Recorded at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia on 8/23/17, Jonny Lang’s “Lie to Me” performance accurately summarizes his contemporary blues-rocker persona. The vocal growl belies his youthful visage in direct proportion to how the song’s heavy metal overtones, replete in his guitaring, might undercut the song’s impact if not for the agile backing from his band. Staunch in his devotion to the hyphenated genre, the North Dakota native’s garnered five albums that have charted in the top 50 of the ‘Billboard 200’ plus a Grammy Award for 2006’s Turn Around, so he’s earned more than just a modicum of recognition, even if he’s no household word. And, as further demonstrated by his Signs LP (issued the same year as this video), he generates a flashpoint of inspiration often enough to not only confirm the durability of the amalgam but also reinforce the validity of its essential worth.
