Ryan Young

This hotly tipped, er, young Scottish fiddler has won, and been nominated for a plethora of folk and fiddling awards. Such is his burgeoning reputation that world-class, Grammy-winning producer Jesse Lewis was only too happy to fly across to Scotland to record him at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, with accompaniment from James Ross' lyrical piano and Leo Forde's sympathetic guitar.
‘Lamberton Races’ and ‘What Pain I’ve Endured Since Last Year' are both enjoyably vigorous reel sets that demonstrate Young's assured lightness of touch and ability to bite where necessary. Young cites the Irish fiddler Martin Hayes as an influence, and there is certainly something of Hayes' reflective pace and smooth arcing bowstrokes in ‘The Highland Laddie’, a dance tune that Young reinvents as a slow, meandering walk.
Young is demonstrably a player of great skill, with a lovely tone and mature taste. However, this album is a little too smooth for its own good. There are hints at it throughout, but it's really only on ‘Ryan’s Despair', a slow air with plenty of melancholic, sour notes, that the music fully achieves a profound emotional intensity.