Not to be confused with the Canadian singer songwriter who already started producing hits in the 60s, English jazz guitarist Neil C Young brings his first CD. Not often do you hear a CD recorded so purely that it feels as if you're in the English pub yourself, looking and listening to a "breed" musician. Still, Young did it, perhaps with less means than most already established would do.

You immediately hear the feeling that Young puts with his fingers on a Gibson and Fender, repeatedly you look around to see if he isn't actually playing in a corner of your living room. Opening with "the New Schmoo" Neil's sound shows he's not only a master in playing the guitar, but also perfectionist enough to write and play his own bass.

Sometimes it gets close to Dominic Miller, mixed with bossa nova, bebop and blues, Young's sound clearly shows a classical conservatoire education. Richard Young immediately shows that he's brilliantly mastered the techniques of jazz drummer, then again he already showed that earlier as a drummer in John Mayer's Indo-Jazz Fusions.

With 5 alternating instrumental jazz tracks on "Chick(pea) soup" Neil C Young makes it obvious he's ready for bigger festivals.

- Maxazine, July 2009