Guitar First: Michael Young, @ Green Fire Music Collective Friday 5/16

Michael Young discovered the guitar in his seventh-grade music class. He says the teacher heard him messing around on the guitar and made a big deal out of it. Young may have been unaware of his natural talent, but his teacher wasn’t.

The teacher recommended music lessons to Young’s mother, who came home a few days later with a cheap acoustic guitar. Young started plinking around on it right away—and hasn’t quit since.

“I don’t feel like I chose the guitar,” says Young, who is 25 now. “It chose me. It was my first big interest.”

While most songwriters consider the guitar secondary to their vocals and lyrics, Young is a guitarist first.

“Pretty much, I’m a guitar player who sings occasionally,” he says. Young has played in bands before, but they weren’t for him. He prefers the simplicity of playing solo. He says, “There’s something charming and vulnerable and intimate about one guy with a guitar.”

Young admits that instrumental music isn’t terribly marketable, but people who are into it tend to be really devoted. Fans are drawn to his intricate finger-style guitar-playing. Young was introduced to finger-style guitar early on during his guitar lessons, but didn’t take to it until much later, when he re-discovered it on his own.

Young’s playing stands out compared to less-accomplished finger-style pickers who rely heavily on picking patterns. He plays the guitar like others play the piano, arranging independent baselines and melodies on different strings, trying to make “every note count for something.” His songs aren’t just songs—they’re compositions.

The Green Fire Music Collective is putting on the show, and $10 gets you in.

—Andrew Mortazavi

MICHAEL YOUNG PERFORMS

7:30 P.M., FRIDAY, MAY 16

GREEN FIRE MUSIC COLLECTIVE
TUCSON FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE LODGE
3445 N. DODGE BLVD.

$10

WWW.GREENFIREONLINE.ORG