in. Jeff's going to shake your world up.

Jeff Lang gives a fresh and personal voice to the blues. Another reviewer complains that he isn't Son House or Robert Johnson and so forth. Yeah, this is what... 60 years later? A blues fan for many years, I get tired of guys that can't look beyond their dusty old records and nostalgia for an era that they didn't live in and perhaps didn't quite exist. Son House is fine, but he had limited musical talent. Jeff is not only technically talented, he brings a fresh personal message into a style that has too long suffered from a lack of innovation.

This is one of my go-to albums when I want a more masculine sound than my usual music, and something with plenty of rhythm, but still with beautiful melodies. Jeff Lang has a remarkable take on blues, country, bluegrass, and other folk styles, and his instrumentation and lyrics make them thoroughly modern.

If you are reading about Jeff Lang now, odds are this is because you found out about him from his collaboration with Chris Whitley. If you are looking for a Lang solo album with a similar sound, this one isn't it. One of the interesting things about Jeff Lang is that he is a constantly evolving musician who tries to build each album around a different type of sound. This album, his most widely available in the US before his collaboration with Chris Whitley, is his most heavily produced album. Generally, Lang favors acoustic instruments, frequently amplified. However, the sound on most of this album is more processed than usual, and slickly produced. It should also be noted that while Lang is a virtuoso guitarist, he tones down the solos quite a bit on this one, which fits with the slick production style. The music itself, of course, is quite good. It is neither blues nor rock, but somewhere in between. However, unlike most blues rock, Lang doesn't draw on either the Chicago or Texas traditions, but more on the delta tradition. The sound, then, is rather odd: a mix of rock and delta blues played on amplified acoustic instruments, and significantly processed and produced.

If you haven't heard a Jeff Lang solo album before, you will probably be more impressed than if you come to this by way of his Chris Whitley collaboration. Unfortunately, most of his solo albums are a bit difficult to come by in the US, though. He has a compilation out called Prepare Me Well (a version of which is the first track on this album), and that will give you a better overview of his normal sounds, to the degree that there is such a thing. However, my personal favorites are his live albums, Disturbed Folk volumes 1 & 2 and No Point Slowing Down. That last live album has a sound closest to his collaboration with Chris Whitley. His two recent studio albums, You Have To Dig Deep... and Half Seas Over are also outstanding, but with very different approaches (see my reviews of them), and at the moment, they are somewhat available here. It is on those types of albums that you will hear why John Butler, Xavier Rudd, Ash Grunwald, and the rest of the Australian roots crowd are so enamored of Jeff Lang. This album is good, but not his best.

Jeff Lang is a one man explosive musical energy field. He is so good on the slide guitar that you are left shaking your head when he sings so well at the same time. The mood created by Jeff's bluesier songs is the kind that fits a long night drive so well. He rocks with the best and does it all so effortlessly. It is only a matter of time before this Australian wonder becomes a favorite of rock and blues fans every where. And with his deep talent, he will be be around for a long time. Buy this CD, that's all I can say.

Anyone who does not find this outrageously outstanding has got their head in the sand or is deaf. I've seen Jeff live and listened repeatedly to all his cd's. He's a virtuoso, he's exttreamly talented, He is cutting edge> I should know. I'm a mobile DJ specializing in blues with over 3000 blues cd's. Miike Macy.

Sadly this is the type of stuff that passes as blues in Australia. Slick and over produced pop music pretending to be blues.

Having been a blues fan for years now I am very frustrated with albums like this, you are always left felling let down. One does not find a direct and honest form of expression, as one finds with the music of say Lightnin' Hopkins, Son House and other blues greats, but rather music that is set to show-off a person and heavily padded to give that "full sound".

Having seen Mr Lang live I can only say there are far better Blues singers and players out there.

I would suggest that you look at the many great bluesman Amazon has to offer like, Muddy Waters, Robert Pete Williams, Fred Mcdowell eta. and see what I mean.