biography
An air of high expectation and inevitability has always surrounded Chris Young. Anyone who heard him sing, and anyone who experienced his poised and engaging stage show, inevitably decreed that this tall fellow with the friendly smile had what it takes. When they found out he also wrote the best of his songs, people would just smile, shake their heads and say, "That boy is going to be a star."
Indeed, Young lives up to everyone's predictions with his self-titled debut on RCA Records. Working with Kenny Chesney producer Buddy Cannon, Young has created a potent debut that puts an up-to-date, contemporary edge on traditional country music.
"For as long as I can remember, I told everyone I would be a country singer," says Young with the straightforward, aw-shucks attitude that has already won him a nation of fans. "I've always been sure that this was what I was going to do. I didn't know if I'd be successful, but I knew I would be singing, even if it meant doing it on the street with a cup in front of me. I love it that much."
Like his heroes Keith Whitley and Randy Travis, the 21-year-old seems to own an old soul and a lived-in voice custom-designed to sing country music. Like those idols, he ushers country's classic sound into the modern era, energizing the genre's core themes and values by making them as current as tomorrow's news.
"I don't worry about labels," he says. "I know that whenever I sing the music I love, I see people my age, and people of all ages, really responding to it. I know they hear the same things I hear in the music. It's about life-all the joy and all the heartbreak of living, right there in three minutes and 22 seconds."
As it turns out, that's the length of Young's first single, "Drinkin' Me Lonely," the self-written song that's already made a star of the hometown boy from Murfreesboro, Tenn. He'd already been labeled as the frontrunner among finalists of the 2006 version of the television talent series Nashville Star, when, on a show dedicated to contestants performing their own original songs, Young floored the crowd with this restrained, emotion-rich slice of classic country craftsmanship. They could've given him the crown that night.
"I've always believed in that song," he says of the highly anticipated single, which he wrote with Larry Wayne Clark. "But I've had so many people e-mail me and tell me they love that song, and I've had the same reaction when going around meeting radio people. There's a theory in Nashville that you don't start your career with a ballad, so maybe it goes against the grain. But I feel real confident about it because it's already opened doors for me."
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