Jason Lang pays tribute to his mother Penny Lang

UPDATE DAY

A prominent figure on the Canadian folk scene, Penny Lang was also the mother of artist Jason Lang. To mark what would have been the 80th birthday of his mother, who died six years ago, the musician-singer has concocted a tribute album which he baptized Handled With Care.

At 52, Jason Lang has led a hundred musical projects with various stars from here and elsewhere (Roch Voisine, Isabelle Boulay, Corey Hart, Amanda Marshall, Richard Séguin, Marjo…). 

Guitarist, singer and producer, the multidisciplinary artist does not hesitate to say that the album Handled With Care is the album that changed his life.

This “old time country blues” style opus includes ten songs in English. Eight having been written by his mother, who was considered a legend of folk music in Canada, and two pieces that the latter enjoyed performing on stage. Two songs from the album have already been released to the general public: Plumb Tuckered Out and Happiness is. 

“These are songs that I really enjoyed playing with my mother on stage”, confides the singer who offers here his third solo album (after Beautiful Disguise in 2008 and Boomerang in 2010).&nbsp ;

“I did a lot of research on her music, on the musical roots of what she had written and I dug her songs to keep the ones that touched me the most.” 

< strong>The legacy of music

Deceased in 2016, Penny Lang was born in Montreal and lived in the Laurentians and then in a small village in British Columbia. Jason Lang thus grew up “in the North” in a house where music was omnipresent. 

He owes his love for music to his mother; an artist who has launched a dozen career albums, including Stone+Sand+Sea+Sky,which earned him several awards in 2006.

This musical project will have allowed the son to rediscover who his mother really was. 

“I have the chance now to really discover who she was and her values, he explains. For her, the important thing was to never forget that what makes us happy is simpler than we think. A week before her death, she said to me “look at the trees”, like a child. It's a beautiful legacy that she bequeathed to me.”

The singer points to the piece Carry On Children,which tells the story of parents watching their children leave home in the distance to live their lives, despite the difficulties they will encounter. Now an adult, Jason Lang understands that some of his mother's songs were all about her love for her only son. 

“This project is a bit like doing one of albums, which I would have liked to do during his lifetime, confides the artist in love with the scene. Unfortunately, that never happened, because she quit music in 2008, before I started directing.” 

The pleasure, here, merged with the melancholy of diving back into the memories of his mother. The exercise gave birth to a certainty: he will record another album of covers of his mother's hits. 

While waiting for this second opus, Jason Lang is putting the finishing touches to his launch show, which will be held in the Ursa Hall of her friend, singer Martha Wainwright, on February 24, in Montreal. He is also planning a tour and festival performances this summer.

The album Handled With Care by Jason Lang will be available on all platforms on February 24.