Jeff Lang joins Mullum Roots Festival lineup

BLUES and roots star and regional favourite Jeff Lang joins the lineup of the inaugural Mullum Roots Festival next month.

The multiple ARIA award-winner has a diverse catalogue of 30 albums, and his latest, More Life, featured collaborations with John Butler, Liz Stringer, Don Walker, Suzannah Espie, and William Crighton, among others.

The Melbourne-based guitarist-singer-songwriter was last in the Northern Rivers for a show at the Eltham Hotel with Crighton in 2024.

“That tour was great fun, and it’s very enjoyable to have different ideas and energy to bounce off,” Lang said.

“The show at Eltham was one of my favourites – one of the top five gigs of the run.

“As well as having William there, we’d bring in other people to supplement the core band in different places, and it was a fun way to keep it fresh.

“Then that follows into playing solo shows because you haven’t done that for a while, so this feels fresh again, too.”

The artist and producer has built a global reputation for his accomplished, intricate, and gutsy music.

Self-described as ‘disturbed folk’, Lang has produced his melodic, roots-oriented rock in international collaborations with guitar anthropologist Bob Brozman, American blues-rocker Chris Whitley, India’s desert-dwellers Maru Tarang and world music virtuosos Bobby Singh and Mamadou Diabate.

The latter project won the 2010 ARIA Award for Best World Music Album. Lang and Brozman won Best Blues and Roots Music Album in 2002, and Lang won the same category as a solo artist in 2012.

The Mullum Roots Festival show will feature Lang’s solo iterations from More Life and, if the gods are kind, a few new tunes.

The song always comes first, he said, long before an album idea is formed.

“I’ve been writing some new songs, and it just depends on whether I can get them up to performance level in time,” he said.

“I’m a ‘writing when the inspiration hits, rather than chipping away at it every day’ type of person.

“Over time, I accumulate a fair bit of stuff, and when I’m looking to make another recording, I’m running through the material and asking, ‘Is this singing to me or is it not?”

Writing the next song is what I’m focused on, and once you’ve got a batch of material, certain songs seem to gravitate towards each other and get along well. I trust that process and don’t try to second-guess it too much.”

At a challenging time for festivals and other economic forces also plaguing the industry, Lang said it was great to be part of a new event in Northern NSW.

“I’m always glad to be given a gig,” he said.

“But seriously, more power to them. Good people are running it, and I hope it gains traction and flourishes, and the people get behind it.

“It’s a very healthy thing for the scene.”

Jeff Lang performs in solo mode on the Courthouse Stage at 9.30pm.

For tickets, visit mullumrootsfest.com/tickets