Review and More

Our Review

David Young's second Christmas offering, Merry Christmas, takes him down a classical path. Opening with Beethoven's Ode to Joy, Young guides us through a tour of Christmas classics old and new. His understated style made listening to this record a pleasure.

I was happy to hear some of my favorites, such as Pachelbel's Canon, rendered through the earthy tones of Young's flute. This, along with his chamber music orchestrations, maintained a light mood throughout. It was also a pleasant surprise to hear John Lennon's Happy Christmas integrated with the traditionals.

This is an unassuming treatment of the holiday standards from the ethereal one, David Young.

--Richard Banks
(Reviewed in 2005)

Our Review

The recorder is a wonderful musical instrument! It is relatively easy to play, but conveys great depth of emotion and has a clean, welcoming voice. On Merry Christmas, David Young makes the recorder come beautifully alive on thirteen holiday tunes, including ancient carols, some contemporary pieces, and one Young original ("The Christmas Minstrel"). Young's recorders are backed by an uncredited "orchestra," presumably created by midi magic.

Merry Christmas is a gentle holiday card, soothing in focus and format, greeting the holidays in the most soothing fashion imaginable. It is the quiet place in a harried season, the calm respite when the world seems to be falling apart. This is an easy-listening, new age album that relaxes the listener with silvery sounds most appropriate for Christmastime.

Young definitely is a master at this particular craft, taking a child's instrument and transforming it into something very sophisticated. The songs are silky smooth and delightful. This music would provide the ideal backdrop for a holiday dinner party or for moments of reflection after a busy shopping expedition at the local mall. This type of music opens introspective moments, letting listeners escape into themselves.

I like Young's "The Christmas Minstrel" quite a bit; it opens dramatically with dark tones, then springs sprightly like a spirited minstrel across the holiday landscape. My favorite cut, however, is probably John Lennon's "Happy Christmas," which has builds progressively until its theme truly demands the listeners' attention.

Merry Christmas, indeed! This cheery holiday may be just the calming influence required for the most wonderful (and out-of-control) time of the year!

--Carol Swanson
(Reviewed in 2005)

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From the liner notes:

Produced by David Young
Asst. Producer: Keith Heffner

To You From Me,

Hi. I hope you're enjoying my second Christmas CD entitled, "Merry Christmas". This one of the most enjoyable recordings I have ever done. Being that classical music was part of my early training in music, some of the melodies in these songs I have carried with me for over 25 years, and it was wonderful for me to bring them to life with this symphonic orchestral sound.

This was recorded in Beverly Hills, California at a well-known Hollywood producers' studio called Heaven. It was a beautiful place to record, with lovely gardens and statues all around. Inside the studio were walls of stained wood which added to the warmth of the sound during recording and I was very comfortable in there. There were many wonderful old eclectic microphones, which I loved, some of which singers like Frank Sinatra sang through..

The week before the recording started, I had been in Montreal for a day, and had a chance to visit the Basilica of Notre Dame in Old Montreal. It took 60 years to build and paint the inside of this awesome cathedral and when I returned to California, I wanted this recording to reflect the majesty and incredible beauty that I experienced in there.

Half of the songs were picked in advance and the other half during the process. Keith and I pulled the production together like we had worked together for 20 years. In reality, we had barely recorded a couple of songs together the previous year.

To me, music is a visual experience. I see and feel the movement, and I'm sensitive to the flows of energy that it brings. When you learn how to write music or arrange it, it's like guiding a minnow between your two hands under water. You try to keep it centered and on track, but in reality, the water is moving you and the minnow as well..

When a beautiful song is written, it usually has a more profound effect on the writer than it does on the thousands of people who later hear it. It's my guess that God uses all of us, with all of our talents, to express the different facets of life experiences, emotions, and love, as a way for it to communicate.

My life has been touched by the grace of music, and it has been my greatest pleasure to share this music with you.

Sincerely,
David Young

From the Web site:

This breathtaking recording is graced with angels and full symphonic orchestral sound.

David Young's unique approach of creating music by playing two recorders in harmony, offers you an invitation to take a journey to the deepest, most precious place inside yourself. These melodies fill you with gentle peace and healing energy while drawing you inward and upward, like a soft heavenly breeze.

Perhaps it's because what David Young does with his instrument, the recorder, the flute-like instrument that all of us started with in the 3rd or 4th grade, playing two simultaneously in harmony - has never been done before. Perhaps it's because so many listeners have had their lives touched by the angelic quality of his modern instrumental music.

Perhaps it's because this former rock and roll guitarist and singer decided to change his career midstream to create soothing semi-classical, ethereal, or as he calls it, "beautiful music" that is now played on hundreds of radio stations and airlines around the world.

Whatever the many reasons for his success, David Young has parlayed his talents into one of the phenomenas of the music business - performing over 40 weeks a year worldwide, sellling 500,000 albums as of 2002, and his record company was started with his last 100 dollars. "If you had told me 10 years ago that I'd be where I am now from playing the recorder, I would never have believed it". All of this music comes from my heart and was created to give people a positive alternative, a sense of peace that makes life more enjoyable. I call it beautiful music because styles and their names come and go, but beautiful music will always be beautiful music."

- David Young

David Young

Merry Christmas

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