Jay Lang - Blues, Vol 2 (2026)

Mississippi native Jay Lang wears his influences proudly on Blues Vol. 2 (2026). Drawing on lessons learned playing alongside members of the Burnside family, Lang pairs Delta blues standards with strong originals, backed by a band whose swinging piano, tasteful accordion, and nimble guitar work make for an engaging listen.

Kicking off the album, “Squeeze Your Lemon” revels in dirty innuendos, driven by a blues shuffle and a strong piano presence, from Eric Carlton. Lang’s deep, soulful voice rings out, “Please roll your lemon and squeeze it all night long,” accompanied by some mean guitar playing.

Gorgeous finger picking starts out the blues standard, “Stagolee”, featuring softer vocal intonations describing gambling gone wrong, and the fight between Stagolee and Billy de Lion. “You stole my Stetson hat, so I’m bound to take your life,” Lang croons in a smooth, masculine voice.

Perhaps the best song on the album, “Holes in My Shoes”, employs gnarly guitar licks to start, and boogie-woogie piano. It tells the story of a rag-tag man, just keeping on, and the theatrics on the piano are quite good. Lang sings about travelling the country, and how “My mind is running and it’s moving for a natural mile. I turn down the volume and enjoy the quiet for a while.”

“Movin’ On” , a good rollicking’, rocking fun track, features a rhythmic piano shuffle, while Lang sings “I crossed the hottest desert and I sailed the 7 seas, circumnavigated to Memphis, Tennessee. I’m movin’ on.” Lang’s ode to troubadours and travelers, to songsters on the road, is defined by the dizzying piano display, full of barrelhouse charm and adept playing. The Delta track has hints of New Orleans flavor.

Fickle changes of fortune are the focus of, “I Got Mine”, a song with a catchy melody, solid rhythm, and strong acoustic guitar playing. “I went down to a big craps game, that was against my will. Lost every single dime I had except a greenback dollar bill,” Lang sings. His luck changes when the police bust in, and he grabs hundreds of dollars; “I’ve got mine.” It’s a rowdy, disreputable tune, written by Frank Stokes, describing being in high society, yet on the run from the cops.

Guitar enters with trepidation – cautious and gentle – in the pain-inflicted “Last Kind Word”. Lang’s voice emerges as an injured moan, “The last kind word I heard my daddy say… If I die far off in the German war, please send my body home.” Carlton provides chilling accordion in the haunting, mournful, yet reverential track, imbued with lyrical poetry.

Undulating, swinging accordion gives a carnival-like, comical quality to the satirical song “Bourgeois Blues”. In syncopated vocal delivery, Lang sings “me and my wife we went all around town. Everywhere we went, the people turned us down, cause its a bourgeois town.” Working with Carlton’s accordion, Lang cries out, “All you working folks, listen to me, they trying to trip you up and bend your knee, in a bourgeois town.”

The sole instrumental track on the album, “Keep on Gwine”, features refreshing, funky acoustic guitar, employing the full neck of the guitar, engaging dynamic harmonica from Harold Tremblay, and complex guitar patterns. The instrumental layers produce a cheery, uplifting tone, like rolling on down the track.

“Statesboro Blues”, the Blind Willie McTell song famously covered by the Allman Brothers Band, concludes the album. Solid finger-picking intermingles with piano from Carlton, producing texture and soul. Lang’s honey-laden voice calls out “Wake up mama, turn your lamp down low. You’ve got the nerve to turn a sweet man from your door.”

With Blues Vol. 2, Lang shows a clear understanding of the tradition that shaped him. His interpretations of songs by Lead Belly, Blind Willie McTell, Frank Stokes, and others are confident without trying to reinvent the material, while Eric Carlton’s piano and accordion add depth throughout. The album’s originals—particularly “Movin’ On,” “One More Day,” and “Holes in My Shoes”—fit naturally alongside the standards, suggesting Lang is as comfortable writing within the tradition as he is interpreting it. Lang proves himself to be a skillful arranger, bandleader, vocalist, and guitarist, with a firm grasp of the Delta blues tradition.