“Music has different vibrations for different things that can open our minds and give us insight in the struggles of people all over the world. Music helps us understand the mysteries of life as we search for answers to help us understand ourselves and our world. Music speaks a language everyone can understand, even when they don’t understand the words in a different language. Sometimes the most difficult things can be understood through music.”
David Young: Merry Bluesy Christmas
Legendary musician David Young and the Soul Sessions Band has released “Bluesy Christmas”, featuring Clifford Carter, Gregg Bissonette, and Sean Hurley. Originally released in 2023, “Bluesy Christmas” is contemporary blues and modern classic rock; made now yet sounds like the authentic classic rock generations of listeners love. David Young has produced 70 albums of music and has sold millions of CDs independently. David’s voice is often compared to Paul Rodgers (Free/Bad Co), Don Henley (Eagles), and Steve Marriott (Humble Pie). Young got his start playing lead guitar in America’s first AC/DC tribute band called QT Hush, playing the part of Angus. Bluesy Christmas is written by David Young and Clifford Carter. Bluesy Christmas was recorded and filmed in Malibu, CA at Dragonfly Creek Studios while season one of Soul Sessions with David Young was being filmed in 2023-2024. (Photo: David Young)
Nine episodes of Soul Sessions were shot and edited by Hollywood veteran DP Andres Porres and are being completed at this time. Among many other things, Andres shot 200 Anthony Bourdain episodes. Jim Milio is the Executive Producer of Soul Sessions, and he created The Dog Whisperer, Rescue 911 with William Shatner and the original My Big Fat Greek Wedding movie. The album, Bluesy Christmas, also has many familiar Christmas songs in David’s bluesy rock ‘n’ style, guaranteed to bring a smile.
Interview by Michael Limnios Special Thanks: Keith James (Glass Onyon PR)
How has the music influenced your views of the world?
Music has different vibrations for different things that can open our minds and give us insight in the struggles of people all over the world. Music helps us understand the mysteries of life as we search for answers to help us understand ourselves and our world. Music speaks a language everyone can understand, even when they don’t understand the words in a different language. Sometimes the most difficult things can be understood through music.
What keeps a musician passionate over the years?
I’ve produced 70 albums of music in many genres and hired have many of the greatest musicians to create them. Getting to work with people you grew up looking up to and listening to definitely gets your juices flowing and your heart pumping. Working in different genres also keeps music fresh. It’s kind of like playing different sports… they are all good exercise and it’s enjoyable to play them all if you can.
When I started working with Clifford Carter in 2022, I knew he had played with James Taylor for 12 years but I didn’t realize that he played on one of my favorite all time albums, James Taylor Live. Everyone I knew had that album and I played it numerous times a day for a decade. So I loved the way Clifford played instantly.
When we were filming the upcoming series, Soul Sessions with David Young in 2023-2024, on the first day of filming, Clifford Carter, Sean Hurley and Gregg Bissonette and I got together at Dragonfly Creek Recording Studios in Malibu. As we were setting up, Gregg told Clifford that, James Taylor Live, was one of his favorite albums. Gregg had the song, Country Road cued up on his phone to the middle section where the drummer is playing a funky beat with James Taylor scatting over the beat- and I flipped out because that was my favorite section of the entire album! We jammed on it as a band and it was really a memorable moment for all of us. So one of the things that keeps music inspiring is going back to the music that inspired us the most when we were learning how to play.
“When we learn an instrument, the first things we learn are simple enough for a beginner. After a couple years of playing the simple songs, musicians naturally look for new challenges and learn more difficult techniques.” (Photo: David Young)
How do you describe your sound, music philosophy and songbook?
I grew up listening to and loving classic rock: Led Zeppelin, Bad Co/Free, Humble Pie, Rod Stewart who all had soulful, blues based singers. The only reason I started to play guitar when my voice started to change as a teenager was because I couldn’t hit Robert Plant’s high notes anymore. I grew up in Brooklyn, NY and one of my friends’ older brother, Darryl Goldstein, was a roadie for the band, RIOT in Flatbush, Brooklyn about twenty minutes from where I grew up. It was 1975 when I was in high school when I got invited to a rehearsal in Mark Reale’s basement where the band RIOT was born. I was 14 or 15 and I looked like I was 12. I always looked younger than I was, hence my last name eventually became David Young.
