JESSE COLIN YOUNG - SONGBIRD

Jesse Colin Young (born Perry Miller on 22 November 1941) is an American singer and songwriter who was a founding member and lead singer of the 1960s group The Youngbloods whose single Get Together became a worldwide hit. After seven group releases, Young began the production of more than 15 solo albums including Song For Juli, Light Shine, Songbird and a live album with his great touring band titled ON THE ROAD...... Young recorded his first solo album, THE SOUL OF A CITY BOY, in four hours, accompanying himself on guitar. A second album, YOUNG BLOOD, featured supporting musicians, including John Sebastian. After the two solo albums, Young met guitarist Jerry Corbitt on the New York to Boston club circuit, and with keyboardist/guitarist Lowell "Banana" Levinger, and drummer Joe Bauer, they began to perform as The Youngbloods. Though the song GET TOGETHER appeared on their first album in 1967, they re-released it as a single in 1969, after the heartfelt refrain of "Come on people now, smile on your brother" was used as the television theme for the National Council of Christians and Jews. GET TOGETHER became a worldwide Top Ten hit, and was immediately followed into the charts by, SUNLIGHT and DARKNESS DARKNESS, both written by Jesse for the ELEPHANT MOUNTAIN release that same year...... Having established legendary status with hit singles and albums, the three remaining Youngbloods (Young, Banana and Bauer) launched their own Raccoon Records, and released four albums between 1970 and 1972; the studio recordings, GOOD & DUSTY, and HIGH ON A RIDGETOP; and two live recordings, ROCK FESTIVAL, and RIDE THE WIND. Young returned to recording solo albums in 1972 and released TOGETHER, which entered the Billboard Top 200 Album chart. In September 1973, hee released what many critics claim is his solo masterpiece, SONG FOR JULI. That recording stayed on the Billboard Top 200 chart for nearly a year, and was followed onto the chart by LIGHT SHINE in 1974, SONGBIRD in 1975, ON THE ROAD in 1975, and LOVE ON THE WING in 1976. Each of the aforementioned six Jesse Colin Young solo albums contained breakthrough tracks that received airplay on radio stations across America. During the 1970s, Young helped establish the "No Nukes" movement. Involved from the very beginning, Young closed the 1979 No Nukes concert and movie joined by legends Jackson Browne, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash singing The Youngbloods anthem GET TOGETHER. In 1978, Young released AMERICAN DREAMS, an album calling for political involvement, followed by THE PERFECT STRANGER in 1982 with guest stars like Carly Simon. He then returned to acoustic rock with THE HIGHWAY IS FOR HEROES in 1987. Throughout the 1980s, Young continued to tour, often appearing at fundraisers for various organizations, and sometimes performing with original Youngbloods members Jerry Corbitt and Banana (the Youngbloods acclaimed drummer Joe Bauer, had sadly passed away prematurely of natural causes). In 1993, Young and his wife Connie, launched their own independent label, Ridgetop Music, from their mountain home in Marin County. They introduced the imprint by releasing a new Jesse Colin Young album of all original material backed by top San Francisco Bay Area musicians, called MAKIN IT REAL. The next release would be a very personal collection of mostly solo slack key acoustic songs, SWEPT AWAY. Just as Jesse's music enterprises were about to blast off with more adventurous recordings, a forest fire engulfed the Ridgetop property in October 1995. The family home and business was completely destroyed, and Jesse moved Connie and their two children to Hawaii with the clothes they had on their backs...... He built a new recording studio at his island home and in 2001 recorded ALOHA E, reflecting upon the events of September 11. That track eventually found its home in his 2004 album release of Hawaiian influenced music, LIVING IN PARADISE. Jesse then released the elegant acoustic, SONGS FOR CHRISTMAS, in which he revisits the Christmas carols of his childhood...... Jesses musical accomplishments are many, including performing with Led Zeppelin, The Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin in 1969; touring with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in the summer of 1974; closing the NO NUKES movie in 1980; and closing the International Peace Awards in 2004. The song GET TOGETHER was heard on the FORREST GUMP soundtrack bought by 13 million people in 1994, and DARKNESS DARKNESS, written by Jesse, was the theme song for the James Cameron movie GHOSTS OF THE ABYSS in 2003. A cover of the song by Robert Plant won the Grammy for Best Rock Vocal in 2003...... Throughout his many years of recording and touring, Jesse has also taken the time to dedicate his life to giving back to the world. He has performed on behalf of organizations ranging from the Dream Foundation to the Kona Pacific Waldorf School (in which Jesse and his wife helped to build, and where they both teach music). Always holding environmentalism as a must," from the time of The Youngbloods to his current endeavors as a performer and teacher, Jesse has even used solar-powered energy for his concerts! He and his wife also grow organic Kona coffee on their farm in Hawaii. In 2005, Artemis Records released THE VERY BEST OF JESSE COLIN YOUNG, 34 songs covering 40-years of singing and songwriting. Young quit performing music in 2012 when he was diagnosed with "chronic Lyme disease". He was inspired to start performing again in 2016, after being impressed by the musicians at his son's graduation recital at the Berklee College of Music, and asked his son to put together a band of his classmates to perform at Young's performance at SXSW. After touring for a year, Young recorded a new solo record with the band, "Dreamers", released in February 2019. More information at www.jessecolinyoung.com Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.