 |
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||
|
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
 |
| ORGANIC STYLE To Adrienne 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. Fusing past and present in her pop-inflected old time music, Young applies a worldly compassion, a poet’s pen and a spirit of independence and self-reliance to The Art of Virtue out June 28 on her own Addiebelle Records (distributed by Virtual Label / Ryko). Inspired by Ben Franklin’s Thirteen Virtues (justice, frugality and humility, to name three) and stories from an older and perhaps wiser America, Young expands upon the themes of cultivation and stewardship so beautifully asserted on her acclaimed debut Plow to the End of the Row. With Virtue, Young makes a statement both personal and universal, both idealistic and constructive. The theme came to Young as she pondered 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,” states Young. “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.” The Art of Virtue - most of which she wrote or co-wrote - was produced by Young with able assistance from long-time collaborator Will Kimbrough and acoustic recording genius Gary Paczosa. Besides Young’s accomplished songwriting, the 15 tracks include old-time fiddle tunes reimagined for a new day, the gospel standard "Farther Along," and the Grateful Dead’s classic anthem of renewal "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. Our standards can be higher, she says, despite the many forces that seem to corrode them. Few songwriters can negotiate this terrain with ease and assurance, but Young is one who can. It's a big concept but Young says it starts with "tending your own garden," which she takes literally. Young endorses and promotes the FoodRoutes Network, an organization which helps people find fresh food from local farmers in their area. On the CD, she urges listeners to "Vote with your dollar for food democracy ... eating is a political, agricultural and moral act." The land is in Young's blood. She's a seventh generation Floridian whose ancestors helped establish agriculture in the state, the nation's second largest producer of fresh vegetables. 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." Working on a Gainesville farm, Young started making other connections -- between eating pesticide-free foods and good health; buying from family farmers and strengthening communities; and buying locally and conserving on gasoline and transportation costs. Between tour dates this summer, Young will enjoy organically grown vegetables, herbs and flowers from raised beds in her own backyard. The harvest includes corn, soybeans, pole beans, yellow and butternut squash, zucchini, cantaloupe, radishes, turnips, six varieties of tomatoes, garlic, greens and various herbs. "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 said. "It's those small efforts that make the difference." With The Art of Virtue, it's a message Young now applies to the cultivation of the self. "This time, it's about inner seeds -- personal seeds," she said. |
 |
|||
Nashville Scene Old School Adrienne Young grounds her music and business dealings in time-honored verities By Jewly Hight When artists cram veiled moral messages into their music, the results can be cumbersome, contrived and easily dismissible. Not so with Adrienne Young. Her approach to making music is rife with lessons borrowed from a long-forgotten way of life, and it all seems as natural as the organic garden in her backyard. The Art of Virtue, Young's second album, continues her felicitous pairing of bluegrass, folk, Appalachian and Anglo-Celtic flavors with agrarian themes. Those traditional values—not traditional like the Republican Party platform, but traditional like the adages of Ben Franklin—permeate how she handles touring, how she runs her fledgling record label, AddieBelle, and virtually everything related to making music. Young's holistic vision makes her a striking, unique presence in Americana music. "Branding used to be why a Sears & Roebuck catalog was like a Bible, because it was filled with things that would last a lifetime," she says. "Quality used to be what this country was about. I wanted to create something that would make people feel good about buying, that would be something for the whole family. I just want people to associate AddieBelle with an undeniable sense of quality, value and respect." Virtues Put Into Action: Adrienne Young with her band, Little Sadie. When you open Young's ornate, sepia-tinted album packaging, several items tumble into your lap, one of which is a booklet containing Franklin's 13 virtues. These are meant as "inner seeds," expanding the allegory begun by the seed packets enclosed in her first album, Plow to the End of the Row, which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Recording Package. Young is more concerned with making