Hey folks. Check out this awesome review from a recent show: http://media.www.mtsusidelines.com/media/storage/paper202/news/2009/04/09/Features/Roots.Of.Southern.Rock.Still.Growing-3703659.shtml

link to article here: http://www.thedelimagazine.com/nashville/index.php?name=delinashville&itemId=213609

Show Review: Ricky young @ The Mercy Lounge (3/26/09) - published April 1, 2009

It has been nearly a year since Texas native Ricky Young released his full-length album titled Learn to Steal, but the album’s effect is still resonating. On March 26, Young performed with sometimes-backing band Red White Blue at Mercy Lounge. Though Young and Red White Blue work separately in music, they draw a sizeable crowd when they collaborate and the chemistry between them onstage is evident. They played a nine-song set, several of which were old and recently reworked songs, and others that were drawn from Learn to Steal. Learn to Steal echoes with the influences of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Wilco and all other fathers of folk as Young digs for the essence of roots music. Like roots music in general tends to do, the album exudes a hot-asphalt-in-the-summertime vibe because of Young’s unpretentious lyrics and meandering, rustic melodies.

The very Johnny Cash-like opening line of “well I got shot down…” in “Fade to Gold” and the driving, ragtime piano melody of “Poor You” illustrate Learn to Steal’s faithfulness to old genres while songs like “Acoustic Guitars” hold a lyrical resemblance to contemporaries like The Volebeats or Ryan Adams in that Young can take one small detail and create a song from it. The 10 tracks of Learn to Steal all possess a sweet youthfulness and a common-man appeal which makes them stand out on some level, but “Suitcase Afternoon” is gold. With a combination of acoustic guitar and dazed harmonica, Ricky Young tugs at a heart string on this track the way Neil Young did with “Razor Love.” Founded on slow, old-fashioned romance and Young’s charming vernacularism, “Suitcase Afternoon” is the token gem that epitomizes Young’s laid-back brand of roots. Honest lyrics and easy melodies make Learn to Steal what it is – a shimmering full-length with a tender voice and a warm soul that delivers the ultimate sound of the south. - Jessica Pace

April, 2008
KINGS OF A&R:
New Music: Listen to Suitcase Afternoon by Ricky Young. This is for fans of Wilco, Neil Young and Dylan. These tracks are perfectly fitting for a Sunday drive on the Pacific Coast Highway.
Link: http://www.kingsofar.com/index.php?s=ricky+young

May, 2008
NASHVILLE SCENE
RICKY YOUNG CD RELEASE SHOW If lazy Saturday mornings had a resonant frequency, a specific tone that identified them, that tone would be Ricky Young's voice. The Eastsider's debut album Learn to Steal is a simple pleasure, the folk-rock equivalent of drinking a beer with your biscuits and gravy while realizing that the person you brought home from the bar really is cute, funny and cool. The album meanders occasionally, drifting off into hazy introspection and losing focus, but when it bears down on songs like "Fade to Gold," "Acoustic Guitars" and the title track, Young's slacker romanticism is undeniably endearing. 9 p.m. at Exit/In —SEAN L. MALONEY
Link: http://www.nashvillescene.com/Stories/Arts/Our_Critics_Picks/2008/05/15/Our_Critics_Picks/index.shtml

May, 2008:
ALL THE RAGE
Writer: Dave Paulson

Movement Nashvillian Young's new full-length is a limber and highly listenable swath of twang-tinged roots-rock. At some points it's highly evocative of Wilco's Sky Blue Sky,with jaunty piano lines and subtly funky arrangements. At others, it seems more informed by the tightly composed pop of MN peers k.s. Rhoads and Brooke Waggoner (see shuffly mid-tempo "single" "Suitcase Afternoon"), and alternately revels in no-frills country-rock.

Throughout, Young is an affable, low-key frontman, and the release of his first full-length should help usher him in as one of the Nashville pop/rock solo scene's more promising artists.

Ricky Young celebrates the release of Learn to Steal at 8 p.m. Sat., May 17, at Exit/In. Admission is $10 and includes a copy of the album.

Link: http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080515/RAGE1403/805150315/1199/RAGE

Ricky Young's brand new album "Learn to Steal" is now available on SNOCAP for a limited time! Preview the tracks below, create an account (if you don't have one) and download some songs!

hello my friends! well i'm excited to almost be done recording the songs that will make up my first release in almost 32 years. i'm sure you can understand how anxious and ecstatic i am after such a long time. i've been working with the retarded genius justin loucks, and the bear killer ian fitchuk. it sounds like it should, and thats because they are good at what they do. great. i've got six songs finished, and from what i can tell, i'm going in next week and finishing up what will be a full length record. i can't wait to hear the other records coming out this year from some of my favorite bands. tommy and the whale, eric wilson, and the lonely hearts. good time to have two ears. love. ricky