Plain and Fancy: Jesse Colin Young - Songbird (1975 us, beautiful adult soft rock, 2002 remaster)

Wednesday, April 9, 2025

Jesse Colin Young - Songbird (1975 us, beautiful adult soft rock, 2002 remaster)

Buoyed by the positive reaction he received opening Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's summer 1974 stadium tour, Jesse Colin Young cut another album of attractive, frequently country-tinged music with his usual backup band, in which keyboardist Scott Lawrence and reed player Jim Rothermel had become near collaborators. Young repeated "Josiane" and "Sugar Babe" from his Youngbloods days and took on such unlikely subjects as the plight of Native Americans ("Before You Came"), while his romantic life seemed to be suffering ("Again") and he felt the need to answer his critics ("Slick City"). But his pleasure in playing music remained contagious, especially on the title track, and his fans responded, making Songbird his highest-charting album ever.

by William Ruhlmann

Jesse Colin Young, the frontman and co-founder of the seminal Sixties group the Youngbloods, died Sunday, March 16th 2025. He was 83.

Young relaunched his solo career and released a string of successful albums through the Seventies, including 1973’s Song for Juli and 1975’s Songbird. He was also part of the “No Nukes” concert series, with his rendition of “Get Together” featuring on the triple live album that included performances from the 1979 shows at Madison Square Garden.

Young’s recorded output slowed a bit in the Eighties and Nineties, but he remained busy and even co-founded his own label, Ridgetop Music, with his wife Connie in 1993. In 2012, a Lyme’s disease diagnosis forced Young off the road, but he turned to YouTube to share performances and document his recovery. He returned to the stage in 2016 and released what would be his final album, Dreamers, in 2019.

by Jon Blistein, March 17, 2025