Mark and the rest of RIOT were all in their early 20’s and really weren’t sure why this kid was always hanging around at their rehearsals at Mark’s house. This was years before RIOT got signed to their first record deal. At that point I barely knew a few chords on guitar but I was a prodigy on the recorder, the little Renaissance flute that every kid learned in 3rd or 4th grade. I was the worst recorder player in my class the first year but we were given a second year of it and then I got the hang of it by the end of that year. My parents recognized I had musical talent and since the plastic recorders I played had three pieces that could be taken apart and fit in my Mom’s pocketbook (what purses were called back in the 60’s). Everywhere we went as a family my mom brought my little soprano recorder. My Dad kind of acted as my agent wherever we went and spoke with the bands at weddings or parties and I’d end up playing with them.
I ended up becoming the protege’ of Phil Levin, the first bassoonist in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra who was the most knowledgeable man on Baroque and Renaissance music in NY. I became the youngest member of the NY Recorder Guild advanced group, until I heard Jethro Tull. After that I was done with classical Music In two weeks and learned all of Ian Anderson’s flute solos and Martin Barre’s guitar solos on my recorder. Back to Mark Reale and RIOT… After a year of hanging around Mark and the band and being known as “the kid”, I wanted Mark to teach me guitar but he was busy and uninterested, so one day I brought my Jethro Tull phonograph record, Aqualung and told Mark I could play the whole album note for note. That peaked his interest. I played Aqualung note for note on my recorder. Mark was impressed and said if my fingers could move that fast on a flute then I could be a guitarist, as fast notes were important and impressive.
For the following two years, Mark would teach me one blues riff (four or five notes) in each lesson. That was it. Those riffs were the basic blues riffs that are the foundation of rock guitar. I was at Mark’s house every couple of days from 1975-1977 when RIOT’s first album, Rock City was released so I was there when all of those songs were written and rehearsed in Mark’s basement from the first time they played them. Careers in music always have lots of ups and downs and in the early 80’s, when hard rock was transitioning to metal, RIOT lost their record company. During that time, from 1980-1982 I had been playing the part of Angus in America’s first AC/DC tribute band, QT HUSH, based in New England and I wore the blue suit, played a 1961 SG and ran all over the stage for two hours every night. The whole band dressed like the members of AC/DC. Angus Young deserves a ton of respect for rocking out with his blues riffs and giving us some of the best rock songs ever. In 1987, I went back to Brooklyn to visit Mark when RIOT was looking for a new record company, trying to make something happen.
Mark said they were doing a demo of a new song that started with a classical guitar intro, similar to Greensleeves, and he asked if I would play my recorder on the intro with Mark’s acoustic guitar at Greene Street Recording Studios in Manhatten where their albums were recorded. I played the recorder on the song, Bloodstreets. It was a unique production having a classical sounding intro and then the band came in crashing with drums, bass and electric guitars. Bloodstreets was the song that got RIOT a new record deal in 1988 for the album Thundersteel and became the single from the album. The music video of Bloodstreets was played on Headbangers Ball on MTV every Saturday night for three years.
“The blues is the foundation of rock music and pop music. The blues is not about who can play the most 1/16th notes in a measure. The blues is about the soul of the music, the inspiration for the singers and the musicians. The blues is about a feeling, about emotions.” (Photo: David Young)
What's the balance in music between technique and soul?
