Adrienne Young and Little Sadie released their sophomore effort, "The Art of Virtue," on June 28. To Young, it's everyday choices, not grand gestures, that add up to a virtuous life, and she's crafted her sophomore album around that concept.

Inspired by that old liberal Ben Franklin's Thirteen Virtues (a copy of the virtues is included with the CD) and stories from an older and maybe wiser America, Young expands upon the themes of cultivation and stewardship she covered on her acclaimed debut CD, "Plow to the End of the Row." With "Virtue," Young makes a statement both personal and universal, both idealistic and positive. Fusing past and present in her pop-tinged old-time music, Young applies a worldly compassion, and a spirit of independence and self-reliance, to her songwriting.

The theme for "Virtue" came to Young as she reflected on the outcome of last fall's presidential campaign and how "moral virtues" were leveraged during the election.

"There seems to be a growing passion, collectively and individually, to understand the foundation of our American culture and how we've turned from that," Young says. "Personally, it steered me back toward a time when our country was rooted in agrarian ideals and words were powerful enough to begin a new world. Ben Franklin had such a practical approach toward nurturing virtue, the first point being nobody's perfect."

Young wrote or co-wrote most of the songs on the CD, produced by Young with help from longtime collaborator Will Kimbrough and acoustic recording mastermind Gary Paczosa. Among the 15 tracks are old-time fiddle tunes, the gospel standard "Farther Along," and the Grateful Dead classic "Brokedown Palace."

The message is consistent: Every choice we make, from the food we buy to the channels we watch to the history we do or don't preserve, has consequences. It's a big concept, but Young says it starts with "tending your own garden," which she takes literally. Young endorses and promotes the Food Routes Network, an organization that helps people find fresh food from farmers in their area.

In the CD booklet, she says: "Eating is a political, agricultural and moral act. When you buy local food, you vote with your food dollar to ensure that family farms in your community will continue to thrive and that healthy, flavorful, sustainably grown food will be available for future generations."

She urges us to seek out local farmers' markets and even provides online maps.

The land is in Young's blood. She's a seventh-generation Floridian whose ancestors helped establish agriculture in the state, but the family land had been developed by the time she grew up.

"I was shaped precisely because I didn't grow up on a farm," Young said. "I grew up in a house my grandfather built, on land that had been a farm two generations ago but now was partly a four-lane highway. I really felt as a young person a large part of my soul was unfulfilled because I didn't have that connection with nature that was so bred into me."

Between tour dates this summer, Young will enjoy organically grown vegetables, herbs and flowers from raised beds in her own back yard.

"People think growing your own food is some enormous challenge. If you devoted a total of 24 hours to tilling, planting and creating a garden, you could feed your family through the season," Young says. "It's those small efforts that make the difference."

No matter what your political affiliation might be, you would have to say Adrienne Young makes a lot of sense.