Owen Young - ​Three

Owen Young

​Three
self-released; 2024

​By ​Dino DiMuro​
​

Folk artist Owen Young from Cayuga, Ontario, is in the midst of a four-part album series called “Muddy River.” He’s just released part three, an EP appropriately titled Three. Owen pointedly refers to his music as “organic,” which means it sounds like real players on real instruments, with some help from MIDI/digital elements. Young’s crew includes himself on vocals and guitar along with Tia McGraff and Jill Zimmerman on additional vocals.

I recently reviewed part two in the series, titled Town Line. The songs on that album, which were placed in the “Americana-Canadiana” genre, drew on Young’s experiences in southern Ontario rural life. I was struck not only by Young’s engaging and heartfelt lyrics but also by his compositional skills, even within basic folk-country structures. I’m very interested to see how this next installment fits in. As with the previous parts, this album’s ideas originated during the pandemic and is dedicated to Young’s late friend and UCLA classmate Geoff Cooper. The album’s notes explain: “These songs are about love. But they are also reactions to the rampant self-interest that flared through the shutdown, and the lack of societal compassion for one another that has followed.”

​As with the tracks on the previous release, “Voices In The Dust” begins with chiming, intricate acoustic picking. Young never seems content with simple chord schemes and conjures up sublime arrangements without ever losing the melodic thread. All this happens within the first 30 seconds, before any vocals or drums. The lyrics on this track take the form of a letter to an old colleague who “pursued the causes of Indigenous and other human rights all his life and continues to do so.” Young has an authentic, slightly weathered voice that feels wise and reassuring, though he’s probably not much older than me! Guest Tia McGraff adds sweet chorus harmonies, and there’s some beautiful string and banjo work throughout.

“Runnin’ Down The River” is called “a lament of lost opportunity and resulting destruction.” Initially, this song feels a bit faster and more scattershot, and Young’s vocals are half-spoken so that he can get out everything he has to say in just four minutes (about five paragraphs of lyrics!). The playing is every bit as good, with quick guitar duets popping in-between the cracks and a ghostly female background singer who might be a voice sample. Young says that though the “you” of the first verse could be an individual, “it is equally a reference to society and to the greed and other negative forces of political and social circumstance.” There’s a clean and expert guitar solo toward the end.

The third and final track is a rant (his term!) titled “That Could Have Been You,” which was lyrically co-written with Harry LaForme. This song begins with lush, chiming mandolins, autoharps, acoustic guitar, and who knows what else! Young’s rant is actually a plea for love and compassion, when one considers that those who are down and out “could have been you.” Young includes the homeless, communities razed due to colonialism, and women and children who are victims of family violence. Young says the list could have included much more, “but the song is already almost seven minutes long!” That it is, but you barely feel the time passing as Young builds energy by adding new instruments, drums, and percussion along the way, capped by another classy, subtle lead guitar solo. There’s a great dynamic shift toward the end where all instruments but the mandolin drop out, then quickly regroup for the conclusion.

It was great to see how Young’s songs worked in the EP format after the previous full-length album, and this release is a perfect place for new listeners to begin. Great work!

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