Video Premiere: Jubal Lee Young “Carmelita”

Jubal Lee Young was born to make music.  He says: “I need music like I need air and water.  I like to explore it and relish the creative process.”  His father, Steve Young was an early country outlaw who was well-known for writing the Eagles’ ‘Seven Bridges Road’ and Waylon Jennings’ famous song ‘Lonesome, On’ry & Mean’.  Meanwhile, Young’s mother, Terrye Newkirk, penned the classic songs ‘My Oklahoma’ and ‘Come Home, Daddy’. So, when Jubal Lee Young chose a career in music, the pressure was on to show that it was in the genes and he possesses his own talent.  After six albums, we can say conclusively that Young is a singer, songwriter and performer with considerable gifts of his own.  He has just released ‘Wild Birds Warble’, his first new album in a decade and a long-awaited follow-up to 2014’s ‘On a Dark Highway’.  During the intervening years, Young has experienced plenty of love and life, but also much heartbreak and personal loss, from divorce to close bereavements.  The pandemic was actually a period when he began to find himself again; he explains: “It wasn’t exactly a horrible thing for me on some levels.  It allowed for a lot of introspection and healing and growing.”

Here, Jubal Lee Young makes Warren Zevon’s signature song ‘Carmelita’ his own.  The overall sound and the characterful vocal performance are distinctively Young’s in this delightful version of a classic.  He says of the song choice: “Another of the songs Steve did live, but never recorded in the studio. My arrangement is based on his, but I took my own approach, as well. Zevon’s lyrical painting masterwork. Probably one of my favourites on the album.”  There are masterful performances from Markus Stadler, who also produced the album, on Dobro and Jeff Taylor on accordion – their notes bend and flow beautifully, supported by Brian Zonn’s sweeping bass.  Flourishes of mandolin from Charlie Pate offer more texture still.  It’s a fine take on an outstanding original.  Enjoy.