By: Bill Binkelman
n a "former life," Rob Eberhard Young was a rock guitarist, touring and enjoying the spotlight on stage in front of a crowd. In 1993, his world got turned upside down when he heard Ned Landin playing acoustic guitar on the streets of Boston. At that instant, Young realized he had lost his passion for playing electric guitar. He set out to rekindle his love for music by picking up the acoustic instrument and getting back to basics. He experimented with odd tunings and unusual playing styles and, in doing so, unearthed a whole new musical persona. When Will Ackerman heard this young man's debut recording (the re-issue of which is the subject of this review) he asked to record an album for his new label, Imaginary Road (that was the overlooked CD, Sticks and Stones). That was back in 1997. Young has recently re-emerged and re-released the album that started it all.
While technically the disc would be considered either a maxi-EP or a short album (by today's standard) due to its twenty-five minute length, the music on Consistent Variation is all choice stuff, displaying Young's abundant talent for playing the living hell out of his instrument, yet doing so in a way that is accessible and never pretentious or over-the-top. That's quite the achievement considering what he uncorks on tracks like the opening rave up "Wandering Minds" on which his fingers seem to be literally flying over the strings, or the bouncy and cheery "Checkered Past" (which snaps and pops with a freewheeling rural liveliness). Young also shows he can "control the burn" on slower numbers like the somber "Silence," a cut that sounds like it's from another Young (that'd be Neil) with it's rolling melody married to a melancholic tone. "Jeremy" (a song which also appears on Sticks on Stones) has a plaintive soulfulness, almost as if Young was forcing his instrument to cry out in pain, albeit a subdued quieter pain, not an outright howl. "Windsong" is another track that displays the artist's almost stupefying dexterity over not just the strings but the fretboard as well. Hell, my hands got tired just listening to this cut! While most of the tracks are short (between two and three minutes) "Perfect Strangers" unveils Young's compositional ability to craft a song that traverses through a variety of tempos and moods, as the piece shifts from slow-paced and quiet to rocking and energetic, back again to quiet, and then dials up the intensity even higher, this time accompanied by piano (by H.G. Gibbons) which adds a nice dash of variety to the tune (Gibbons also appears on the closing "Reprise").
If guitarists like the late great Michael Hedges or Leo Kottke (at his most energetic) are your cup of tea, and you have yet to hear Rob Eberhard Young, you're in for a pleasant surprise. I believe Young is at work on a new recording and that is indeed good news. Until that hits the shelves, Consistent Variation will do, and do nicely.
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