By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
February 14, 1997
Back in the mid-1980s, 17-year-old Charlie Sexton was in a unique situation. The guitar sensation headlined at clubs across the country but was legally too young to order a beer at any of them. He was encouraged to trade his rootsy blues style for synth-driven rock and had a minor hit with “Beat’s So Lonely.”
These days, record labels are snapping up teenage artists such as Silverchair, Kenny Wayne Shephard and Jonny Lang with increasing regularity. But unlike teen artists such as Tiffany and the New Kids on the Block, who were marketed for the teen and pre-teen crowd, these musicians are being targeted as artists rather than novelties.
Lang, a 16-year-old blues guitarist and singer, will headline at the House of Blues on Thursday. Like Shephard, Lang is an ace ax man. And like Sexton before him, he has the benefit of having a model’s profile, which undoubtedly endears him to some adolescent fans, too. (He recently landed a Seventeen magazine spread.)
The precocious musician is poised for stardom.
Lang, who lives in Minneapolis, may be barely 16, but he is no novice. A quick study who didn’t own his first guitar until he was 13, Lang fronted Kid Jonny Lang & the Big Bang. The band’s self-released “Smokin’ ” sold a respectable 25,000 copies. Lang’s major-label debut, “Lie to Me,” which recently hit stores, is soulful and well crafted.
More importantly, it shows the promise Lang has to grow into a sophisticated artist. Maybe when he’s 18.
EYE CANDY: The Kinks’ Dave Davies has written a fascinatingly lurid account of his life as the English rock band’s lead guitarist. In Kink (Hyperion, $22.95), which will be in stores Thursday, Davies writes candidly about what it was like taking a creative back seat to elder brother Ray, his bisexual dalliances and how his inexperience with the guitar led to the classic intro to the quintessential Kinks song, “You Really Got Me.” . . . Bassist John Taylor has quit Duran Duran to pursue solo projects. Hopefully Taylor will have better luck than he did with the Neurotic Outsiders, the “supergroup” that also included the Sex Pistols’ beefy guitarist Steve Jones. Duran’s Simon LeBon and Nick Rhodes, the only two original members, still plan on continuing with the group.
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