Steve Young

Rarely has an artist so deserving of wider acclaim been as overlooked as Steve Young. This Alabama-born singer has enjoyed a measure of success as a songwriter which has undoubtedly sustained him financially, but few artists possess his combination of vocal and writing gifts. By the early 1960s, the itinerant Young had already left Alabama for the New York City folk scene, eventually winding up in Los Angeles. He was fusing Southern Soul, country, folk and rock while Gram Parsons was still wondering where to invest his trust fund. Young's voice is a gritty tenor that can embody Memphis Soul and West Virginia country in a simple phrase. He has steadily released records for various major and independent labels since 1969, and he continues to tour the folk circuit. Young's best known songs are the oft-covered "Seven Bridges Road," "Lonesome On'ry and Mean" (a No. 1 hit for Waylon Jennings) and "Montgomery in the Rain," which was a big hit for Hank Williams, Jr.