Penny Lang & Friends LIVE
Penny Lang
She Wolf Records
1998
10 tracks
Near the end of this live recording, someone in the audience yells out "Penny lives!" Based on this release, it can also be said unreservedly that Penny rocks.
While I am sure many would disagree with me, if I had to classify this very diverse release, I would call it good rock and roll. There are a number of factors that lead me to this conclusion. The first is that there is no other genre which accurately describes the music in this concert. Penny Lang blends elements of old folk and country music, traditional gospel, dixieland, rhythm and blues, and novelty tunes into a lively music all her own. This is the state of rock and roll in the few years after Alan Freed appropriated the phrase to describe an uneven blend of musical genres.
Penny Lang rocks as did converted country singers Bill Haley ("The Saints") and Johnny Cash ("Frankie's Man Johnny"), rocker Freddie Cannon ("Way Down Yonder in New Orleans") and many more of that era who sang the standards with renewed energy. Lang's voice has behind it that indefinable energy once identified with singers as diverse as Wanda Jackson, Etta James, Ruth Brown, and early Brenda Lee. Regardless of the genre or tempo of the song Lang is singing, that energy is always there.
There's another element that makes this release sound like rock and roll. Played at low to medium volume, the music sounds pretty good. It would probably work well as background in any situation. Turned up loud, however, is where this music really rocks. Lang recorded with a number of talented musicians, and unless the music is turned up, many of the subtleties of this intrumentation very simply will not be heard. This music is meant to be played loud.
For the older folks [that's me], there are several pleasant surprises on this release, which includes old favourites now considered too sentimental by country singers and irrelevant by the new crop of folk singer/songwriters. While Lang has the power to belt songs out with the best of them, she shows her sensitive side with a very traditional rendition of "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" and a heartfelt version of the country classic, "Bouquet of Roses."
The recording starts with Brownie McGhee's "I've Been Living With the Blues," featuring some of the same blues riffs and rhythms incorporated by Chuck Berry for his hit "Round and Round." The program moves on to the traditional gospel, "Twelve Gates to the City." At first, this may seem a strange transition. However, played loud, the music reveals that the gospel superstructure is underpinned and carried by a driving blues line. Next comes the Fifties hillbilly arrangement of "Blue Eyes." From there, the program continues to vary and shift, carrying the audience along with it from emotion to emotion.
While I am not particularly religious, I did find Lang's secularisation and watering down of the spiritual material somewhat concerning. In particular, the powerful gospel "Twelve Gates" is converted by Lang so that, rather than speak of the twelve gates to the city of God, it speaks of the gates to the city of Montreal leading to her own concert. Lang compromises the power of the very personal spiritual "I Shall Not be Moved" by generalising it to "We Shall Not be Moved," then later in the song by again shifting the focus from God to the ending of her own show from which she "shall not be moved." While others may disagree, for me this reflects disrespect for the material, for the faith it reflects, and for those who have gone before. [For more on my personal views on making changes in traditional music, see this note.]
One interesting arrangement is Lang's version of "Frankie and Johnny," which begins as mostly spoken word, makes a gradual transition to a traditional sung verion, then evolved into a rollicking dixieland number."
Penny Lang & Friends LIVE is, over all, perhaps the most enjoyable concert recording I have heard in a very long time. This is a lively, fun recording well worth adding to anyone's CD rack.
Those wishing to learn more about Penny Lang can go to her web site.
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Review Written: April 14, 1999
Page Last modified: February 14, 2004
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