Adrienne Young

• Name — Adrienne Young • Origin — Tallahassee, Florida, United States • Genre — Bluegrass, country, old-time music, American folk music • Instrument — Vocals, Acoustic guitar, Clawhammer Banjo • Current Member Of — Little Sadie • Website — Official Website

A native of Tallahassee, Florida, in fact a seventh-generation Floridian, she was raised on the land farmed by her family generations earlier. Young grew up in a musical family in Clearwater, where she was a member of the band Big White Undies. She was graduated magna cum laude from Belmont University in Nashville with a music business/Spanish degree. Endless and unfulfilling clerical jobs along Music Row motivated this triple-threat singer, writer, and multi-instrumentalist to start her own record label, Addiebelle Music. She also formed the short-lived band Liters of Pop with Eric McConnell. She learned to play clawhammer-style banjo from Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show, and set about amassing a catalog of old-time tunes. As she says: I got really into traditional music when I was longing to connect with my family again, and that led to trying to build up a repertoire that my grandfather was familiar with, the classic old-time and bluegrass tunes. Young began gaining attention with her 2003 win in the Chris Austin songwriting contest at MerleFest for "Sadie's Song". Co-written with Mark D. Sanders, the song is a re-telling of the murderous bluegrass standard "Little Sadie" told from the victim's point of view.

Young's second CD, The Art of Virtue released in 2005, took its theme from Benjamin Franklin's Thirteen Virtues and included copy of Franklin's pamphlet inside. The title track addressed issues that Young found herself pondering after the 2004 re-election of George W. Bush, specifically how the Republican Party had leveraged the theme of morality as a campaign tool. As she said at the time: Since 2004 Young has been a spokeswoman for the FoodRoutes Network, which aims to aid organizations in rebuilding local, community-based food systems. Young used the release of the CD The Art of Virtue to call attention to her involvement with the FoodRoutes Network, a non-profit organization that promotes sustainable agriculture and connects consumers with local farmers who are willing to sell direct. Room to Grow furthers her involvement in this movement with lyrics and songs directly addressing the issue. This wasn't the first time she mixed her farm action fever with artistic output: Plow to the End of the Row, her 2004 debut CD, came with a packet of seeds enclosed (and was nominated for the packaging design Grammy). Young advocates locally-grown and sustainable agriculture. A portion of each record sold of Room to Grow goes to the Save A Seed fund, which she created with nonprofit organizations the FoodRoutes Network and the American Community Gardening Association. The money will provide non-genetically modified seeds to community gardens across North America. Young has toured with help from the organization Buy Fresh Buy Local and each of the 49 FoodRoutes chapters. Along with her performances, each tour stop offered sustainable living workshops with local sponsors in each community. "Preserving cultural genetics and agricultural heritage is the key to true security and self-reliance", she says. Young says her music has influenced her activism because she feels at peace in nature and wants to communicate those feelings through her music. As of 2010, Adrienne Young has hosted and organized the Backyard Revolution, a group of people sharing and demonstrating unique skills of the past and present to help educate people in self sustainability. The Backyard Revolution was present at Floyd Fest 9 (2010) and the Heritage Harvest Festival at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. Demonstrations included: Backyard dairy cow (cow included), hide tanning and bow drill fire-making, home fermentation, historic log cabin construction, arrow fletching, soap making, primitive cooking, edible and medicinal wild plants, and more. See www.backyardrevolution.com for more information.

Her music, created with various incarnations of her band Little Sadie, blends elements of Bluegrass, country, old-time music, and American folk music with a pop sensibility... tightly crafted songs that, like the feel of her home and the flow of her conversation, infuse her love for American tradition with high contemporary energy. Young's vocals mirror weariness and hope on 'Natural Bridge,' cross intimate valleys and climb the emotional peaks of 'Room Enough To Grow,' simmer on the stone-country burner "High Flyin’ Dream", yearn to go wherever the current takes her on 'River and a Dirt Road.'

• Title — Album details — Peak positions • US Bluegrass • Plow to the End of the Row — * Release date: April 13, 2004 * Label: AddieBelle — — • The Art of Virtue — * Release date: June 28, 2005 * Label: AddieBelle — 15 • Room to Grow — * Release date: May 22, 2007 * Label: AddieBelle — — • "—" denotes releases that did not chart

• "Just Like Christmas" with Tim O'Brien (2004) AddieBelle (promo CD and download only) —

• Year — Title • 2008 — "Home Remedy" • "My Love Will Keep"

• review of Room to Grow August/September 2007 Dirty Linen. • "Adrienne Young's Activism Keeps Her In Tune" by Eric R. Danton, Courant Rock Critic, August 17, 2007 Hartford Courant. • "Adrienne Young: Planting the Earth, Growing Herself" by Elizabeth Blair, broadcast July 9, 2007 on All Things Considered NPR. • "Adrienne Young's 'Plow to the End of the Row': Singer and Banjo Player Breathes New Life into an Old Form" by Melissa Block, broadcast April 14, 2004 on All Things Considered NPR.