Jubal Lee Young “Wild Birds Warble”

Jubal Lee Young returns with a powerful acoustic album which pays tribute to his late father and brings outlaw country bang up to date.

Jubal Lee Young is the son of Steve Young, one of the founding fathers of outlaw country. It’s been ten years since Young Jr. released an album – caring for his father prior to his passing, relationships woes and then the pandemic got in the way. “Wild Birds Warble”, in the main a collection of covers (including several of his father’s songs), is an acoustically driven set of songs which finds him coming across as quite on’ry & mean at times but always with an outlaw heart.

He kicks the album off with the scintillating ‘The White Trash Song’. It opens with a slow Appalachian appreciation of his roots before a jet propelled bluegrass section boots in. It’s the first of his father’s songs to be covered on the album, a song which Jubal notes was written “as a humorous homage to some of our extended family and their adventures.” Nevertheless, it’s the first indication of just how great this album is. ‘Jig’ (also written by Steve Young) digs deep into the soul of the musician with that odd impulse to travel and play to whoever and wherever, just to scratch that true musician itch. That it’s played here in quite majestic fashion – the full on string band bluegrass empathy with guitars, banjo, fiddle and Dobro perfectly meshed – is as close to perfection as one would wish for.

Throughout the album the players (Jubal Lee Young on vocals, guitar and harmonica, Markus Stadler on Dobro, banjo, mandolin and baritone Guitar, Brian Zonn on bass, Charlie Pate on mandolin, Christian Sedelmyer on fiddle and Jeff Taylor on accordion) are quite superb, proving that you don’t need to switch any amps to 11 to deliver rousing and raucous music while they are also able to tiptoe delicately when required.

The album is split into two halves. The first five songs are all by Steve Young and Jubal Lee follows ‘The White Trash Song’ and ‘Jig’ with a commanding version of ‘Seven Bridges Road’, rescuing it from the talons of the Eagles as he takes it back to his father’s original vision. He then goes on to deliver a spectacular version of ‘Long Way To Hollywood’ (originally on Steve Young’s “Seven Bridges Road” album). Here the band stretch out as Jubal connects the dots between his dad and the outlaw style of Waylon Jennings. If this were by Sturgill Simpson or Tyler Childers folk would be salivating over it. As it is, have a listen and tell everyone you know to lend an ear.

Jubal Lee’s one self penned song comes midway through the album. ‘Angel With A Broken Heart’, written in tribute to his father is a glorious country waltz. It paves the way for the remainder of the album, which consists of songs by artists who influenced either Steve or Jubal. There is of course ‘Rock Salt & Nails’, written by Utah Phillips, a legendary left wing writer and activist, and recorded by Steve Young on his debut album. David Olney gets two songs in the mix, ‘Deeper Well’, given a fine muddy Dobro driven bluesy touch, and ‘If My Eyes Were Blind’, another Olney song his dad recorded. Townes Van Zandt’s ‘No Place To Fall’ was the title song of Steve Young’s second album and it’s given a very respectable outing here, making the most of Jubal’s vocals which have just the right balance of yearning and despair. The inclusion of Warren Zevon’s ‘Carmelita’ is justified by Jubal saying that it was a song his father often performed live. Perhaps a tenuous connection but Jubal grabs it by the throat and turns in one of the best versions of the song this reviewer has heard.  Also somewhat tenuous is the closing song, a cover of Mickey Newbury’s ‘Why You Been Gone So Long’.  As Jubal says in the notes, “It just seemed like a fun song to end on. I have been gone a while myself, after all. Mickey was a favourite of Steve’s, too.” To that end, Jubal closes the album on a triumphant note.

Listening to this album I was reminded at times of Steve Earle’s “comeback” album, “Train a Comin’”. There’s a similarity, not only in the instrumentation but also in the sheer drive and delivery of the songs. Highly recommended.