Lang describes the early blues of Testament as "a tribute to the bloody, beautiful music that hooked me at age eight, that made me pick up a guitar at ten." The CD consists of 16 searing covers of seminal blues songs going back to the 19th century, plus a stunning 16-page booklet illuminating the real roots of American music.

Lang agrees with the New York Times. "It's similar to the deregulation of the financial industry--media got deregulated, radio got dumbed down, corporate greed trumped core values," Lang says. "In the case of traditional American music--our cultural birthright--a public asset got privatized, homogenized and left for dead. I'm resuscitating it."