Long Time Coming

"All alone, there you stand/Won't you let me take your hand/Come with me if you want to save yourself/Don't let the past haunt your mind/You should leave it all behind/Come with me if you want to save yourself/There's something in the way/It's gotten into you/You've learned to love the chains/Through the needle's eye can you escape."
— from "Save Yourself"

Jonny Lang made waves in the music industry as one of a handful of teenage blues guitarists that cropped up in the '90s. He started out in his hometown of Fargo, North Dakota, playing for a local blues band at the age of 12. He signed a solo record deal with A&&M and released Lie to Me in 1997 at the age of 16. That and 1998's Wander This World both topped the Billboard blues chart and together sold more than two million units. His success led to high-profile touring with The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, and Sting.

Then Lang disappeared from the scene for five years. Why? Part of it was a result of corporate restructuring at A&&M, as Lang and label execs worked to realign artistic goals. And part of it was a result of five years of touring—including late nights, smoking and boozing—which took its toll on the young guitarist. But in the last few years, Lang, now 23, cleaned up his act, got married, and settled down near L.A. to be closer to his wife's family. Along the way, Lang became a Christian.

"I was stuck in where I was going in a lot of ways, and in the way I was treating myself, the way I looked at life," Lang told Modern Rock Music news. "God had a plan for my life and decided to turn me around." Now the talented artist attends church regularly, even singing Fernando Ortega's "Our Great God" for his nondenominational congregation.

Lang's newfound faith shines through on his latest CD, 2003's appropriately titled Long Time Coming. In the album's liner notes, he dedicates the album and his life to Jesus Christ. "Outwardly, I wouldn't consider it a Christian album, but a lot of songs are about my relationship with the Lord. Because of those changes in my life, they brought about restoration and healing to some things that were going on in my life and really made me a new person."

Comparable to modern blues artists like Stevie Ray Vaughn and Robert Cray, Lang delivers a soulful rock sound that matches the emotion of his lyrics, chronicling his journey of love and faith over the last few years. A safe and clean blues-rock album (some have complained too much so), its most spiritual tracks come in the album's final third, beginning with "Save Yourself" (excerpted above), an invitation for salvation. "To Love Again" is an emotional response to Christ's love: "No more crying, no more fear/I've found a way out after all these years/No mistaking, I've been changed/Now and forever, I'll never be the same." Both "Hide Your Love" and "Dying to Live" offer a similar one-two punch along the themes of spiritual commitment to Christ.

Long Time Coming is getting mixed reactions by mainstream critics and has gone virtually ignored by Christian media. As Lang's faith continues to deepen, we can also hope it'll someday lead to a collaboration with guitar gurus Phil Keaggy or Glenn Kaiser.

Unless specified clearly, we are not implying whether this artist is or is not a Christian. The views expressed are simply the author's. For a more complete description of our Glimpses of God articles, click here.