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SCRAP ALBUM 2009

Young Talent

Chris Hislop - Portsmouth Herald

There's no telling just how far the Brooks Young Band can take their talent.

Given the skills this Concord-based group possesses on stage and on recorded demos, the band certainly

has the foundation to make of their career whatever they'd like. It will take a lot of time, effort and

determination, but the blues-rock Young and his mates are twanging away at a very fresh approach to one

of the oldest genres in American music. Contemporary Blues is a scene that has some bright spots, but

quite often bands are missing the mark, writing very cheesy lyrics, and forgetting about the roots of the

music. Such is not the case in this young (no pun intended) band.

The group, along with Brooks Young (guitar, vocals) includes David Lombard (drums), Jeff LeRoy

(Keyboards/Backing Vocals), Mark Bradford (guitar/ Backing Vocal), and Rachel Green (Bass/Backing

Vocal. Their demo tracks suggest that they are influenced by a bunch of artists. Along with B.B. King (for

whom the band opened at the Capital Center for the Arts in Concord), there are hints of Eric Clapton,

James Cotton's harp playing prowess, John Mayall, John Mayer, and a bit of Mick Jagger thrown in for

good measure.

The track "Dream Away" is a dirty, harp saturated, emotion-charged ballad, which is sure to be a hit with

folks of all ages. While on the flip-side, "Wasting My Life," has a thick organ groove pushing it towards

culmination, all the while boasting an edgy vocal performance from Young, and smooth guitar solos

throughout. It's a unique look into the world of the blues, but its influence still reigns throughout. By the

sounds of it, Young, and co. are doing everything but wasting their lives because this stuff just plain

sounds good".

Blues in Concord Local band takes the stage at Market Days By Heidi Masek hmasek@hippopress.com

Concord might not be a place where you’d expect a kid to grow up studying blues guitar, but Brooks Young did. Now he’s 23 and his band has already earned gigs opening for B.B. King in New Hampshire.

The group will be opening for Roomful of Blues at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 20, at Concord’s downtown Market Days. Young, who works at Strings and Things downtown and teaches, started playing guitar at age 11, learning from his grandfather, who played with country guitarist Chet Atkins.

The Brooks Young Band also plays in Tilton and in Manchester at KC’s Rib Shack, often performs at private parties and just received another booking to open at the Capitol Center for the Arts. The band’s drummer, Blake Wayman, and Young have been friends since elementary school. Josh Potter, bassist, was involved with The Casual Fiasco, I, Project and Hollywood Farm and harmonica player Michael Amaury Capuano, a.k.a. Jr., was born in Boston and plays in Mississippi. Young writes music and the band is recording between shows, in addition to rehearsing new material for sets in the fall.

Young played trumpet at Concord High School and won the Semper Fidelis excellence award in 2001 from the Marines for best soloist playing trumpet, although he’s not a Marine. “I guess I play trumpet like one of them, though. I was kind of stunned.”

Q: How do you get into the blues, when you grow up in central NH?

It’s tricky. It’s hard. Well, I first got into it by listening to Eric Clapton. When I first started playing the guitar I found an Eric Clapton Unplugged CD at my aunt’s house and put it in and Eric Clapton was a very blues-influenced player. I got hooked and didn’t listen to anybody but him then went back and started listening to the people that influenced him—Muddy Waters, Albert King, B.B. King, all those guys. I really enjoyed the music. They were playing from within themselves instead of from a piece of paper someone else wrote, so they weren’t playing someone else’s ideas, they were playing their own.

You played with B.B. King? Actually now I’m friends with him. I’ve known B.B. King since 2001, I was with him when the towers were hit actually. We opened up for him at the Capitol Center in January ... opened him quite a few times actually, down at Hampton Beach Casino, and the old Singer Park.

Were you both in New York?

I met him in Manchester. When the towers were hit in 2001. That was actually in Singer Park. I was on his bus. He’s diabetic; in his bus there’s Famous Amos, so he had a bag of those, a king-size bag, and Coke. I said, “Aren’t you diabetic?” He looked at me and laughed ... he’s a very nice man, humble man, good guy, good people.

If you could meet any other blues legend, dead or alive, who would it be? Definitely Eric Clapton. He’s kinda the guy that made me want to play guitar. I had some close experiences. I hung out with his guitar tech in Boston. That’s about as close as I get.

You have some other influences? Outside of blues I’m a Dave Matthews fan. Derek Trucks. I’m a huge John Mayer fan.

I think what he’s doing right now is really opening up a lot of people to the blues with his new trio CD and his new CD coming out soon. Continuum. I like a lot of bands that take things to the next level, that aren’t canned ... that play from their heart. Los Lonely Boys is another good band.

You’re working on recordings? In between shows. Hopefully have that out at the beginning of next year.... Originals and some old blues covers.

What we’re trying to do is take a lot of old songs that people have never heard of they’re so old and put a new twist on them. There’s a lot of old songs that younger people don’t remember, younger, people our age, get them back out there. Things seem to be on the radio once until something else is new or the times change.

