Vinyl Vault: Jesse Colin Young, “Song For Juli”

This week’s Vinyl Vault, fundraiser edition, will feature a 1973 album from Jesse Colin Young (1941 - 2025) entitled "Song For Juli.” Usually lumped into the singer-songwriter or Americana categories, Young reached far beyond those genres and drew heavily on blues, Cajun, zydeco, and jazz in recording this album.

Young first came to prominence as lead singer in the Youngbloods. That band had a couple of hits, including “Get Together” and “Darkness, Darkness,” which are still covered by various musicians to this day.

For “Song For Juli,” Young collected a number of jazz musicians, including saxophonist Mel Martin, who played and wrote the horn arrangements for the six-piece horn section that appeared on many of the tracks. Also appearing on the album was jazz trumpeter Tom Harrell.

Young said he drew inspiration from and was influenced by bluesmen like Mississippi John Hurt, Lightnin’ Hopkins and T-Bone Walker. In fact, “Song For Juli” includes a horn-driven version of Walker’s “T-Bone Shuffle.” The longest track on the album is “Ridgetop,” a song about his home in Inverness, California, just north of San Francisco and near Point Reyes National Seashore. He lived there from 1971 until the house burned down in a wildfire in October 1995.

Join host Geoff Anderson for the next Vinyl Vault, this Tuesday, April 28, at 8:30 p.m. on KUVO JAZZ.