When we learn an instrument, the first things we learn are simple enough for a beginner. After a couple years of playing the simple songs, musicians naturally look for new challenges and learn more difficult techniques. It’s very common for musicians to get so interested in new techniques and faster ways of playing to lose interest in the simpler, more soulful notes or songs. Playing on a recording is different than playing live. It’s very easy to fall into the habit of playing lots of fast notes because visually that looks impressive live, but the problem with playing fast is that eventually they become a blur of lots of notes that are hard to differentiate or remember. A soulful solo creates an emotion. People remember the emotion more than they remember all the notes. Most listeners do not play an instrument and are still looking for something simpler they can wrap their minds around. Memorable music has melodies that stay with you. When you create melodies in your solos, it’s easier for the listener to remember. Then a solo is not just a blur of notes, it’s a memorable part or hook in the song.
How did the idea of “Bluesy Christmas” album come about?
I had a relationship end six months into Covid during lockdown. Clifford and I started working together some time after that and I moved closer to him and his family and didn’t know anyone around there.
It’s obvious what the lyrics were about:
I got in town a month ago
Seen lots of folks but none I know
I’m not even sure where I’m gonna go this Christmas…
Clifford and I finished the song together.
Why do you think that Christmas music continues to generate such a devoted following?
People have listened to Christmas songs since they were born so these songs are deeply rooted in our consciousness, with memories attached to them. Some Christmas songs are actually traditional public domain songs that are enjoyed all year long: Ode To Joy, Joy of Man’s Desiring, Amazing Grace. Greensleeves was later rewritten with different words and became, What Child Is This. Once a song is established in someone’s mind, it literally stays with them the rest of their lives. This is why patients with Alzheimer’s disease who can’t remember their name or their children’s names can sing all the words to their favorite songs when they hear them.
“When a poet writes what people feel it becomes therapeutic to the listeners.” (Photo: David Young and the Soul Sessions Band has released “Bluesy Christmas”, featuring Clifford Carter, Gregg Bissonette, and Sean Hurley. Originally released in 2023, “Bluesy Christmas” is contemporary blues and modern classic rock; made now yet sounds like the authentic classic rock generations of listeners love.)
Are there any memories from gigs, jams, open acts and studio sessions which you’d like to share with us?
I’ve made 70 albums so there are lots of memories. Before Govt Mule started, I played with Matt Abst in Los Angeles in a power trio with Lou Castro who played bass. Matt was the wildest drummer I’d ever played with. He had two chains attached across his chest from his earrings to his nipples. I made three albums with Tony Levin who played bass on every Peter Gabriel album, as well as on John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s last album. He used the same basses on my albums which was really a thrill. I made 5 albums with Tony Franklin who played with a Jimmy Page and Paul Rodgers in the Firm, Whitesnake and David Gilmore. I saw the Firm in Madison Square Garden in 1985 and that’s was one of the best concerts I ever saw. Since I was such a fan of Jimmy Page and Paul Rodgers was one of my favorite singers that was really meaningful to me.
What do you miss most nowadays from the music of past? What are your hopes and fears for the future of?
Computers have made it easier to make music. In the olden days, before guitar tuners, click tracks and autotune for singers, music happened organically. Many songs were recorded live, sometimes adding overdubs. Jack Bruce of Cream was asked why he thought Cream’s music was still enjoyed 40-50 years after it was recorded and Jack said, “Our music is still alive because we played it live.”
Back in the olden days before computers, the main job of the drummer was to keep a steady beat so the band and overdubs could play along in time. Very often, songs would start at one tempo and by the end of the song it was 2 or 3 bpm faster because the band had energy and that came thru in the tempo speeding up a little as the song got more exciting. Every drummer has their own idiosyncrasies in their natural playing and tempo is one of them.
Most recordings now are created to a click track- one tempo in the beginning continues to the end, so the natural excitement of a song building and speeding up a little is gone now because everyone is playing to the click- not playing to a human drummer. Many albums gets produced so “perfect” with every vocal line auto-tuned that the humanness gets lost. Most of the greatest albums from the 60’s and 70’s have many off pitch notes mistakes that were not fixable when they were recorded, yet those songs have stood the test of time and are dearly loved. All the little imperfections are part of the personality of the track. Perfect is not necessarily better. Better means more emotion, which is ener gy to the listener.
