“D Adrienne Young is a Nashville based singer/songwriter who is as talented as she is beautiful. With her band Little Sadie, Adrienne incorporates roots music, country and bluegrass into her own unique style and sound. She brings a fresh and contemporary take to old timey music.
This month Adrienne will release her third CD on her own Addiebelle Music label called “Room to Grow.” The purchase of this CD will directly benefit sustainable agriculture which Adrienne will talk about in this interview. Two years ago she released “The Art of Virtue” which was inspired in part by Ben Franklin’s “The Thirteen Virtues.” Her debut CD called “Plow to the End of the Row” was released back in 2001 and actually came with a little bag of seeds! I spoke with Adrienne by phone on the morning of Friday May 18th.
BH – It’s exciting having a new CD coming out isn’t it?
AY - “Yes it is! Everybody should go through it. I think you can liken it to childbirth only it’s a different sort of pain.”
BH – I understand that you’re doing a bunch of interviews these next few days. I must be a good feeling to have so many people interested in your work?
AY - “It’s so flattering. I do believe that everyone should have the opportunity to make a record in their lifetime. From the inception of the songs all the way through to it getting out and hopefully finding its way to radio and then into people’s hearts. It’s such a mystical experience. I still don’t quite understand how it’s a business, even though that’s where I seem to spend the most time on at this juncture of the process.”
BH – I read that you’re from a family of 7th generations Floridians. Did you grow up surrounded by musicians?
AY - “There have been bands. My great aunts and uncles had a traveling band back in the twenties and thirties in Florida. And my granddad started playing music, playing with the family band and ever since I could remember it was always part of our family reunions and such. Everybody just played and I was raised with a southern Baptist Church of Christ upbringing and so there was always singing and my mother played the piano and was a singer herself actually. So yes I was surrounded by music.”
BH – I also read that you wanted to be an actress when you were younger. What was it that led you to a career in music?
AY - “I don’t think it was anything specific. Or today I’m feeling this and then the next day I felt differently. I just loved the theater and I loved being on stage. I was always involved with thespiatic activities in my high school years and would sing in those endeavours. Then I got a little jazz band together and people really enjoyed it. So I kept singing and it became something I was actually earning a fair amount of money at just seeing that I was sort of doing it for fun. I then joined an original band and got turned on to actually writing songs and ever since then that’s sort of what I’ve considered myself.”
BH – You left Florida for Nashville when you attended Belmont University?
AY - “I studied music business at Belmont University yes.”
BH - After you finished college, how long did it take before the release of your first CD “Plow to the end of the row” came out? What were you doing during that time?
AY - “Three years. I was working as a temp in Nashville and I worked at record labels and publishing companies and accounting firms and booking agencies. And I was really fortunate to be able to get a glimpse of pretty much every aspect of the music industry and how record companies fit in to that. And I really wanted to give it a go with my own label just because I felt like there was a delusion that occurred of one’s artistic intent once it had gotten through the hands of all that would put their mark on it. I don’t feel the same way at this point. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I think that now after putting out a third record, I’m really hoping to have that experience with the next CD. Because I think that’s why you choose the right home for your music. Because you trust the people on your team and you are able to give some of the control up and do so in good faith because you know that they have your best interest at heart and they understand who you are and that you’re fortunate enough to be able to just focus on playing your instrument and writing songs.”
BH – When you released “The Art of Virtue” CD did you feel that your career was really taking off at that point?
AY - “I have to be honest. I think that I live in a cocoon that I’ve fashioned quite consciously. This is a job and I get up in the morning and I go to work. And whether that’s going and playing music or getting on the phone and figuring out what is going to happen with the new website or what’s going on with any one of infinite administrative obligations, it’s a job and it’s hard for me to get a perspective because I’m just here working. When you get out on the road and people start singing your songs with you at a show, then it kind of hits you. Or if you happen to turn on the radio and you hear one of your songs and you’re like ‘wow’ this is actually working. But for the most part I just do my own thing. I’m in Nashville where everybody is a musician.”
BH – It’s not often that I see an artist being inspired by Ben Franklin. Why don’t you talk about that?
AY - “Well he’s one of the most remarkable individuals that’s ever lived and continues to be a perfect example of how one individual life can affect the collective forever. When we do get bogged down in our day to day stuff and we start to lose sight of the big picture, which is that we’re here to evolve and there is no linear reality, it’s all over the place. And that’s what life is going to be like. It’s going to be all over the place, it’s not going to be what you think except for the fact that it’s actually going to be exactly what you think in terms of your thoughts creating your reality. But it’s really your choice and perception that fashions your life and I just thought that he set a pretty fair example of what one can achieve in a lifetime when you lock into your potential and follow it up with the work that it takes to accomplish great things. And to acknowledge strength of character and integrity and virtue as something that you have to believe is a worthy goal. I thought in order to achieve it is something I feel is a bit lacking in today’s world. That we don’t really hold that strength of character and all the virtues that he felt laid the foundation for such an achievement. We don’t see a lot of those in the media. We don’t see a lot of attention being paid to that.”
BH – You’ve also drawn inspiration from the “Declaration From The Harmless And Innocent People Of God, Called Quakers.”
