In the Australian guitar scene, guitarist, songwriter, vocalist and producer Jeff Lang needs very little introduction. He has built a reputation for making startling music that is accomplished, intricate, gutsy, melodic, and loaded with soul. He has consistently inspired his audiences by creating a stylistically diverse catalogue of over thirty albums.
At this year’s Adelaide Guitar Festival, Jeff is performing a special one-night-only concert that will feature material from his forthcoming album More Life, with collaborators William Crighton, Hat Fitz and Cara, and Kerri Simpson.
Jeff spoke to Glam Adelaide ahead of his Adelaide Guitar Festival performance about the show and what it is about the guitar he loves.
“The versatility – it’s a very personal kind of instrument. It feels like you’ve got the same basic tools at your disposal as any other guitar player, but I’ve sat there and had an instrument in my hands and then passed it to a friend who plays and it sounds completely different straight away in their hands – it’s just magical.”
Jeff has had such a successful career so far, and we asked if music and performing have always played an important part in his life.
“Not so much in my early years, but once I started playing guitar when I was 14, that’s when things really changed for me. I started making tentative forays into performing with high school bands and so on. When I was 17 or 18 I started actually playing in pubs and doing gigs like that. My parents would also play a lot of good records as well – Bob Dylan and similar artists like that.”
Jeff has been performing at festivals like the Adelaide Guitar Festival for a long time. He even was part of the line up of the first Adelaide Guitar Festival in 2007. We asked Jeff how important these festivals are when it comes to showcasing the versatility and virtuosic nature of the guitar.
“I think they are excellent for people to be able to check out a wide variety of things in one festival. Slava Grigoryan, who is the Artistic Director of the Adelaide Guitar festival, has put together such an incredible package of works that really showcase the instrument and its versatility.”
Jeff is about to embark on a national tour to celebrate the launch of his latest album, which includes a performance at the Adelaide Guitar Festival on September 12.
“I had entertained the idea of doing this new album for a while now. I’ve made collaborative records with other people in the past, but it’s usually a collaboration for the course of a whole album with a single artist. This time around I had the idea of doing an album where you’re writing a new song with each artist and singing it together with them as a duet. I thought that would be a nice angle on it rather than doing duets on already existing material or standards or similar. I had a TED Talk booked with John Butler and we got in touch to work out what we wanted to talk about. We both worked out that we would prefer to play than talk, so we wrote a couple of songs together, and that really is what set this whole project in motion. I loved the idea of being able to write a whole album with some of my favourite writers and performers and just see what we come up with together.”
Jeff promises his Adelaide performance will be one to remember.
“There will be material from various stages of my career, but it’s also a bit like a revue show. I’ve got guests who performed on my new album with me, and it’s basically going to be the type of show where it keeps shifting through the night. I’ve got a great band playing with me alongside those guests. They’ll be all incorporated into the course of the show so it’s not like separate acts. It keeps shifting which will be a lot of fun.”
Jeff Lang: More Life
Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre
8pm September 12th, 2024
https://guitar.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/whats-on/jeff-lang
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