“That’s what I’m all about- blending the blues with rock n’ roll and with rock music in a contemporary way. I think the blues reflect the soulful aspect of music. The blues is always soulful. The blues always has a hint of confession to it, so the listener hears honesty coming through.” (Photo: David Young)
What are some of the most important lessons you have learned from your experience in the music paths?
The first ten albums I made I scrutinized every note, whether I was playing it or a musician I hired played it. I don’t scrutinize to that degree anymore. I’ve had enough engineers tell me it wasn’t necessary to redo something I was obsessing about and there’s nothing wrong with a little humanness. That comes across as personality or character.
Why is it important to we preserve and spread the blues?
The blues is the foundation of rock music and pop music. The blues is not about who can play the most 1/16th notes in a measure. The blues is about the soul of the music, the inspiration for the singers and the musicians. The blues is about a feeling, about emotions. People don’t remember all the fast notes. It’s hard to sing along and mimic fast notes. People remember the emotion of a song far more than they remember the complexity of a song. The blues is the perfect outlet to express your emotions.
I remember the first time I heard Led Zeppelin’s song, Since I’ve Been Loving You. It was an improvised expression of loss that went into every cell of my body. There have been many times since then when I’ve had a relationship end and that song said it all to me, how I felt, like nothing else could.
What is the role of a poet in music/musicians society?
When a poet writes what people feel it becomes therapeutic to the listeners.
How can a band/musician truly turn the blues into a commercial and popular genre of music for the today's audience?
That’s what I’m all about- blending the blues with rock n’ roll and with rock music in a contemporary way. I think the blues reflect the soulful aspect of music. The blues is always soulful. The blues always has a hint of confession to it, so the listener hears honesty coming through. That’s why it’s called, “three chords and the truth.” I think people look for honesty and truth in life, and when it’s hard to find, they can always find that in the blues.
Q&A with multi talented musician David Young, his album “Bluesy Christmas” is a contemporary blues and modern classic rock palette
by Music Network by Michael Limnios
6 hours ago
“Music has different vibrations for different things that can open our minds and give us insight in the struggles of people all over the world. Music helps us understand the mysteries of life as we search for answers to help us understand ourselves and our world. Music speaks a language everyone can understand, even when they don’t understand the words in a different language. Sometimes the most difficult things can be understood through music.”
David Young: Merry Bluesy Christmas
Legendary musician David Young and the Soul Sessions Band has released “Bluesy Christmas”, featuring Clifford Carter, Gregg Bissonette, and Sean Hurley. Originally released in 2023, “Bluesy Christmas” is contemporary blues and modern classic rock; made now yet sounds like the authentic classic rock generations of listeners love. David Young has produced 70 albums of music and has sold millions of CDs independently. David’s voice is often compared to Paul Rodgers (Free/Bad Co), Don Henley (Eagles), and Steve Marriott (Humble Pie). Young got his start playing lead guitar in America’s first AC/DC tribute band called QT Hush, playing the part of Angus. Bluesy Christmas is written by David Young and Clifford Carter. Bluesy Christmas was recorded and filmed in Malibu, CA at Dragonfly Creek Studios while season one of Soul Sessions with David Young was being filmed in 2023-2024. (Photo: David Young)
Nine episodes of Soul Sessions were shot and edited by Hollywood veteran DP Andres Porres and are being completed at this time. Among many other things, Andres shot 200 Anthony Bourdain episodes. Jim Milio is the Executive Producer of Soul Sessions, and he created The Dog Whisperer, Rescue 911 with William Shatner and the original My Big Fat Greek Wedding movie. The album, Bluesy Christmas, also has many familiar Christmas songs in David’s bluesy rock ‘n’ style, guaranteed to bring a smile.
Interview by Michael Limnios Special Thanks: Keith James (Glass Onyon PR)
How has the music influenced your views of the world?