her listeners feel appreciated than with keeping down her cost per unit. This ethos of consideration pervades The Art of Virtue. The idea of recognizing the consequences of our actions surfaces in the wistful two-step "Hills and Hollers," in the bare sorrow of "Walls of Jericho" and in the folk anthem "It's All the Same." With a supple lilt in "Walls of Jericho," Young asks, "Such a Rich Man's scheme using / Poor Boy's dreams / To fight the fight / How far will we go pretending we don't know / What is wrong or right?" Agile fiddle runs figure prominently on several tracks, complementing Young's clear, honeyed vocals. Crisp banjo, mournful Dobro and acoustic guitar are anchored by the light thump and swing of the rhythm section. Young isn't paying lip service to bygone days. Among the album's 15 tracks are rejuvenated old-time fiddle tunes ("Bonaparte's Retreat" and "My Love Is in America") and a gospel standard ("Farther Along"), all of which her band, Little Sadie, navigate with infectious spirit. The album closes with an update of the Grateful Dead's beloved benediction, "Brokedown Palace." A true student of Ben Franklin, Young didn't release two albums of agrarian-minded music and leave it at that—she put the concepts into action. Her touring itinerary is peppered with unconventional gigs. Along with nightclubs, she and her band do school performances, giving students a living, breathing, entertaining history lesson. "I feel like, in schools, music and the freedom of expression it encourages is a positive influence that we need to keep, because sometimes the pages in a science book can be flat," she says. "We have unbelievable amounts of inquiries from people. I have 150 schools that are ready for us to come, and we just have to figure out how to be able to afford it. The main idea that I want to leave with the children is that acoustic music is as exciting and enthralling as any electric guitar rock band. In the more urban areas, they've never even seen a banjo, and when you turn them onto the music, then you're turning them onto all of the ideals that were socially present when that music was being created." Next on the innovations list is a new kind of festival merchandise tent. Young is a spokesperson for FoodRoutes, an advocacy group for sustainable agriculture, and she wants local farmers selling their produce alongside her CDs. "Sustainable agriculture really holds the key to this country getting back on track in terms of understanding how much power we have as individuals to be self-reliant, and to know what it takes to put food on the table when it's not out of a can or from 3,000 miles away," she says. Still to come is a folk school offering workshops on self-sufficient living, disciplines Young says will "get hunters and hippies together." If there were a trace of smugness or sanctimony in Young's idealistic message, it might fall flat. But there isn't. In her hands, neither meaning nor music suffers. Young has the gumption to brave uncharted territory in a homogenous industry. "I'm not going to worry about what my bank account looks like until it's gone, and thus far it's never been gone. I'm just going to do the best I can do and have faith that the universe will provide, because there are abundant resources." Sunday, 06/26/05 Renaissance Woman Adrienne Young started down a path to making records and found herself instead on a journey to discovering 'Virtue' By JEANNE ANNE NAUJECK For The Tennessean Each year, People magazine deems one man the sexiest alive. Ask singer-songwriter Adrienne Young, and the sexiest men aren't alive. They're a line of pioneers, inventors and statesmen long passed. "Ben Franklin. Thomas Jefferson. They are so sexy," Young said. "Tell me one living man, except possibly my boyfriend, who can hold a candle to these guys. Why not be a Renaissance man? Why not make the absolute most of your life?" That's the theme of Young's second album of traditional music, The Art of Virtue, which hits stores Tuesday and was inspired by Franklin's "Thirteen Virtues," which include sincerity, frugality, temperance and industry. Young certainly doesn't shirk on industry. Intense, driven and self-assured, she's singer, songwriter, musician, producer and art director on Virtue, released on her own record label, Addie Belle Music. The idea for the album came after last year's presidential election, when Young found herself pondering how the Republican Party had leveraged the theme of morality as a campaign tool. Already a history buff, she hit the books to learn how the founding fathers conceived of virtue, and how it had evolved over time. Franklin's first tenet, she said, was that nobody's character is perfect, but could improve through daily cultivation of what Young calls "personal seeds" of self-improvement. It's an apt follow-up to Young's debut album, Plow to the End of the Row, which included a packet