YOUNG MIXES A MESSAGE WITH HER MUSIC

By Ron Wynn
October 13, 2006

Given the broad array of musical and literary influences that permeate her compositions, it’s no surprise that Adrienne Young is one of the country’s busiest and most versatile performers. An outstanding multi-instrumentalist and excellent soloist on guitar and banjo, Young is also a superb vocalist and past winner of the Chris Austin songwriting competition at Merle Fest. A longtime supporter of such causes as organic farming and environmental preservation, Young combines her activities in these areas with operating her own label AddieBelle.

Young will be making her only Nashville appearance Saturday night at the Exit/In at a show that’s co-sponsored by Wild Oats, the Nashville Farmers’ Market, the Turnip Truck, Produce Place and many others. The first “Good Food for Good People” festival will precede the show at 7 PM, and local chefs will prepare foods donated by area farms.

“I wish that I could just devote myself solely to writing and playing music,” Young laughed while talking via phone from Virginia. “But activism is very important to me as well as the business end of my career, so you have to combine all these things. This concert Saturday night is very important because getting good food to people and maintaining the land are vital issues and they’re very connected. I’m very grateful to the people at the club for allowing us to do these things before the show.”

Young and her band are also supporters of the National Land Trust Alliance rally, which is also being held this weekend in Nashville.

If all these other things weren’t enough, Young is now working on the final mixes for her forthcoming CD Room to Grow, which was recorded at both Levon Helm’s studio in Woodstock, N.Y., and in Richmond, Va. It’s the follow-up to the acclaimed The Art of Virtue, which took its theme from Benjamin Franklin’s Thirteen Virtues and led to appearances for Young and her band on World Café, Mountain Stage and A Prairie Home Companion. The new project will feature 11 originals out of 14 tracks, and again showcases a voice that perfectly blends precise jazz timing with expressive folk/blues delivery and incisive, thoughtful writing. Like her other works, it will be available both at retail and online at AdrienneYoung.com, a Web site that also has links and connections to other organizations and causes she supports.

“For me, the types of songs that were on Thirteen Virtues are indicative of trend in the country toward revisiting the core values that have been important since the country was created,” Young said. “I think that it’s important that our music reflect those values and that we begin to value the land, the types of foods that we eat and the way that we interact with people. The whole idea of a political party that wasn’t partisan was the hallmark of what Benjamin Franklin was discussing in Thirteen Virtues, and it’s important that we get back to doing the best we can for all Americans rather than looking at things through these narrow political perspectives.”