Ryan Young’s highly anticipated second album JUST A SECOND again sees him enlisting the help of Boston based and four time GRAMMY winning engineer and producer Jesse Lewis.
Due to a lengthy battle with ill health, Ryan had to delay the album several times. Where many might have called time, this journey only served to reinforce his love of playing and his love of music. Playing is his life and the fiddle is his voice.
Now fully recovered, this period has actually served a positive purpose. It has made him think and feel music even more deeply, with every tune and every note thoughtfully and carefully played, always with sensitivity and straight from the heart. Just A Second sees Ryan playing every note as if it were his last.
The natural, intrinsic beauty of the tunes is what draws Ryan’s attention, and he feels the best way to showcase this is in an intimate and exposed fiddle and guitar setting. Ryan can take a tune off a page and transform it into something almost unrecognisable. With Just A Second, he has taken both lesser played and well-known melodies, many of which were first learnt in childhood, and given them a whole new lease of life. His unique twists on classic tunes have been likened to hearing something for the first time, but with a warm familiarity too.
Just A Second mainly consists of Ryan’s soulful interpretations of old Scottish tunes, although he is equally unafraid to reinterpret some more recent compositions. The sign of a good tune for Ryan is one that can be reinterpreted over and over again without losing its integrity. The best tunes have lots of possibilities, and he loves to explore them each and every time he plays. His style is very unique, drawing influence from both Scottish and Irish traditions, particularly those of the Highlands and Islands and County Clare. Seasoned professionals cannot agree on the origins of his sound. Ryan sounds like Ryan Young.
Accompanying Ryan on the album is acclaimed guitarist Craig Irving, as Ryan says “Everything was recorded in live takes with both Craig and I recording in the same space. I kept the blemishes and audio artefacts which were ignored in favour of energy. I’m more interested in how something makes me feel!”
Ryan Young brings new and exciting ideas to traditional Scottish music, receiving international praise for his spell-binding interpretations on the fiddle. His debut album was recorded with four time GRAMMY winner Jesse Lewis (who has worked with the likes of Bela Fleck and Yo Yo Ma) and launched at Feakle Traditional Music Festival in County Clare, accompanied by renowned guitarist, Dennis Cahill (Martin Hayes; The Gloaming). Ryan was nominated for Live Act Of The Year at the 2023 MG ALBA Scots Trad Awards, and for Musician Of The Year at the 2022 Awards.
Ryan brings new life to very old, often forgotten tunes by playing them in his own unique way. He sings through the fiddle and his playing is often described as poetry without words. Ryan’s music is brimming with fresh melodic ideas, an uplifting rhythmic drive and a great depth of dynamics and precision. His sound is very distinctive and takes the listener on an emotional and adventurous journey in any performance.
Ryan holds both a first class honours and a Masters degree from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, was twice a finalist in the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Awards, and twice a finalist in the prestigious BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of The Year. He was awarded ‘Up And Coming Artist Of The Year’ at the Scots Trad Awards in 2017, nominated for the Horizon Award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2018 and awarded Folking.com‘s Musician Of The Year title, also in 2018.
Further MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards nominations include Album Of the Year, and Folk Band Of The Year. Ryan Young was also the only UK artist selected to perform at the prestigious World Music conference, WOMEX, in 2019.
“…a force of nature” ***** (5 STARS)
“I have known Ryan for many years and have watched his steady progress from student to accomplished fiddle player. He has created his own unique way of playing and is finding great emotional depth in his native Scottish Music. Ryan Young is an up and coming musician who is gaining more and more well deserved recognition. I feel that he hasthe potential to make a very significant contribution to the Scottish tradition.” – Martin Hayes
Artist website: http://www.ryanyoung.scot
Single title: Woo’ed An Married An A’ – Fingal’s Cave
Album title: Just a second
Release Date: 02/10/2023
Single artist: Ryan Young
Single duration: 5:36
Writers: Traditional
Publishers: PrS / MCPS
Explicit?: No
Search Terms: {Search terms:18}
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