Long Time Rider

Steve Young (born July 12, 1942) is an American country music singer, songwriter and guitarist, best known for his song "Seven Bridges Road" (on Rock Salt & Nails & Seven Bridges Road). He is a pioneer of the Country Rock, Americana, and alternative country sounds, and also a vital force behind the 'outlaw movement' that gave support to the careers of Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams, Jr. and more. Steve was also featured in the 1975 Outlaw Country documentary "Heartworn Highways".

Born in Georgia, he grew up in Alabama, Georgia and Texas, moving from place to place as his family searched for work. By the time he had completed high school, Young was playing and writing songs that incorporated influences of folk, blues, country and gospel that he absorbed while travelling throughout the South.

Steve Young wrote (and continues to write) many songs, including outlaw classics such as "Lonesome, On'ry and Mean". Waylon Jennings recorded an entire album of his songs to help start the outlaw school of music.

His best-known composition is "Seven Bridges Road", which became a major hit for The Eagles when they included a cover of it on their live album in 1980.

Young's son, Jubal Lee Young, is following in his father's footsteps and is an accomplished singer/songwriter in his own right.

Album Review


Along with Look Homeward Angel, Long Time Rider is Steve Young's most obscure and difficult-to-come-by recording. It is also one of the most lyrically adventurous, intimate, and musically minimal and moving albums he's ever committed to tape. Issued in 1990, this is a eight-cut, 45-minute album that deals with acceptance, willingness, and determination to forgive others and yourself, and ultimately to find compassion. While this may seem unlikely territory for one of American music's true outlaws, it is at least as "real" as the inner landscape of the man who wrote "Lonesome, On'ry and Mean" decades ago. A new age cowboy Young is not. "Behold the Stars" is a gorgeous acoustic guitar ballad that looks deeply into eternity as an expression of the moment: "Behold the stars/See how they haunt/The dreams we have behind these bars...." And then there's the devastatingly beautiful "War of Ancient Days," where the song's protagonist goes back to his former wife and adversary and commits to throwing down his sword: "I didn't come here to see who gets the best deal/You can have the stuff I will survive/But I came here to wage war on the poverty/That I see in our eyes/And I'm here to pay the tallest price/For now I'm willing to change my ways/And I'm here to lay the wreath of peace at your feet/And end this war of ancient days." "Have a Laugh" and "My Love" were later recut for the album Switchblades of Love, and these versions are significantly different. Virtually every cut here is an exhortation to inferiority, self-examination, letting go, and expressing the release of that baggage as a real life, hard-won kindness. "Only You" is a song Bruce Springsteen wishes he could have written. It has a loping rock & roll melody directness and an arrangement that makes Young's words come off as love for another accepted as a truth reborn everyday. The album ends with the title track, a blues disguised as a gospel song. Young offers recounts of his alcoholism, his surrender, and his new beginning full of weariness and gratitude. He expresses his willingness to sing for the others who "can't get no lower and they can't get no higher," and a vow to be a "Long Time Rider" if that is what his heart in response to the universe so requests. There are too few recordings that get to this depth, with this kind of attention to detail and honesty. It's simply a masterpiece of ravage and rebirth. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide

Steve Young - Long Time Rider (1990)
Behold Of The Stars
War Of Ancient Days
Have A Laugh
My Love
The Whole World
Cover Us
Only You
Long Time Rider
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