The clips I listened to seemed to have this influence of a jam band thing and then... ...and then it goes straight into blues. That’s what we do ... there’s one you’ll hear, “Wasting Time,” that’s one of the single ones we recorded that’s more of the Dave Matthews meets the blues or whatever. It’s a track I wrote a little while ago. We took what we felt and just went along and tried to mesh different types of music together. A lot of our songs are like that.

It’s kind of a little theory we’re testing out.

How do you find the words to go with the blues style, growing up in New Hampshire? Just backtracking, I grew up listening to Clapton, dug into listening what he listened to…. Like Robert Johnson, “Me and the Devil” one of my favorites ... you just take them and they’re very old recordings. Some are so faint you can just barely understand. You have to change some words around … kind of have to translate them into modern English.

Listen to clips on brooksyoung.com or check the band’s schedule at myspace.com/brooksyoungband.

— Heidi Masek

Thursday, August 20th, 2009 The news you need now

Deep blues 27-year-old's band to open for B.B. King at Hampton Beach

By Melanie Plenda For the Monitor

August 20, 2009

Brooks Young was a 12-year-old trumpet player with a passing interest in the guitar when he first heard Eric Clapton's Unplugged. With that first gentle lick, it all just fell into place. And he wanted more. He started craving a steady diet of Cream, Hendrix, all the great rock and blues gods whose tracks were muddy with fresh blood, sweat and tears. He was hooked, smitten, and he never looked back.

"I just tied into it," he said. "I got to the point when I was researching that I thought what a great feeling that doing what you love, what you really love, must be. And I wanted my life to revolve around that. . . . I didn't want to sit behind a desk all day, unless I enjoyed it I didn't want to do it. And I really didn't like the idea of working for somebody else, and that's why I stuck with it, I think.

"And I put the dice in my hand and rolled."

And the gamble so far has paid off. At age 27, Young has already been endorsed by Fender guitar, opened for B.B. King, and is on the verge of signing a recording deal.

But despite his early success, Young is still a kid from Concord who takes nothing for granted and speaks with starry-eyed delight of the legends he feels blessed to meet. One of whom, King, he will be teaming up with again when The Brooks Young Band opens King's show at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom on Aug. 28.

"He's just this really humble guy, and he cares about everybody," Young said. "He asks you where you are from and what do you do and do you have a family. He talks to you on a personal level and you realize he's a legend, but he's human like everyone else."

But what's a suburban kid from a racially homogeneous state know about the blues? Plenty, as it turns out.

"Most blues is about living a tough life," Young said. "You definitely have to be in the mood to do it. You have to channel yourself into that stripped feeling in your mind or your heart. Blues is all feeling. It's that sense of ripping away. When I play, people tell me I make all these crazy faces, and I don't even know it. That all comes from just caring about what I'm playing, emotionally I'm into my music. . . . And people will feel that."

And apparently, B.B. King felt it when Young opened for him back in 2001.

"I get off the stage and one of his band members tells me I have good chops," Young said. "To hear that from them, let me tell ya. When I was researching all these guys, and I watched all those DVDs and recordings and then to actually open for them, my hands were sweating.

"And I sure thought I looked like I was shaking in my shoes."

After hearing the kid open for him at The Capitol Center for the Arts, King summoned Young to his tour bus. It was Sept. 11, 2001.

"I was standing in line for the restroom, and a friend of mine came up and said there was someone who wanted to meet me," Young

SCOTT McINTYRE / Monitor staff

Jeff LeRoy (left), Brooks Young (center) and Rachel Green of the Brooks Young Band rehearse in their practice space on North Main Street this

week.

said. "So I went over there and I ducked under this rope, and I saw Buddy Guy, and I'm a huge fan of Buddy Guy, and there he was. And there standing outside of this tour bus is this old guy dressed up in a full brown tuxedo wiping down the tour bus. And he looks right at me, and said, 'don't touch the bus.' "

So arms at sides, Young gingerly walked onto the bus.

"The tour bus was nice, it had all these leather couches and everything was trimmed with gold and I look to the back, and straight back on the bus is B.B. King. And he just says, 'how are you?' " Young said.

They got to talking about the day's events, the towers falling, not really knowing at that point what all had happened.

"The show went on even though the towers fell," Young said. "Mr. King felt like we have to move on; he said we have to give people hope and keep people moving forward."

But King's most lasting advice was not about playing at all.

"Look sharp," Young said, channeling his mentor. "Always dress like you're going to the bank to get a loan. . . . All the blues musicians, Muddy Waters, all of them started out with nothing. But by looking sharp and acting like they were something, people respected them."

Though his heart and soul are tangled up in blues, Young said much of his recorded stuff to date has a bit of a pop feel to it. But, more and more, he's making a push to slip the blues in whenever he gets the chance.

"My goal is working on being as successful as Eric Clapton," Young said. "I would like to be able to hear me on the radio stations. But I don't think it's something that goes to my head. I'd like to be financially set, and enjoy what I do. That's success to me."