Steve Young Rock Salt Nails

Deep in the distance, the forests of Yellowstone endured wildfire smoke diluting the Big Sky with a gentle, silver matte. Steve Young stood beside the looptop wire fence which corralled our makeshift studio. His mannerisms seemed to breathe the landscape as he subbed sneakers for a pair of black leather boots purchased earlier in the day. Accompanied here by his son singer, songwriter in his own right Jubal Lee Young, the two carve a routine from their lifelong body of work overlooking Livingston, Montana at the head of picturesque, Paradise Valley. Young was born in Georgia and migrated throughout childhood between Alabama, Georgia and Texas as his family looked for work. By the time he had completed high school in Beaumont, Texas, he was playing guitar and writing songs which incorporated influences of folk, country, gospel, and blues musicians and people like Hank Williams, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and others. Once as a teenager he was blown away by seeing Carlos Montoya, a Flamenco Gu