PETER LANG

We hitched a ride out to the festival club for the sole intention of late night drinking, but we were also entertained by a yank called Peter Lang. When Peter took the stage I thought ‘what is this?’ A senior citizen dressed in leisure wear and a fair few stone overweight, Peter produced some of the most delicate yet intense guitar playing I’ve heard. His gruff singing voice was fantastic too; especially on ‘None of Your Damn Business’ that to the pleb’s ear (mine) was recognised as the ‘Crisp ‘n Dry’ advert. Peter was a real surprise, a real delight and a great way to round off the night. - BEST OF THE REST:

Lang is one of the finest acoustic finger-style players in the nation-a true master. His songs are complex, mercurial, lyrical, and fluid. . . A rare must-see show for fans of finger-style guitar . - CRITICS PICK:

Peter Lang may be known as one of the world’s preeminent 6- and 12-string fingerstyle solo instrumentalists, but as his new CD Testament [Horus] reveals, his approach can also propel a mean blues jam. The album finds Lang, along with Bad Plus drummer Dave King, bassist Steve Larkin, and harmonica player/album producer Michael Tanner exploring and reinvigorating traditional blues and folk material stretching back to the turn of the 19th Century. . .Testament reflects Lang’s interests prior to his renown as a member of the legendary Takoma Records fingerstyle guitar trinity alongside Leo Kottke and the late John Fahey. To this day, John Fahey, Peter Lang & Leo Kottke, a 1974 release with four tunes from each player, remains one of the biggest-selling fingerstyle albums ever. Lang also released his classic debut record, The Thing at the Nursery Room Window, on the label in 1973. - Anil Prasad

Guitar Gods Converge: In difference venues, Kottke and Lang revive ’70s acoustic moment.

In 1974, Leo Kottke and Peter Lang appeared together, along with John Fahey, on an untitled album now known as the Trinity Record. Released on Fahey's Takoma Records, the three-way LP showcased the technical and expressive ability of the era's three most powerful solo acoustic guitar players. For me, the record has come to represent an amazing period right before the decline of a musical movement,one that was grounded in blues and ragtime guitar technique but at the same time had an unprecedented freedom of imagination that encouraged more ambitious and unconventional approaches to composition. . .
. . .Entitled simply Guitar, Lang's most recent release is staggering. There is less of an emphasis on speed than there is on previous releases, like The Thing at the Nursery Room Window, and his playing is much softer than ever before, sounding like he's switched from traditional steel fingerpicks to exclusively using his fingernails.

As rock and roll has taught us, certain extraordinary musicians seem get better into their middle age. Peter Lang is a perfect case in point, unveiling a new, super-refined sensibility for this album. It seems that all the time that he took off has sweetened his approach to the instrument, making him one of the most delicate players to touch steel strings nowadays. I have never heard someone play slide with such a long, painful delay as Lang does on Brick House Blues.And Witness to the Messenger, his tribute to Fahey, is the very definition of transcendent.

This week finds both of these guitarists passing through the Peninsula on their respective tours. Kottke will play the acoustically immaculate Sunset Center in Carmel, and I can think of no better place to hear him play. Lang appears at the much more modest Monterey Live, where I saw him play on his tour last year. The room has a good sound system and acoustics, and his performance promises to make up in intimacy what it lacks in grandeur. The last time I saw Lang there was one of the subtlest solo acoustic performances I have ever seen. - Matthew Baldwin

That melodically rich engrossing magic is still all over the place even though it’s been a quarter of a century since his last studio sessions. Nothing pretentious, streamlined, or new-agey here. Simply genius at work as a guitar master delivers his best album to date." Oct/Nov 2002 - Bill Wasserzieher

Longtime Minneapolis guitar picker Peter Lang is best known for his wow-inducing acoustic virtuosity that warrants putting him in the same sentence with John Fahey and Leo Kottke. (Heck, the three of them made an unforgettable album together in 1974.)

On this year's "Testament," Lang demonstrates a new persona -- singing bluesman. Joined by drummer Dave King, bassist Steve Larkin and harmonica player/producer Michael Tanner, Lang travels down the roads of his youth. He dusts off such classics as "Stackolee" and "Delia" as well as the African folk song "Guabi Guabi" with equal elan. - John Bream

Peter Lang is one of those guys whose facility on guitar helped establish the Twin Cities as a hotbed of acoustic fingerpickers back in the '70s. In the last few years, he re-emerged after a 20-year hiatus from the music biz, his agility and supple touch on the strings intact. This week he releases his 10th album, Testament (Horus), a masterful exploration of early blues full of the assurance and insight of a career definer. Not only is it a showcase for Lang's sparkling guitar work, it's a neat bit of scholarship, with Lang's erudite liner notes and adept arrangements that put blues nuggets like "Stackolee" and "Nobody's Business Like My Own" into historic context. Lang has never sounded better as a vocalist, displaying a nicely textured instrument that nails the blues phrasing. - Rick Mason

Lang's gift lies in expression. He projects an emotional force in his playing more similar to Beethoven or Tchaikovsky than to anything mainstream today. When he talks, it is with a wisdom about his craft that can only be attained only through living and learning. It is these experiences, and his ability to express them, that have brought Lang back into public consciousness. - R.J. Pales

"While Minnesota guitarist Peter Lang may not be as well-known as Leo Kottke, or even the late John Fahey, he is nonetheless one of a handful of acoustic guitarists who defined new American styles in the 1960s and '70s. . . . This is guitar music that matters because it is played not only with technical acumen and a sense of history, but with an aesthetic that celebrates and pushes the tradition in new directions."      - AMG PICK * * * *

Peter Lang: Testament (Horus Records): I do go on about Peter Lang… but yet here he is with another offering, that I can only call “perfect”. With guest musicians like Dave King (Bad Plus) performing percussion in an understated, but masterful way and John Fahey (one track, from a 1979 KTCA appearance with Peter). Testament is a tribute / reworking of the earliest traditional Blues tunes he started out performing. The thing that never fails to stun me about Peter is how he makes every note he plays work. - CHORD MAGAZINE, May 2008