Reggie Young/WCS

 

Reggie Young

(1936-2019)

It is one of life’s great blessings to have known, albeit briefly, the wonderful person Reggie Young. You can read about his accomplishments – they were many and significant, particularly to those he helped become stars and chart-toppers – wherever you get your music news. What stood out to me is how humble, considerate and thoughtful he was in person. At a small CD release party for his first CD under his own name, Forever Young, in his home town of Leipers Fork, TN, many of his longtime cohorts and friends paid tribute to a person they respected not just for his unusual musical abilities, but also for the friend they had come to know well and love.

Reggie will be missed by many as one who lived his life as it should be lived, without ego and bluster, with a focused commitment to the musical task at hand and also to respecting and helping those he came to know.

Our condolences go out to Reggie’s family. His warmth and spirit continue to guide us.

Neal Weiss, president

Whaling City Sound

left to right: Tom Evered, Neal Weiss, Jenny Young, Reggie Young
photo credit Ginny Shea, July 18, 2016, Nashville 
Sad to report the passing of legendary session guitarist and Whaling City artist Reggie Young. He was one of the most recorded guitarists in the sixties, seventies and eighties playing on numerous legendary hits by Elvis Presley, Dusty Springfield and more.

Young was a member of the country supergroup The Highwaymen w/ Kris Kristofferson, WillieNelson, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings. He was also a founding member of the Bill Black Combo. In 1964, The Beatles requested the Combo open for them during their first U.S. tour and invited the group over to England for another month-long tour.

“The story of Reggie Young’s career is, in many ways, a miniature version of the story of Southern soul music.” – AllMusic

A compilation of his famous recordings “Session Guitar Star” is due out next week on Ace Records.

Reggie Young “Session Guitar Star” Ace CDHD1537 will be available in the UK and via importers here on January 25, 2019. Last year the UK based reissue label Ace released a 22 track collection of his finest session work here on Amazon.

He is the guitarist on Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds” and “In the Ghetto,” Dusty Springfield’s “Son of a Preacher Man,” Willie Nelson’s “Always On My Mind,” Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” and Dobie Gray’s “Drift Away,” among so many other legendary songs. His name is Reggie Young.

Reggie is now featured on a brand new album by an artist making his debut as a bandleader. That artist is—wait for it—Reggie Young! At 79, after six decades of stellar appearances, backing megastars and superstars alike, and receiving accolades from names like Clapton and George Harrison, Reggie is at last responsible for an album of his own material, the aptly titled Forever Young. 

Recorded primarily at La La Land Studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Forever Young features seven instrumental tracks written and produced by Young. They showcase his unique and supremely soulful six-string sound. Not only that, the rest of the performers on the recording include mainstays of the Memphis, Nashville and Muscle Shoals eras of the ’60s and ’70s. Forever Young is excellent news for fans of tasty southern-style country-soul, and good news for Young, who finally gets to emerge from the shadows cast by some of the greatest performers in rock music history to stand on his own, at long last, in the spotlight.

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