Modern blues in the '90s had a weird phenomenon of teenage blues guitarists rocketing to popularity with their first album. The entire trend culminated with Jonny Lang, a guitarist from Fargo, North Dakota, who released his solo debut album, Lie to Me, when he was 15. At the age of 12, he had attended a show by the Bad Medicine Blues Band and began playing with the group. Several months later he became their leader, and the newly renamed Kid Jonny Lang the Big Bang relocated from Fargo to Minneapolis and released their debut album, Smokin', in 1995. The LP became a regional hit, leading to a major-label bidding war and culminating in Lang's signing to AM Records in 1996. Early in 1997, his major-label debut, Lie to Me, was released to mixed reviews; the stronger effort, Wander This World, followed late the next year. Lang's next release, Long Time Coming, arrived in 2003 and garnered often withering critiques for its turn toward over-produced hard rock mixed with sometimes heavy-handed religiosity; 2006's gospel-informed Turn Around was more favorably received. Live at the Ryman was issued by Concord Records in 2010. After a seven-year hiatus, he announced details of his sixth studio album, Fight for My Soul which was scheduled for release in September 2013; it peaked at number one on Billboard's Blues Albums chart. Lang released his next album, the politically charged Signs, in September 2017. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi