Rick Lang has a story to tell. In fact, he has at least thirteen stories he is ready to share. The first release from his upcoming concept album of real-life stories, called “Lost Town” is a story brought to him by friends. They invited him to visit Dana, Massachusetts, where four towns were disincorporated to make way for the Quabbin Reservoir. People whose families had lived on that land for generations had to take their possessions and vacate the property. Now the waters of the reservoir cover rock foundations, stone walls, and ancient graveyards.
Fascinated by the story, Lang went on to read a book called The Day Four Towns Died, as well as transcripts of a man named Doubleday, through whose eyes the story is told in Lang’s single “Lost Town.” He said the accounts left him overcome with emotion and he wanted to tell their story.
He believes the tradition of storytelling songs goes far back. He pointed out the Christmas songs of the 30s, 40s and 50s that mirrored life and society, as did the blues songs of the 40s and 50s, and early bluegrass songs. “Back then,” says Lang, “people were struggling. They had hardships and hard times and wrote about that. I was drawn to that reality, capturing history with a documentary flair.”
This is not Lang’s first project with Stephen Mougin of Dark Shadow Recording, who is producing the album. Mougin is also from New Englander, actually near the Quabbin. He and Lang connected at the International Bluegrass Music Association convention. They decided to write together, and Mougin, who was recording demos at the time did so for some of Lang’s songs. When Lang decided to record his second album of original Christmas songs, he asked Mougin to produce it. The two collaborated to write the title song, “That’s What I Love about Christmas,” named Christmas song of the year.
Having Mougin, a talented musician and songwriter as well, on the project is a bonus, said Lang. “Stephen is totally connected, so a lot of people know that if he’s producing and pitching a record, it’s going to be a good project with quality music.”
Those connections brought together a wealth of talent, including Ned Luberecki on banjo Becky Buller on fiddle and clawhammer banjo, and James Key on mandolin. Sam Bush, in whose band Mougin plays guitar, guests on a few of the songs.
“We recorded all the sound tracks a couple of years ago, and it involved an all-star group of musicians,” said Lang. “We were going to release the album a year ago but because of the complexity of the pandemic, we decided to wait another year.” The pandemic also delayed bringing in vocalists for some of the songs, but they plan to have the album mixed and mastered and ready to release this fall.
Lang says the current singles game—releasing tracks from an album one by one—is nothing new. He grew up in the sixties, when all music, pop and Motown, were singles. “When somebody else had a single that hit the top spot, you put out another single to top that,” he said. “We’ve come full circle. It’s a chance to introduce new music more frequently.”
The first in his family to pursue music, Rick Lang recalls staying up late listening to records with his brother. The year his mother gave him a guitar for Christmas, he said, changed his life.
“I started to learn to play and became infatuated with music and the radio. I developed a passion that has never wavered, that is still as strong after sixty years as it was back them,” said Lang.
He found a calling in songwriting. While he records some of his songs, he feels others are better showcased by other singers. He has enjoyed success placing his songs with a lot of other singers for their projects as well. His first cut on a recording was pure serendipity. At the time, he says, songwriting was an enjoyable hobby, but he didn’t know if it would amount to anything.
Lang says, “I had a few good songs, but I was just at the beginning of my songwriting journey.” He started sending out songs, and he says, “most of the time, I never heard back, but you know the old saying, ‘No answer is an answer in itself.’”
His songs started getting some interest. He sent a cassette recording he made himself of “Listen to the Word of God” to Tim Austin of the Lonesome River Band. The band expressed interest, but he never heard further. Then when attending an Alison Krauss and Union Station show, in the men’s room he ran into Dan Tyminski, in LRB at the time, who was a guest on the show. He asked if Lang had another cassette of the song. They had like it, he said, but had lost the copy.
Rick sent him another cassette, and they recorded a cut of the song featuring Dan Tyminski, Ronnie Bowman, and Alison Krauss on fiddle. It ended up on their album Carrying the Tradition that went on to become album of the year.
“That was my first cut,” Lang says. “I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. That experience energized and inspired me to work hard. I thought ‘Maybe I can become a songwriter.’”
He approaches his own albums “like casting a place: getting a producer game planning to release a record, casting all the musicians for the soundtrack and picking out a singer who is ideal for that particular song,” he explains. What results is an album with ten to twelve different vocalists, offering a variety.
He compared the album to a book of short stories. “You hear a song and then go on to the next song, and it’s a totally different vibe, with the singer telling the story,” says Lang.
His connections in the music industry, developed over years, have served well on his albums. For example, he says, he collaborated with Jerry Salley, who worked with him on his gospel album Gonna Sing, Gonna Shout.
“Jerry was able to reach out to some performers that would. be hard to access, like the Whites, Claire Lynch, and Marty Raybon,” he says. “We would select a ‘hit list’ of singers whose voices would suit each song, then let them hear the song and decide if they felt it suited them. They had to make the call if they were going to do the song. That was a fun process.”
Becoming a part of the bluegrass community has also helped Rick to make connections and to mentor others. Living in New Hampshire, with no connections to anybody in music, he says he felt he might as well be living on the North Pole. He and his wife started attending the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) annual conventions to be a part of the community and to develop skills as a songwriter. He eventually was asked to serve on the IBMA songwriting committee, which he has chaired for several years. The committee puts out a newsletter with songwriting-related articles and posts and has established a songwriting mentor program in which he serves. Aspiring writers are matched up with more experienced songwriters to help improve their skills.
Rick is also proud of the other side to his life. He has worked for years in the high-end lumber industry and started his own company Highland Hardwoods with his wife a few years ago. They supply maple, cherry, black walnut and other hardwoods to craftspeople for furniture and even musical instruments. “I love the industry, love what I do. I have a similar passion for music, so I coexist in both worlds,” he said.
Because he has such a passion, he says, he writes four or five days a week, sometimes seven. The music connections he has forged have served Lang well during the pandemic. He has found opportunities to write with musicians who might otherwise be touring. He has written with Josh Shilling, lead singer of Mountain Heart. A song they wrote together, “When the Sun Rose Us That Morning,” is currently number one on the Bluegrass Today gospel charts.
With technology, he is not limited to writing with people in Nashville when he visits. Instead, he has been writing with thirty or forty other songwriters during COVID and has written at least 130 songs, calling this “the most productive songwriting period of my life.” He knows he needs to take advantage of the opportunity to write with these performing artists before the window of opportunity closes. Many of his co-writers have become good friends, he says, naming Becky Buller, Rick Farris, Troy Engle, and Darryl Mosely, before admitting the list is so long.
Lang anticipates a second single release around May from the album he plans to call A Tale to Tell, this one another true story introduced by a friend.
“You’ll be drawn in like reading a book,” Lang promises, as he clearly makes the most of every story shared, every friendship offered, every direction God leads him as he writes songs that continue to touch lives, potentially for generations.