Music has different vibrations for different things that can open our minds and give us insight in the struggles of people all over the world. Music helps us understand the mysteries of life as we search for answers to help us understand ourselves and our world. Music speaks a language everyone can understand, even when they don’t understand the words in a different language. Sometimes the most difficult things can be understood through music.
What keeps a musician passionate over the years?
I’ve produced 70 albums of music in many genres and hired have many of the greatest musicians to create them. Getting to work with people you grew up looking up to and listening to definitely gets your juices flowing and your heart pumping. Working in different genres also keeps music fresh. It’s kind of like playing different sports… they are all good exercise and it’s enjoyable to play them all if you can.
When I started working with Clifford Carter in 2022, I knew he had played with James Taylor for 12 years but I didn’t realize that he played on one of my favorite all time albums, James Taylor Live. Everyone I knew had that album and I played it numerous times a day for a decade. So I loved the way Clifford played instantly.
When we were filming the upcoming series, Soul Sessions with David Young in 2023-2024, on the first day of filming, Clifford Carter, Sean Hurley and Gregg Bissonette and I got together at Dragonfly Creek Recording Studios in Malibu. As we were setting up, Gregg told Clifford that, James Taylor Live, was one of his favorite albums. Gregg had the song, Country Road cued up on his phone to the middle section where the drummer is playing a funky beat with James Taylor scatting over the beat- and I flipped out because that was my favorite section of the entire album! We jammed on it as a band and it was really a memorable moment for all of us. So one of the things that keeps music inspiring is going back to the music that inspired us the most when we were learning how to play.
“When we learn an instrument, the first things we learn are simple enough for a beginner. After a couple years of playing the simple songs, musicians naturally look for new challenges and learn more difficult techniques.” (Photo: David Young)
How do you describe your sound, music philosophy and songbook?
I grew up listening to and loving classic rock: Led Zeppelin, Bad Co/Free, Humble Pie, Rod Stewart who all had soulful, blues based singers. The only reason I started to play guitar when my voice started to change as a teenager was because I couldn’t hit Robert Plant’s high notes anymore. I grew up in Brooklyn, NY and one of my friends’ older brother, Darryl Goldstein, was a roadie for the band, RIOT in Flatbush, Brooklyn about twenty minutes from where I grew up. It was 1975 when I was in high school when I got invited to a rehearsal in Mark Reale’s basement where the band RIOT was born. I was 14 or 15 and I looked like I was 12. I always looked younger than I was, hence my last name eventually became David Young.
Mark and the rest of RIOT were all in their early 20’s and really weren’t sure why this kid was always hanging around at their rehearsals at Mark’s house. This was years before RIOT got signed to their first record deal. At that point I barely knew a few chords on guitar but I was a prodigy on the recorder, the little Renaissance flute that every kid learned in 3rd or 4th grade. I was the worst recorder player in my class the first year but we were given a second year of it and then I got the hang of it by the end of that year. My parents recognized I had musical talent and since the plastic recorders I played had three pieces that could be taken apart and fit in my Mom’s pocketbook (what purses were called back in the 60’s). Everywhere we went as a family my mom brought my little soprano recorder. My Dad kind of acted as my agent wherever we went and spoke with the bands at weddings or parties and I’d end up playing with them.
I ended up becoming the protege’ of Phil Levin, the first bassoonist in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra who was the most knowledgeable man on Baroque and Renaissance music in NY. I became the youngest member of the NY Recorder Guild advanced group, until I heard Jethro Tull. After that I was done with classical Music In two weeks and learned all of Ian Anderson’s flute solos and Martin Barre’s guitar solos on my recorder. Back to Mark Reale and RIOT… After a year of hanging around Mark and the band and being known as “the kid”, I wanted Mark to teach me guitar but he was busy and uninterested, so one day I brought my Jethro Tull phonograph record, Aqualung and told Mark I could play the whole album note for note. That peaked his interest. I played Aqualung note for note on my recorder. Mark was impressed and said if my fingers could move that fast on a flute then I could be a guitarist, as fast notes were important and impressive.
