Always Do Something Useful

Young is also a businesswoman. She’s the president and owner of her own record label, Addie Belle Music, home to both The Art of Virtue, which was released in June, and her first album, Plow to the End of the Row, out in 2003. Plow garnered critical claim and attention from the likes of NPR for Young’s expressive singing and mix of neo-traditional bluegrass and pop sensibilities. The album was also nominated for a Best Record Packaging Grammy; it’s antique design included a packet of wildflowers. Young has also put a lot of effort into the packaging of Virtue, which includes a booklet containing Franklin’s “Thirteen Virtues,” a link to a free song download and detailed liner notes.

The attention surrounding Plow’s success landed Young a booking agency deal and a five-album distribution deal with Ryko. Growing up in Clearwater, Fla., Young says she wanted to be a songwriter—a great songwriter—since she was a little girl. She came to Nashville in 1997 to attend Belmont University and realize her songwriting career.

On The Art of Virtue, Young collaborated with Will Kimbrough, who also produced Plow and co-wrote that record’s hit song, “Home Remedy.” “You write with great people and things just take off,” Young says of the collaboration. Young and Kimbrough wrote the song, “Jump the Broom,” about a girl and boy who, like African-American slaves before emancipation, could not legally wed in a church, so they participated in a jumping of the broom wedding ceremony—literally jumping over a broom as a symbol of getting married.

“When you know you’re not the source [of a song] it just takes on its own life,” Young says. “It just comes through you. I can’t really tell you how it happens because I’m always wondering that myself.”

Be Humble in Love

But for Young there is still more to a good life than a sense of community, great music and a successful business. There’s love. “I am in love,” Young says. “I have an amazing man in my life.” Young has been dating Thomas Henry Beals, a Virginia farmer and music promoter, for the past six months. “He’s very compatible with me. He cares about the same things. He’s a very old soul.”

Young also approaches her relationship with a Franklin-esque philosophy: it’s the best opportunity for self-improvement as long as the improvement is a pure and genuine effort to better yourself and not dictated by a co-dependent need to be with someone.

“I think relationships do [promote self-improvement] because if you want to be in one you have to be willing to sacrifice and to change,” Young says. “I’m so aware of the fact that the journey of life is about self-improvement. It’s really about being here to become a better person. And every day you hopefully have learned more about yourself and made adjustments and worked harder.”

Ben Franklin would be proud.