Yvette Young on Staircase Sessions

If you’re a rock fan and you’re not paying attention to Yvette Young by now, do it. Right now! It’s a command I only follow intermittently myself, and whenever I rediscover her beautiful guitar work after a month of absentmindedness, a deeply warm and familiar feeling overcomes me. Recently, she was invited to perform in Glasgow with Staircase Sessions, a project designed to promote breakout artists.

Yvette Young and her no-neck 7-stringed guitar.

Young, a veritable virtuoso and generally rad human being from San Jose, California, got a soft start posting videos of herself playing guitar. She’s a singer-songwriter with the chops of the best metal players, and to boot, she creates all the art for her solo act and the band she fronts, Covet.

On first hearing her, the intricacy of her playing seems otherworldly – if the twinkling of the stars had a sound in music, it could very well be Young’s guitar work. At the same time fragile and unstoppable, at once math-rock and acoustic balladry, it brings to mind a famous quote, that Beethoven allegedly said upon hearing a classical guitar player – “The guitar is like an orchestra in miniature.” Allegedly. Don’t at me.

Check out her set, taken from albums “Acoustics” and “Acoustics 2,” below! If her take her is too soft for your liking, check out Covet – her trio with a focus on instrumental numbers.