News
Evansville Courier Press review of "The Art of Virtue"
7/1/2005
Adrienne Young
'The Art of Virtue'†/ (Addiebelle Records)â€
â€
by MARK WILSON, Evansville Courier Press†Music Critic
July 7, 2005
If a twentysomething folkie with a college education, a thing for agriculture and a love of old-fashioned string band music sounds just a little too precious, well, Adrienne Young is anything but that.
Young is a triple-threat banjoist, guitarist and singer-songwriter who gets over not just on her prodigious talents but also on the strength of her very real convictions, a few equally talented collaborators (most notably the truly stellar guitarist Will Kimbrough) and a unique source of inspiration for this, her second album.
Released just in time for summer's patriotic fervor (but avoiding any semblance of blind nationalism), Young's sophomore CD was inspired in part by Ben Franklin's "Thirteen Virtues" and stories of an older and wiser America. She reaches back to some stories from her own Southern upbringing for the inspiration on two fantastically gritty story songs here, "Ella Arkansas" and the darker "Rastus Russell."
Young is a talented singer deftly weaving together the pop-bluegrass sounds of Alison Krauss ("My Love Will Keep"), gentle folk of Nancy Griffith ("My Sin Is Pride") and Gillian Welch's rusticism. Those are just guideposts to the breadth of Young's vocal talents. On songs such as "Wedding Ring," "Walls of Jericho" and "It's All the Same," she sings with an earthiness all her own. Far from being contrived, Young's rootsy style is a natural extension of who she is. The result is an album as organic as the garden she keeps.
'The Art of Virtue'†/ (Addiebelle Records)â€
â€
by MARK WILSON, Evansville Courier Press†Music Critic
July 7, 2005
If a twentysomething folkie with a college education, a thing for agriculture and a love of old-fashioned string band music sounds just a little too precious, well, Adrienne Young is anything but that.
Young is a triple-threat banjoist, guitarist and singer-songwriter who gets over not just on her prodigious talents but also on the strength of her very real convictions, a few equally talented collaborators (most notably the truly stellar guitarist Will Kimbrough) and a unique source of inspiration for this, her second album.
Released just in time for summer's patriotic fervor (but avoiding any semblance of blind nationalism), Young's sophomore CD was inspired in part by Ben Franklin's "Thirteen Virtues" and stories of an older and wiser America. She reaches back to some stories from her own Southern upbringing for the inspiration on two fantastically gritty story songs here, "Ella Arkansas" and the darker "Rastus Russell."
Young is a talented singer deftly weaving together the pop-bluegrass sounds of Alison Krauss ("My Love Will Keep"), gentle folk of Nancy Griffith ("My Sin Is Pride") and Gillian Welch's rusticism. Those are just guideposts to the breadth of Young's vocal talents. On songs such as "Wedding Ring," "Walls of Jericho" and "It's All the Same," she sings with an earthiness all her own. Far from being contrived, Young's rootsy style is a natural extension of who she is. The result is an album as organic as the garden she keeps.
