My friend Doug Young recently released a new cd, his second album entitled entitled Closing Time. It is a mixture of solo and ensemble acoustic guitar tunes that run the gamut from jazz to a traditional celtic piece.
Doug put together some great arrangements on this album and its that variety that kept me drawn in. The opening track, The Gathering, features harmony guitars, percussion, mandolin, and even a bit of Ebow. For the traditional celtic song, The Month of Janruary, he lets the melody speak while a fiddle adds some nice textures underneath. I really like what he did with the folk standard Wildwood Flower, turning it into something entirely new. Autumn Roads is a groovy modern sounding number, the melody gliding along over a cool chord progression and bass line. My one of my favorite tracks is Red Snapper, a bluesy piece that the liner notes say is inspired by the classic duets of Bert Jansch and John Renbourn. Doug overdubbed two Martin guitars on this track, and the way the parts intertwine and complement each other is just really great. The title track is a smoky jazz piece played in an unusual alternate tuning.
Doug’s recorded tone is superb, a testament to his fine playing and his ability as a recording engineer. Much of the cd was recorded in his home studio, which you can read about here. He talks in depth about his recording process on the Acoustic Guitar Forum. You can stream the entire album on Bandcamp, and Doug offers TAB to all the tunes for those of you that want to learn some of his music.