For the following two years, Mark would teach me one blues riff (four or five notes) in each lesson. That was it. Those riffs were the basic blues riffs that are the foundation of rock guitar. I was at Mark’s house every couple of days from 1975-1977 when RIOT’s first album, Rock City was released so I was there when all of those songs were written and rehearsed in Mark’s basement from the first time they played them. Careers in music always have lots of ups and downs and in the early 80’s, when hard rock was transitioning to metal, RIOT lost their record company. During that time, from 1980-1982 I had been playing the part of Angus in America’s first AC/DC tribute band, QT HUSH, based in New England and I wore the blue suit, played a 1961 SG and ran all over the stage for two hours every night. The whole band dressed like the members of AC/DC. Angus Young deserves a ton of respect for rocking out with his blues riffs and giving us some of the best rock songs ever. In 1987, I went back to Brooklyn to visit Mark when RIOT was looking for a new record company, trying to make something happen.
Mark said they were doing a demo of a new song that started with a classical guitar intro, similar to Greensleeves, and he asked if I would play my recorder on the intro with Mark’s acoustic guitar at Greene Street Recording Studios in Manhatten where their albums were recorded. I played the recorder on the song, Bloodstreets. It was a unique production having a classical sounding intro and then the band came in crashing with drums, bass and electric guitars. Bloodstreets was the song that got RIOT a new record deal in 1988 for the album Thundersteel and became the single from the album. The music video of Bloodstreets was played on Headbangers Ball on MTV every Saturday night for three years.
“The blues is the foundation of rock music and pop music. The blues is not about who can play the most 1/16th notes in a measure. The blues is about the soul of the music, the inspiration for the singers and the musicians. The blues is about a feeling, about emotions.” (Photo: David Young)
What's the balance in music between technique and soul?
When we learn an instrument, the first things we learn are simple enough for a beginner. After a couple years of playing the simple songs, musicians naturally look for new challenges and learn more difficult techniques. It’s very common for musicians to get so interested in new techniques and faster ways of playing to lose interest in the simpler, more soulful notes or songs. Playing on a recording is different than playing live. It’s very easy to fall into the habit of playing lots of fast notes because visually that looks impressive live, but the problem with playing fast is that eventually they become a blur of lots of notes that are hard to differentiate or remember. A soulful solo creates an emotion. People remember the emotion more than they remember all the notes. Most listeners do not play an instrument and are still looking for something simpler they can wrap their minds around. Memorable music has melodies that stay with you. When you create melodies in your solos, it’s easier for the listener to remember. Then a solo is not just a blur of notes, it’s a memorable part or hook in the song.
How did the idea of “Bluesy Christmas” album come about?
I had a relationship end six months into Covid during lockdown. Clifford and I started working together some time after that and I moved closer to him and his family and didn’t know anyone around there.
It’s obvious what the lyrics were about:
I got in town a month ago
Seen lots of folks but none I know
I’m not even sure where I’m gonna go this Christmas…
Clifford and I finished the song together.
Why do you think that Christmas music continues to generate such a devoted following?
People have listened to Christmas songs since they were born so these songs are deeply rooted in our consciousness, with memories attached to them. Some Christmas songs are actually traditional public domain songs that are enjoyed all year long: Ode To Joy, Joy of Man’s Desiring, Amazing Grace. Greensleeves was later rewritten with different words and became, What Child Is This. Once a song is established in someone’s mind, it literally stays with them the rest of their lives. This is why patients with Alzheimer’s disease who can’t remember their name or their children’s names can sing all the words to their favorite songs when they hear them.
“When a poet writes what people feel it becomes therapeutic to the listeners.” (Photo: David Young and the Soul Sessions Band has released “Bluesy Christmas”, featuring Clifford Carter, Gregg Bissonette, and Sean Hurley. Originally released in 2023, “Bluesy Christmas” is contemporary blues and modern classic rock; made now yet sounds like the authentic classic rock generations of listeners love.)
Are there any memories from gigs, jams, open acts and studio sessions which you’d like to share with us?
