Jeff lang is many things to many people and there are many aspects to his music but it’s his virtuoso performances on the lap steel guitar which makes him a tour de force amongst all the musicians. By Jigyasu Joshi
Before coming on the stage for his performance at the Rajasthan International Folk Festival, Jeff lang was practicing backstage with his slide guitar and tuning in with the folk artiste of Rajasthan. As a part of Maru Tarang, a collaboration that includes Bobby Singh (on tabla), Asin Khan langa (sindhi sarangi and vocals) and Bhungar Khan Manganiyar (on khartal), Jeff is perhaps the most talkative of the group, frequently cracking jokes as they wait for their performance to begin. Jeff believes that the beauty of music is felt when even if people don’t understand the words or the language but still connects with it. “We are performing with the folk singers and musicians who do not understand our language and it is difficult for us to understand their language too. But it’s been five years now since we have collaborated and I’m sure that it is the magic of music that has kept us intact for so long,” smiles the guitarist.
Sharing his experience of working with the folk artistes, Jeff believes that there many things which he has learnt through this collaboration. “It’s just how much further I have got to go with my instruments. So you hear stuff from a player that is so great and you’re hearing what they are doing and you think, “Wow! I’m really struggling to keep up.” It should always be like that I think. You can always hear someone who will inspire you to improve and feel good about that. There’s room for me playing with these people but I could really work at what I’m doing and improve it based on their ideas,” he says. He also shared that there are times when he thinks that it is not happening and he is lagging behind when Asin or Bhungar or Bobby would come and motivate him. “I’m sure they are just being nice to me,” says Jeff.
Sharing his experience about playing at the RIFF, he says that “The settings, for starters are just mind-blowing. How often are you playing at a fort overlooking the whole town and a full moon overhead, no less. It’s a pretty amazing setting for a concert. There also seems to be an emphasis on collaborations which is really nice to see. You know, a lot of the times—though there’s nothing really wrong with it—at festivals musicians come in and do what they do normally somewhere else. Here it’s different because it’s a different audience and every show is different,” he explains.
The ARIA-winning blues, roots and folk singer songwriter is one of the premier exponents of the form with 15 albums under his belt. Jeff lang is many things to many people and has many aspects to his music but for his fans it’s his virtuoso performances on the lap steel guitar which make him a tour de force amongst all the musicians. Talking about his first guitar he played, he shares, “My first guitar was a nylon string acoustic that my older sister had discarded. It was pretty ropey and had a couple of broken tuning pegs, so I tuned it by ear in an open chord and did my best with it in the state it was in. It took a while of working a part-time job to afford an electric guitar - with all six tuning pegs - but I still stuck with the same open chord tuning for another year before someone showed me ‘standard’ guitar tuning.”
When asked about his favourite tour, he says, “Anywhere there’s an audience that is keen to go on a trip with us through the music is fine with me. Sounds like a cop-out but it’s true.” An inspiration for many now, Jeff says that many artistes inspire him till date. “Some of the earliest influences were Bob Dylan, Ry Cooder, leo Kottke, AC/DC, led Zeppelin, Roy Buchanan and Neil Young. And yes, these and many other artists still inspire me to this day,” he shares. y