Steve Young
Singer/songwriter/instrumentalist Steve Young (1942-2016) was a pioneer of "country rock" and of "outlaw country," two movements that transformed mainstream country music and impacted other genres of American popular music. Several generations of artists--country music's new traditionalists during the 1980s, alternative country acts in the 1990s, as well as those associated with Americana music in the current century--broadened their audiences by merging country music with elements of other music genres. All those musicians have been indebted to Young and such contemporaries as Gram Parsons and Gene Clark, who collectively demonstrated how to integrate country music with other music genres (rock, pop, folk, blues, R&B, bluegrass, and gospel). Young, a Southerner, recorded more than a dozen distinctive albums, but none was more fully realized than his 1975 album Honky-Tonk Man. Recorded at the acclaimed Minneapolis studio Sound 80 and released by Mountain Railroad Records, a small independent label based in the Upper Midwest, Honky-Tonk Man documented the musical world of a complex if largely misunderstood artist during the peak of his powers. Featuring originals and covers of Bob Wills, Hank Williams, The Band, and more, Honky-Tonk Man explores the origins of Country Rock, Outlaw Country, and Americana. Experience it in its original form.