Jeff Lang brings his '˜disturbed folk' from Australia to the UK

When he speaks to The Guide he's in between dates on his latest home country tour, staying with a friend in Adelaide.

'˜I'm enjoying a night off in a fantastic person's company. One of your former countrymen actually '“ Chris Dinnen, a great, great guitar player. We'll be having some fun, eating some lasagne, playing some music, listening to some records. Very wholesome,' he laughs.

A renowned slide guitar player, Jeff has been playing his unique blend of  blues and folk since deciding to go solo in the early '90s, racking up 12 solo albums and numerous collaborations along the way.

'˜It is fun going on the road and driving down stretches of highways and through towns you've never been to before, even in your own country.' This latest drive had been about nine hours, '˜which for Australia isn't too bad. It's like Aberdeen to the New Forest or something for you, isn't it?' he says, showing impressive knowledge of UK geography.

'˜I haven't done that drive for a while as I'll often fly these days. But to have the impetus to come and spend a few days hanging out with a friend made me think I'll just jump in the van like I used to 20 years ago. It's fun going through some of these places you haven't seen in a while.'

Jeff's style has been described as '˜disturbed folk', which he hasn't discouraged.

'˜Someone actually said that to me years ago. I play slide guitar a fair bit, so there was a bit of typecasting as a blues act early on, which isn't really accurate. Much as I love blues music, I wouldn't describe what I do as blues. It's informed by the blues, but it's also just as much informed by British folk, rock'n'roll, African and Indian music, it's all mixed in there.

'˜I was talking to this guy at a show '“ and that's how he described what I do. I thought it was funny and it stuck in my head, so I've used it for want of a better term.'

The British folk tradition has been a huge draw for Jeff.

'˜I love the folk music of the British Isles as it was recast and reimagined by some of the guitar players like Martin Carthy, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, and then you know guys like Richard Thompson and John Martyn who were using it as a launchpad for writing their own really moving songs.

'˜Some of those people, I really love what they do '“ people like Richard Thompson are really inspirational because they draw on that storytelling tradition, and you can tell he's immersed himself in the way those songs work and he's able to write songs that could fit within that tradition, or his own version of that tradition.

'˜They give you a good example of how you can draw on tradition, but create something of your own work. It's hard to live up to the standard of Richard Thompson and Bob Dylan, but you may as well aim high! Why not listen to Skip James and Bob Dylan, Nina Simone '“  the good stuff, you know?'

Growing up in Geelong, a satellite city of Melbourne also played its part in shaping Jeff's formative years.

'˜It's a large non-capital city, it was an oil refinery and a car manufacturing plant '“ those were the two main industries. For the other 300 people who didn't want to join those, there was the football club, and then the other five of us who didn't want to do that either, played guitar '“ the outsiders!

'˜But once you get hooked into a music '“ and for me it was rock'n'roll, seeing AC/DC and Led Zeppelin and stuff like that on TV, made me want to get a guitar.

'˜You start reading interviews with people, like Jimmy Page, and he mentions Bert Jansch, so you go and check him out'¦ and you keep exploring along the way.

'˜It was all very well being told in an interview that you should check out Martin Carthy, but you couldn't necessarily rock down to your local record shop and just buy it. You'd have to order things in and really think about what you'd heard. I was simultaneously doing the archaeological dig through the roots of rock'n'roll music, acoustic blues, electric blues, then branching out sideways from there - you'd read about someone and you'd want to check them out.'

It was this thirst for new musical forms that led him to his 2009 world music project, Djan Djan.

'˜It's following through on the example set by those people, like Ry Cooder and David Linley, John Mclaughlin, coming from a western musical tradition, and having a mindset of seeing where your understanding of musical language can interface with another's culture and seeing where the common ground is, and how easily you can converse based on a mutual shared respect and a desire to listen to each other and to converse. Collaborations like that are fun.'

He is currently, however, working on the follow-up to Alone in Bad Company: '˜I'm writing stuff at the moment and looking at what I'm going to do next, but I'm in the 'thinking about and writing and talking to people about it' stage.

Platform Tavern, Southampton

Sunday, July 29

platformtavern.com