Jesse Colin Young

Jesse Colin Young (1941- ) is an American singer/songwriter best known as a founding member of pop/rock band The Youngbloods.

Born and raised in Queens, Young was accepted to the prestigious Phillips Academy at age 15 and kicked out shortly after. Dejected, Young sought a living as a blues-folk singer in Greenwich Village. By the early 60s, he’d become an accomplished folk musician with two solo albums under his belt.

Then, one day, he met bluegrass musician Jerry Corbitt. After some time, Corbitt & Young began to play clubs as a duo under the name “The Youngbloods”. The rest was history.

Young stayed with The Youngbloods until their breakup in 1971, resuming his solo career shortly after. His first post-Youngbloods album, Together, made it onto the Billboard Top 200. The next one, Song for Juli, stayed there for a year. Young became the most successful ex-Youngblood by a long shot, enjoying mild success on the charts & radio with everything he released well into the ‘70s.

In 1979, he played a No Nukes benefit at the Battery Park Landfill, which was recorded for the concert film of the same name. He toured extensively through the 80s, including a short period where he played with the (partially) reunited Youngbloods.

In 1993, he founded his own record label (Ridgetop Music), run out of his home in the mountains of Inverness, California. Unfortunately, in 1995, an improperly extinguished campfire started a 12,000 acre forest fire which claimed Young’s home and everything in it. He picked up what little he had and moved to the Big Island of Hawai'i, where he remains to this day.

Young still records and releases music on his website, where he also sells coffee harvested from a farm he maintains on his property.