of wildflower seeds. That, and the album's artful rendering as an old-fashioned sampler, earned it a Grammy nomination for best packaging. That was by design. "I intended it to blow people's socks off. Generally you would never see that much care put into a package, because your unit cost is through the roof," Young said. "But if I make a listener feel appreciated and celebrated, they will be more likely to commit to the life of this career instead of just the record they heard on the radio last week." The total package Virtue wraps homespun wisdom and folk tales into a package of traditional music driven by banjo, fiddle and harmonica. Young calls it "postmodern folk." Co-producer Will Kimbrough calls it "cosmic American music. That's what Gram Parsons called it. I don't know what's 'alternative' about something that's good. It's quintessentially American music." Virtue also is full of goodies: a booklet containing the Thirteen Virtues, a free download for a new song and extensive liner notes. It also boasts performances by some of Nashville's best musicians, including keyboardists David Briggs and John Deaderick, bassists Dave Jacques and Mike Bub, fiddler Clayton Campbell and Kimbrough. "It wasn't as much of a departure as it might seem," said Kimbrough, a producer and multi-instrumentalist better known for his work with acts such as Todd Snider, Rodney Crowell and Jimmy Buffett. Rock acts such as The Band, Neil Young and the Rolling Stones have long made use of "country" instruments in their music, he said. "She's definitely mixing things up. She was coming from a pop place, fell in love with this music and found what she was supposed to be doing." Though Plow sold only about 7,000 copies, it got support from influential quarters such as National Public Radio and WXPN-FM's World Cafe program in Philadelphia, where she'll have her album release party July 1 (a Nashville release party is planned for July 7 at The Station Inn). With the attention came a booking agency deal and a five-album distribution deal with Ryko that ensures her next three records get national retail placement. "That's my career," she said, noting that she hopes to have a family by then. "That's eased my stress a lot because the framework is there to get my music out, and now I can focus on actualizing the record label and Addie Belle the brand." Making connections Young, now in her early 30s, moved to Nashville in 1997 to attend Belmont University and pursue a songwriting career. The Clearwater, Fla., native spent the years after high school working on an organic farm and touring as a jazz and pop vocalist with bands called Liters of Pop and Big White Undies. Her grandfather, now 80, still plays in a bluegrass band; her grandmother plays mandolin and banjo, and her mother came to Nashville to become a country singer. In Nashville, she learned banjo from Ketch Secor, a member of old-timey band Old Crow Medicine Show. "I respected what he and the band were trying to do, bringing back traditional music in a passionate manner that would turn on young people," Young said. "You get into traditional music and you can't help but connect with the sociological environment at the time the music was being formed. And it was agrarian. It was hardworking, it was common folk, it was the people's music. That's where Addie Belle started to take shape." Addie Belle (Young's nickname at Belle Meade Plantation, where she worked) Music is an LLC, with Young as president and owner of her master recordings and publishing. She envisions the label as a cooperative that licenses other artists' music. "I don't want to give record deals. I don't want to own anybody's masters. I just want to help people actualize their vision," she said. "One of my music business teachers said, 'Evaluate the market and see where the gap is.' I didn't see anything that offered what I wanted to be able to offer to people ... a record label that integrates all of the ideals of a small community. My ultimate vision for Addie Belle is primarily to contribute to the greater good and to offer a glimpse into pieces of our cultural history that we may have missed connecting with in our day to day whirlwind." Catching her break The label didn't take form until a serendipitous breakthrough — literally. During her last year at Belmont, she was studying in Costa Rica when, getting off a bus for school, she slipped down the steps into a gutter, breaking her foot almost completely off. She came home six weeks early and went through three surgeries to reattach the foot. Young calls it "the most wonderful thing that ever happened. I learned you have to appreciate every single step." And it led to meeting Wallace Rasmussen, the philanthropist who had funded her time abroad. Rasmussen, now in his 90s, never went to college but worked his way up from ice packer to chairman and CEO of Beatrice Foods. He has devoted