Jonny Lang – Live At Montreux 1999 (Eagle DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B     Extras: D     Concert: B

 

 

Before he went Gospel and found his faith, Jonny Lang was one of the best Blues singers of his generation with a Rock Music edge that would have made him a hit in the 1970s into the early 1980s, but timing (decline of the Rock genre and record business at the same time, both hopefully temporary) only gave him one small hit in Lie To Me and despite being able to out sing and outplay other Blues artists in the almost endless glut of DVD concerts we have covered, never got the respect or success he deserved.  Jonny Lang – Live At Montreux 1999 shows just how great he was.

 

The songs include:

 

1)     Still Rainin’

2)     Good Morning Little School Girl

3)     A Quitter Never Wins

4)     Right Back

5)     There’s Gotta Be A Change

6)     The Levee

7)     Breakin’ Me

8)     Lie To Me

9)     Rack ‘Em Up

 

 

For the all-too-short 54 minutes this show runs, he is nonstop intense from beginning to end, embarrassing so many Rock artists old, new and most of the current crop who are just Pop artists who wish they could Rock, Lang was only 18 (yes, eighteen!!!) when he taped this concert in his Montreux debut and it is one of the best Montreux DVDs to date.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image is taped on NTSC analog video and is soft as expected, but the color is not bad and the tape is in good shape for its age.  The DTS 5.1 mix is much better, with a richness, fullness and soundfield that may be (with the absence of any Lang SACDs) the best audio of Lang performing on the market.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is better than expected, but no match for the DTS.  The only extra includes the usual paper pullout with an essay Eagle tends to add to all their releases.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo