Adrienne Young

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Adrienne Young
photo by Thomas Petillo

Adrienne Young is a Nashville, Tennessee-based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. 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.

A native of Tallahassee, Florida, Young grew up in a musical family in Clearwater, where she was a member of the band Big White Undies. After earning a degree in Music Business from Belmont University in Nashville, she formed the short-lived band Liters of Pop with Eric McConnell. She learned banjo from Ketch Secor, a member of the old-timey band Old Crow Medicine Show. After a few years working as a temp on Music Row, 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. That song featured prominently on her first CD, Plow to the End of the Row, produced with another Nashville-based musician, Will Kimbrough, and released on her own AddieBelle record label. (The label takes its name from a nickname Young was given while working as a tour guide at Nashville's Belle Meade Mansion.) The CD, which includes a packet of wildflower seeds along with artwork based on the Farmer's Almanac, was nominated for a Grammy award for Best Album Package.

An early version of Plow to the End of the Row, released in 2003, has become a sought-after collectible. That version included several tracks with Young backed by Old Crow Medicine Show and was a top pick for 2003 Debut Artist by the Freeform American Roots DJ Chart. The nationally-released version, featuring different sequencing, new tracks, and re-recorded versions of several songs, was released on April 13, 2004, one day before an interview with Young aired on NPR's All Things Considered. The Americana Music Association included Young and her band in their nominees for Emerging Artist of the Year, and the Nashville Scene named "Home Remedy" as Best Country Single of the year. The CD went on to place at or near the top of numerous "best of" lists for the year and the Los Angeles Times called Young "the Americana music find of the year."

Adrienne Young with her band, Little Sadie

Young and her band Little Sadie (at the time, Tyler Grant on guitar, Clayton Campbell on fiddle and mandolin, Amanda Kowalski on bass, and Steven Sandifer on percussion) toured extensively across the U.S. and in England. The members of the band left to pursue other projects prior to the recording of Young's second CD, The Art of Virtue. That disc, released on June 28, 2005, took its theme from Benjamin Franklin's Thirteen Virtues. A copy of Franklin's pamphlet is included with the CD. 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. "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 said at the time. "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 used the release of the CD to call attention to her involvement with the Food Routes Network, a non-profit organization that promotes sustainable agriculture and connects consumers with local farmers who are willing to sell direct.

Will Kimbrough co-produced the CD and co-wrote several tracks. Alongside original songs and traditional tunes, the disc featured a cover of the Grateful Dead song "Brokedown Palace." Young's AddieBelle label struck a distribution deal with Ryko Records which insured that her music got placed in more record stores. She also continued to receive support from public radio and was invited to appear on World Café, Mountain Stage, and A Prairie Home Companion. With a new incarnation of Little Sadie (fiddler and banjoist Eric Merrill, guitarist Hans Holzen, bassist Kyle Kegerreis, and percussionist Eric Platz), Young toured even more extensively in 2005.

The Art of Virtue placed third in Amazon.com's list of the best folk recordings of the year. Young was invited to sing in Philadelphia on January 17, 2006, as part of Benjamin Franklin's 300th birthday celebration.

In May 2006 Young took her band to Levon Helm's studio in Woodstock, New York to record tracks for a third album, tentatively titled Room to Grow, to be released in early 2007.