** Jonny Lang

WANDER THIS WORLD

(A&M)

It's hard to stomach Lang's overwrought vocal yowl. That's the one thing that keeps turning his potentially listenable blues/pop numbers like "Still Rainin' " into painful blackface parody. (If you caught his brief vocal turn in Blues Brothers 2000 -- full of trite, horrid grimacing -- you know that all too well.) Too bad, because the young guitarist's beginning to tap his potential on this CD. His playing's marked by a big tone and the right balance of flash and subtlety. Sure, he still phrases like Stevie Ray Vaughan on most of his solos and fills, but at least he's one of the best Vaughan clones. And when he slides into a hard funk bag, as he does on "Before You Hit the Ground," his rhythm 'n' lead chug sings -- a lot better than he does on that tune. Too bad, because when he slows down to slip into ballads like "The Levee" and "Breakin' Me" -- where the howling's kept to a minimum -- he proves himself capable of drawing sweet emotional nuance from his limited voice. Hell, John Lee Hooker likes him, which counts for something.

-- Ted Drozdowski