I’ve made 70 albums so there are lots of memories. Before Govt Mule started, I played with Matt Abst in Los Angeles in a power trio with Lou Castro who played bass. Matt was the wildest drummer I’d ever played with. He had two chains attached across his chest from his earrings to his nipples. I made three albums with Tony Levin who played bass on every Peter Gabriel album, as well as on John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s last album. He used the same basses on my albums which was really a thrill. I made 5 albums with Tony Franklin who played with a Jimmy Page and Paul Rodgers in the Firm, Whitesnake and David Gilmore. I saw the Firm in Madison Square Garden in 1985 and that’s was one of the best concerts I ever saw. Since I was such a fan of Jimmy Page and Paul Rodgers was one of my favorite singers that was really meaningful to me.
What do you miss most nowadays from the music of past? What are your hopes and fears for the future of?
Computers have made it easier to make music. In the olden days, before guitar tuners, click tracks and autotune for singers, music happened organically. Many songs were recorded live, sometimes adding overdubs. Jack Bruce of Cream was asked why he thought Cream’s music was still enjoyed 40-50 years after it was recorded and Jack said, “Our music is still alive because we played it live.”
Back in the olden days before computers, the main job of the drummer was to keep a steady beat so the band and overdubs could play along in time. Very often, songs would start at one tempo and by the end of the song it was 2 or 3 bpm faster because the band had energy and that came thru in the tempo speeding up a little as the song got more exciting. Every drummer has their own idiosyncrasies in their natural playing and tempo is one of them.
Most recordings now are created to a click track- one tempo in the beginning continues to the end, so the natural excitement of a song building and speeding up a little is gone now because everyone is playing to the click- not playing to a human drummer. Many albums gets produced so “perfect” with every vocal line auto-tuned that the humanness gets lost. Most of the greatest albums from the 60’s and 70’s have many off pitch notes mistakes that were not fixable when they were recorded, yet those songs have stood the test of time and are dearly loved. All the little imperfections are part of the personality of the track. Perfect is not necessarily better. Better means more emotion, which is ener gy to the listener.
“That’s what I’m all about- blending the blues with rock n’ roll and with rock music in a contemporary way. I think the blues reflect the soulful aspect of music. The blues is always soulful. The blues always has a hint of confession to it, so the listener hears honesty coming through.” (Photo: David Young)
What are some of the most important lessons you have learned from your experience in the music paths?
The first ten albums I made I scrutinized every note, whether I was playing it or a musician I hired played it. I don’t scrutinize to that degree anymore. I’ve had enough engineers tell me it wasn’t necessary to redo something I was obsessing about and there’s nothing wrong with a little humanness. That comes across as personality or character.
Why is it important to we preserve and spread the blues?
The blues is the foundation of rock music and pop music. The blues is not about who can play the most 1/16th notes in a measure. The blues is about the soul of the music, the inspiration for the singers and the musicians. The blues is about a feeling, about emotions. People don’t remember all the fast notes. It’s hard to sing along and mimic fast notes. People remember the emotion of a song far more than they remember the complexity of a song. The blues is the perfect outlet to express your emotions.
I remember the first time I heard Led Zeppelin’s song, Since I’ve Been Loving You. It was an improvised expression of loss that went into every cell of my body. There have been many times since then when I’ve had a relationship end and that song said it all to me, how I felt, like nothing else could.
What is the role of a poet in music/musicians society?
When a poet writes what people feel it becomes therapeutic to the listeners.
How can a band/musician truly turn the blues into a commercial and popular genre of music for the today's audience?
That’s what I’m all about- blending the blues with rock n’ roll and with rock music in a contemporary way. I think the blues reflect the soulful aspect of music. The blues is always soulful. The blues always has a hint of confession to it, so the listener hears honesty coming through. That’s why it’s called, “three chords and the truth.” I think people look for honesty and truth in life, and when it’s hard to find, they can always find that in the blues.
David Young Blues - Home
(Photo: David Young)