his life to helping young people through scholarships at Belmont and Vanderbilt Medical School, the foreign exchange program he founded at Belmont and one at North Central College in Illinois. The two stayed in touch, e-mailing and visiting. Then two years after graduating on crutches from Belmont, Young decided she'd had enough. She was temping on Music Row and couldn't save enough money to make a record. "I was like, 'I'm giving up. I can't stay in Nashville anymore. Nobody cares. I'm leaving,' " Young recalled. "And I e-mailed him expressing this frustration and he e-mailed back and he said, 'You've got to plow to the end of the row. Draw up a business plan and let's talk.' And he lent me the money to make a record." Rasmussen, she said, was the only one who encouraged her. "Every person that I knew was a doubter. My family said I'd end up a bag lady. Whatever it took, I was going to do it. Whether I was living in poverty, I just knew I had something to accomplish. I am tenacious." Seeing things a new way Young said despite the accolades that have come in since Plow and the team that's now behind her, she's working just as hard as when she was waitressing, cleaning houses and posting fliers for her gigs around town. And she's gained a greater sense of spiritual awareness and humility — another of Franklin's virtues. "Before, I felt that I was a failure because people didn't care what I was producing musically. And now that the sunbeams are beginning to shine on this project, I realize that it's not about me anymore," she said. "We get e-mails from people who've come to shows and they're so passionate about how they've been touched by the music, and they're singing your songs ... I'm totally flattered and I love it, but it doesn't make my ego go, 'Ha! I am successful.' "It makes me go, 'I'm so fortunate that God has spoken through me and this music.' " |
 |
| ADRIENNE YOUNG: Style & Substance Sophomore effort 'Art of Virtue' out June 28 on Addiebelle Records (Virtual Label/Ryko) Nashville, Tenn. (May 6, 2005) -- Fusing past and present in her pop-inflected old time music, Adrienne Young applies a worldly compassion, a poet’s pen and a spirit of independence and self-reliance to her sophomore effort The Art of Virtue out June 28 on her own Addiebelle Records (distributed by Virtual Label / Ryko). Inspired in part by Ben Franklin’s ‘virtues of man’ writings and stories from an older and perhaps wiser America, Young expands upon the themes of cultivation and stewardship so beautifully asserted on her acclaimed debut Plow to the End of the Row. With Virtue, Young makes a statement both personal and universal, both idealistic and constructive. “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,” states Young. “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!” The Art of Virtue was produced by Young with able assistance from long-time collaborator Will Kimbrough and acoustic recording genius Gary Paczosa. Besides Young’s accomplished songwriting, the 15 tracks include old-time fiddle tunes reimagined for a new day, the gospel standard "Farther Along," and the Grateful Dead’s classic anthem of renewal "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. Our standards can be higher, she says, despite the many forces that seem to corrode them. Few songwriters can negotiate this terrain with ease and assurance, but Young is one who can. Raised in Florida and influenced by her grandfather (who at age 80 still picks in a bluegrass band), Young evolved from actress to recording artist after moving to Nashville and enrolling in Belmont University’s music business program. Her career accelerated after she took first place in the Chris Austin Songwriting Contest at North Carolina’s Merlefest. Then, working with Nashville pop and alt-country visionary Will Kimbrough, Young made Plow to the End of the Row. Not only was the album acclaimed by critics, it earned a Grammy nomination for album design. Those who bought the album were rewarded by the tiny package of seeds nested in the CD sleeve, an idea of Young’s that made her worldview tangible. With The Art of Virtue, Young’s singing and songwriting has achieved a new level of lushness and depth. The pop freshness so apparent on Young songs like "Home Remedy" and "I Cannot Justify" is here, though perhaps nestled deeper inside a musical bed chiefly made of Young’s old-time banjo, striking fiddling and silvery, bold acoustic guitar. In songs like "Rastus Russell," " Walls of Jericho" and "It’s All the Same," Young articulates a moral vision with stories and allegory. In the title track, she asserts a more direct call for action and accountability, in her own life and indirectly in the rest of ours. |
 |
||||||||
to download : click image, right-click large image (hold-click for Mac) and download to desktop |
||||||||
 POLLSTAR : http://www.pollstar.com |
 |
|
www.adrienneyoung.com
|
|