I have witnessed Ryan Young playing live only once, in Celtic Connections 2023. It was an astonishing performance, a rare combination of technical skill, fiery spirit and presence, and total commitment to the music. I compared it to Jeff Beck’s guitar playing and found out that some others felt exactly the same.
So it came a bit of surprise that his second album is mostly quite slow: few moments of fast-tempo blasts but lots of this very focused, very nuanced playing of slower tunes, with his trademark liquid glissandos and bends in frequent attendance.
I have used the term “Highland Zen” a couple of times to describe music that’s very focused, very serene, stripped of all unncessary elements; I recall using that term to describe Lauren MacColl’s Landskein, at least.
But as much as Just a Second checks the points of serenity and focus, there’s a different kind of fire burning beneath the surface here. Young’s fiddling always bristles with this… deep, natural electricity; there’s so much emotion present. His fiddle style and sound, big and deep in the lower end, bright and singing in the high ranges, reminds me, yet again, of the masters of the blues guitar.
And, in some sense, I feel the essence of the blues in much of his fiddling; not the blues as a music genre, but the spirit. His playing tells of the human experience the same way the blues does. And my slightly synesthetic senses “see” Ryan Young’s playing in deep blue colors, often with an undercurrent of deep purple (the color, not the band 😄). Maybe that means something.
Just a Second is an original, captivating, fascinating album, with Craig Irving’s acoustic guitar complementing the fiddle perfectly throughout, and Young’s very original arrangements of tunes both trad and borrowed keeping things interesting. But you probably have to give it some time and a couple of spins. In our hectic age, even the album title asks you to wait and perhaps stop, if even for a second.
FolkNotes 