Building Faith in Song: The Blue Collar Gospel of Rick Lang

There's something deeply satisfying about a life that turns craft into a calling. For songwriter Rick Lang, that's precisely how faith found its shape—through wood, words, and work. Fulfilling a 52-year career in the hardwood lumber business, Lang has spent decades refining two trades that require equal measures of patience and reverence. Whether he's carefully planning Curly Hard Maple or shaping melody, the goal is the same: make something solid, true, and lasting.

Lang didn't come up through the Sunday service or the Nashville circuit. His road to gospel music began far from both, in Exeter, New Hampshire, where he grew up in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He was just a kid who loved the radio, a fan before he was ever a believer.

I remember the first music that resonated with me was listening to the Everly Brothers on the radio," Lang said. "I think my first 45 I picked up was the Everly Brothers' 'Wake Up Little Susie.' Then over time I fell in love with Motown music and soul, and later with the folk scene—Tom Rush, Gordon Lightfoot, Simon & Garfunkel, and Bob Dylan. But when the late sixties came along, the music changed, and I just wasn't feeling it anymore."

For a while, Lang drifted away from music. Then one night in the mid-1980s, he stumbled upon a bluegrass show near home—and his life snapped into focus.

"Bluegrass music was something I didn't know much about or had never heard much about," he said. "I was just blown away by what I heard. The instrumentation and the singing and the harmonies – I'd never heard anything like it, so I started following bluegrass, buying records, learning how to play bluegrass rhythm. The more I listened, the more I loved it."

Soon, he was running a regional bluegrass band, but he found himself drawn to taking pen to paper rather than stepping up to the mic.

"I realized I wasn't really meant to be a singer in a bluegrass band," Lang said. "I was more captivated by the songs. I started studying them, figuring out who wrote them, and discovered writers like Pete Goble and Randall Hylton. I just got the bug. I said, Man, I would love to write songs like this."

He kept at it, writing on his own, with no roadmap and no mentor. Then in 1990, he sent one of his songs—a gospel number called "Listen to the Word of God"—to the Lonesome River Band. He didn't expect to hear back. What he got instead was validation from the highest level.

"Much to my surprise, Lonesome River Band recorded 'Listen to the Word of God.' It was released on their award-winning album Carrying the Tradition, and that was the catalyst. I thought, gosh, if I work hard, maybe I can become a songwriter.

That single cut was the spark, but the true fire of faith came years later. Lang found himself at a personal low point in 2008, and what saved him wasn't a hit or a handout—it was prayer.

"I was struggling at many levels," Lang admitted. "I got in this deep hole I couldn't get out of, and I started praying. I said, Dear Lord, if you can pull me out of this hole I'm in, and help bring me back to the good place I was before, I'll commit the rest of my life to serving you and writing songs of praise."

From that promise came Look to the Light, Lang's first all-original gospel project. It served as a personal journal in song form, filled with redemption and gratitude. Thus began his long collaboration with producer and songwriter Jerry Salley, who helped turn Lang's quietly powerful writing into recordings that found an audience for his heartfelt compositions.

"That was my redemption," Lang said. "That changed my whole life—writing gospel songs and living a life of gratitude. That was it right there."

The success of Look to the Light led to another project with Salley, Gonna Sing, Gonna Shout, which became an award-winning release on Billy Blue Records. Featuring a who 's-who of bluegrass voices—Claire Lynch, The Whites, Marty Raybon, and Bradley Walker among them—the album hit #1 twice, won an IBMA Award, and earned Lang his first Grammy nomination. But it also gave him a new phrase for what he was creating.

"It was during that experience I realized we had created something a bit different, our own unique spin on Gospel music," Lang said. "We deemed it 'Blue Collar Gospel.' It represents a particular style of gospel songs about ordinary people and their faith—about everyday hard-working folks, their struggles, failures, triumphs, and relationship with God."

Lang saw that his writing could reach beyond the church walls—songs that hid their sermons in real life, that preached through empathy more than instruction. His lyrics felt like conversations with neighbors, not proclamations from pulpits.

When the pandemic hit and the world shut down, Lang refused to stop creating. Instead, he turned to technology and faith.

"I had never done any remote writing by FaceTime, Skype, or Zoom, but I decided to give it a shot," he said. "Before I knew it, I was writing every day of the week. By the time the pandemic was over, I had built a catalog of dozens of brand new gospel songs that would become the foundation for our Blue Collar Gospel project."

Released in 2024, the Blue Collar Gospel album celebrates everyday believers, sung by a diverse lineup that includes more female voices than his previous releases. Finding grace in the small details of life seems to be a recurring theme in this collection,  whether in work, family, or quiet moments of faith.

As for Lang's songwriting process, it begins before sunrise. Each morning, he and his wife Wendy take a long walk, and that's where most of his songs are born.

"When I'm out walking, I pray and I ask God to send these song ideas," he said, "and every time, I come home with a new song idea or two.  They appear out of nowhere. I keep my mind open, and I just feel like I'm an empty vessel with all the ideas of the universe just flowing through me. It controls me, and I don't control it."

That surrender—trusting that inspiration is a divine gift—is what guides him now. Lang doesn't see himself as a performer or even a writer in the traditional sense. He sees himself as a messenger, a conduit for something higher.

"I truly believe that writing gospel music is my calling, the Good Lord's plan for me," he said. "I've been told that spreading God's Holy Word through my songwriting and music is a form of ministry. I believe that to be true. It is my hope that each song touches the heart, stirs the soul, and brings others closer to their faith."

Through Blue Collar Gospel, Lang found the sweet spot where faith meets real life—a sound that's humble, human, and full of light. "There are people who have faith in their lives, but they don't formalize it by going to church," he explains. "Even people who don't go to church, when they need God's help, they pray and reach out. I wanted to write songs not only for true believers but for people who could use faith in their lives—songs about everyday experiences where faith interweaves with people's lives."

Those stories—of fishermen, factory men, and quiet redemption—remind listeners that spirituality doesn't have to sound solemn. Sometimes it sounds like a laugh in the middle of hard work, or like music on the radio just when you need it most.

"If you want to be a real good Christian and follower, live your faith. Don't just talk about it. Live it. Live your faith every day."

His songs do exactly that—living, breathing proof of a life rebuilt through grace and work. Each lyric feels hand-carved, worn smooth by prayer and perseverance. And just like his lumberyard days, the quality is in the grain: strong, honest, and built to last.

SIDEBAR: What's Next for Rick Lang

After releasing Blue Collar Gospel on Billy Blue Records, Lang continues to write every day, often collaborating remotely with Nashville's top songwriters. He's now working on his first non-gospel studio album for Billy Blue, once again produced by GRAMMY Award-winning producer Jerry Salley.

"I'm not doing any of this for me," Lang said. "Everything I'm doing is to serve God and to serve others."

And as dawn breaks over the treetops, Rick Lang will take his daily walk, open his heart, and wait for the next song to arrive.