Preview

"One of the great voices of country music", Steve Young practically invented country-rock, with a little help from Gram Parsons. Georgia-born, Alabama-raised and part-Cherokee, this legendary veteran has honed his unique brand of emotional songcraft and performance over more than 35 yeas. His songs have brought considerable success to others - some, like Waylon Jennings and Hank Williams Jr, have forged a career around them, and others, including The Eagles, Joan Baez, Rita Coolidge, Iain Matthews, Ricochet, Tracy Nelson, and Dolly Parton, have made songs like "Seven Bridges Road" their own. Steve meanwhile has preferred to follow a less-travelled path in recent times, releasing an occasional album and touring the US and the world as a vital ambassador for American roots music.

From his classic 1969 debut album Rock, Salt & Nails, via the definitive folk/ country of Seven Bridges Road and a spell as high-profile Nashville "product" in the 1970s, his records shine with his vision of America, especially its rural people - the music of the blues and the bar-room is all there, and even Celtic elements can be heard on his latest CD, the acclaimed Primal Young (2000). His deft guitar picking aside, it is Steve's voice that marks him out as unique - from a rich smoky baritone to a high lonesome cry, it stills audiences and touches hearts like no other. Cambria Arts took a prominent initial role in setting up this UK tour, his first for some time, so we're especially proud that Tregaron is on his itinerary. He's not to be missed.

"Profound and emotional ... burns, gives everything ... writes and sings with the bitter, enduring spirit of the dirt-poor mountains he came from ... a simplicity of raw love and pain transcending any region or period." - Mojo

"5/5" - Country Music People

Review

The truly legendary Steve Young emphatically confirmed his status as 'a vital ambassador for American roots music'.

This small, life-weathered man, 60 now, is a quiet, boundlessly courteous figure offstage, but in solo performance he's powerfully transformed, and gives it his all. Underpinned by guitar playing that's deft and sturdy in equal measure, his emotionally charged voice lifts you out of your seat straight into blue-collar America: the hills and plains, the bars and highways, and the folk who inhabit them.

There's more than a hint of the Celtic in the functional four-square melodic shape of his memorable songs, a reminder of how American country music evolved from traditional folk forms carried there by Irish, Welsh, and Scots emigrants. Steve boasts Welsh forebears - what goes around comes around. Steve ranged across his substantial song catalogue from the 1960s to the more recent 'Switchblades of Love' and 'Primal Young' CDs, and threw in covers of Townes Van Zandt, Tom T. Hall, and Dylan songs, with Dobie Grey's 'Drift Away' as an encore closer.

All in all, a memorable and vintage night from a man who's the real deal, a living legend. Steve reports that he loved playing for us in Tregaron, and he vows, with characteristic gentlemanly reserve, to come again 'when the time is right'. And when it is, we're confident he will.