Steve Young

Steve Young is an American country singer, songwriter and guitarist from Newnan, Georgia. Born in 1942 and dying in 2016, he grows up in Alabama, Georgia and Texas in a family that moves frequently in search of work. He completes high school in Beaumont, Texas, where he is already playing guitar and writing songs shaped by folk, country, gospel and blues, alongside the music of Hank Williams, Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins. A teenage encounter with the flamenco guitarist Carlos Montoya also leaves a lasting impression on his playing.

Career and style

By his late teens, Young has established a local reputation in Alabama before spending time in Greenwich Village and then moving to the West Coast in 1964. In California he works with musicians including Van Dyke Parks and Stephen Stills, while also holding a day job as a mailman. He signs to a major label and briefly performs with the psychedelic country-folk group Stone Country. He then develops a solo career and becomes part of the California country-rock movement, while also being associated with Americana and alternative country. Although his songs influence country music, he resists the country label for himself.

Recordings and songs

Young’s first album, Rock Salt & Nails, appears on A&M and features support from Gram Parsons, Gene Clark, Chris Hillman and Bernie Leadon, alongside other musicians from the Southern California scene of 1969. It includes his best-known song, “Seven Bridges Road”, which is widely recorded by other artists. Another song, “Lonesome, Orn’ry & Mean,” becomes identified with Waylon Jennings, and Hank Williams Jr. records “Montgomery In The Rain.” He makes 12 albums in all and performs extensively live.

Outlaw country and wider influence

Young is described as a key figure in the outlaw movement and a supporter of the careers of Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams Jr. and others. He appears in the 1975 outlaw country documentary Heartworn Highways. Van Dyke Parks writes the song The All Golden about him. His music reflects Southern roots, a nomadic life and a spiritual outlook shaped by Baptist fundamentalism in childhood and later interest in Zen.

Performance and collaborations

His live work draws on his own songs, Southern folk material and songs by writers such as J.D. Loudermilk and David Olney. He tours widely, performing in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, Micronesia, China and Mongolia, as well as Egypt and East Africa. He works as both a performer and an interpreter of American roots music, and he is known for maintaining artistic control rather than adapting to the mainstream.