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THEBACHA/FORT SMITH - Innovative Fort Smith guitarist Bryce Young plays with a unique picking style that sees his fingers move up and down the neck of his guitar.

"It's a little different," he said.

Fort Smith guitarist Bryce Young demonstrates his unique guitar style. Young is one of the performers who will take part in the Slave River Frienship Festival on Aug. 17. - Daron Letts/NNSL photo

"I like to call it slap tap because I'm doing a lot of tapping and then I'm slapping the bar chords at the same time and the harmonics to try to get this whole orchestrated feeling. Lots of open tuning. I don't play in standard much unless I'm playing classical."

Young started playing guitar at age 14 after his parents bought him his first acoustic guitar, a black Fender, for Christmas. He began writing his own material about a year later.

"I got right into it," he said.

Today he has written almost two hours of original instrumentals.

"I like to think of (instrumentals) as a story without words," he said. "It's the feeling you get. The story can mean one thing to one person but to another person it's a whole different thing. It's a new story to every different person. That's what I like about instrumentals."

Young doesn't title many of his original songs.

"Once you give it a title then it's not up to the public to interpret anymore," he said.

Young plays in Fort Smith at the upcoming Friendship Festival on Aug. 17.