AY - “Well yeah and actually what I think it specifically says is that the Spirit of Christ, by which we are guided, is not changeable, so as once to command us from a thing as evil, and again to move unto it. And that spirit of Christ, which leads us unto all truth, will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons, neither for the kingdom of Christ nor for the kingdom of this world. So, in my opinion, the spirit of Christ is whatever you call consciousness. You can give it a name if you need to if you want to call it Jesus or Buddha or Allah. It really doesn’t matter the point is there’s a presence that is all knowing and is responsible for all creation is our source. And the manipulation of people’s ego attachment to their perception of that higher being, being the right one versus somebody else’s perception is such a waste of time and so tiresome. Definitely a part of me has become numb. I don’t watch television period. I try not to pick up a newspaper because I feel that we are absolutely being lead away from the truth by being bombarded with distractions twenty-four hours a day. And that the truth is in our hearts. And the truth is that we are all equal. We’re here to serve one another, to serve our planet and therefore serve ourselves. And all this outer referral and all of this running around in chaos and stress is just a choice. We can choose peace and we can choose harmony and we can choose love but we have to start within ourselves. I hardly know what to day about Iraq anymore. What are we doing? It’s so ridiculous.”
BH – How would’ve Ben Franklin handled this?
AY - “I think that he would go about his business. Because I didn’t vote for President Bush and it’s amazing how this country was under this veil of … it was like McCarthyism back in 2004 where you weren’t supposed to talk about being against the war. You actually weren’t supposed to talk about it! Being in Nashville it was kind of an interesting thing because I’m not really in the mainstream at all so I never really had a problem with voicing my opinion and I felt the repercussions of that. Even being in the genre that I’m in, one that at least seems to be fairly accepting of liberal views. Why peace and equality is considered liberal I’m not really sure but it’s obviously an odd idea to some. But to see the country turn by such a slim margin. I mean what a cosmic, intense time we’re living in right now with these lines being drawn right down the middle coming down to thousands of people making these decisions that are going to affect the entire course of humanity. It is really a very pivotal time in human existence. I don’t know how to stop the war in Iraq but I do know how to create peace within my personal relationships. And if I’m having anxiety and conflict in my personal relationships then I might as well be fighting in Iraq because there is no difference. So I have stuff to work on right here and right now and we all have a long way to go. So I just feel like I don’t have time to point fingers anymore, I need to deal with what I can do right here.”
BH – Let’s talk about the “Room to Grow” CD. Your bio called it a perfect marriage of your convictions and your talent. I couldn’t agree more.
AY - “Well the first two CD’s we did a lot in terms of packaging. Again, having my own label and having the ability to make those choices and chose to make less per unit because we’re putting more into it, that is a really exciting place to be when you are on the verge of a new offering to the public and you’re contemplating what you can do with this. And it just occurred to me that instead of tucking little gifts in this time, which we still do we still have a beautiful sticker and lyric booklet inside, but why not go farther and do something that supports the causes that we have been talking about literally. So we got in touch with the American Community Gardening Association and just asked if they’d be interested starting a ‘save a seed’ fund which would go towards providing non genetically modified seeds for community gardens across North America and so there you have it! So every CD that is sold, every copy of ‘Room To Grow’ a portion will be donated towards the ‘save a seed’ fund and hopefully will encourage us to understand how precious our genetic heritage is as well as our cultural heritage and really try to raise awareness about genetically modified food and why America is the only country in the world that doesn’t require labeling of genetically modified foods. What’s going on with thousands upon thousands of seed patents, I just don’t think the public is as aware as it could be and therefore things are happening that could alter the course of life as we know it on this earth forever. Because if you get a seed with a terminator gene blowing into random fields all over the earth then we’ve got a problem and that’s exactly what can happen.”
BH – Tell me about the tour you’re planning in support of this CD.
AY - “What I would like to see happen is for us to be able to do a tour in conjunction with the Food Routes Network that I’ve been working with for about four years now. They have forty-nine ‘buy fresh buy local’ chapters across the country and the goal is to be able to create a tour that would visit each chapter and work with all the community gardens in each of those regions. Obviously you’ve got Philadelphia which has an enormously successful ‘buy fresh buy local’ scene. I think they have over three hundred businesses involved. But then there are other chapters that haven’t flourished at that rate yet. And so our goal is just to help the smaller chapters and the ones that are just getting off the ground, building awareness and support for those. And meanwhile just encouraging individual communities to really understand how their individual identities and their agricultural character and the character of their communities how precious that is and how to preserve that through knowing our farmers and really focusing on establishing solid infrastructures for local food systems and supporting farm school programs. Getting producer farmers markets off the ground where you’re actually getting the folks who grew the food at the farmers markets, asking our local restaurants and stores to carry locally grown food. All of these things, how they work together to amount to enormous change through daily choices, that’s what I’d like the tour to do as well provide fun family entertainment with workshops on sustainable living and just a really positive familial culturally rich experience that would be diverse and yet united in our efforts to coordinate nationally community based initiatives.”
For more on Adrienne Young please check out her website at www.adrienneyoung.com. For more on some of her worthy causes you can log on to the Food Routes Network at www.foodroutes.org and the American Community Garden Association at www.acga.org.