Jubal Lee Young – Squirrels

Jubal Lee Young has a poise that comes from standing within the eye of a hurricane; he is unruffleable and just fine setting ideas aside to sit awhile and marinate until the time is right. His patient knack for widescreen vision was initially formed through moving about over the years - he was born in San Francisco then moved to Leiper’s Fork, Tennessee, with a stretch in the old suburbs of Nashville before settling in Oklahoma and then resettling back in Nashville. Along the way Jubal witnessed and formed clear observations of the absurdities of the mainstream hijinks of the music business, realizations that led him to a level of comfort with the more rustic folk niches in the South and sedimented the inner grounding to walk his own authentic musical path as it fueled his songwriting.

Jubal’s father, Steve Young, supported the flourishing of the entire genre of outlaw country music, authoring the Eagles’ ubiquitous “Seven Bridges Road,” and Waylon Jennings’ trademark hit “Lonesome, On’ry & Mean.” Meanwhile Jubal’s mother, Terrye Newkirk, penned “My Oklahoma” and “Come Home, Daddy,” as she raised Jubal with a hearty record collection of quality music always in rotation.

In his new album Squirrels, Jubal shares songs whose times have come, as he has collected an abundance of his own outlaw observations about life, with stories from back before he became sober, reminiscences about mainstreamia, family, heirlooms, distracted thoughts and life advice all blossoming into infectious, memorable songs. He taps into the old-timey richness of Texas style country folk and whirling gritty backwoods music to bring these observations to life. Drawing together an amalgam of quality rustic styles, Jubal Lee crafts his own honest front porch folk songs, honest and free of trickery for his most authentically personal album to date.

The title track “Squirrels” sets the tone with knee-slapping merriment up front and honesty supporting underneath, as it shares glimpses of standing within the center as life’s winds swirl giddily all around. There are squirrels running through the rafters, scattered thoughts and trolls “breaking his concentration.” “Lost In Hollywood” is a tale of being out on the road, only it’s out drunk all night in Los Angeles and barely making it to the airport on time. “Don’t Be A Dickhead” tells it like it is, with beautiful layered instruments and a cheerful, fresh spin on advice from the bible.

Squirrels was produced by Markus Stadler at Bumpin’ Heads Studio in Nashville and mastered by Alex McCullough at True East Mastering, and includes Jubal Lee Young on vocals, guitar, and harmonica; Markus Stadler (Michael Martin Murphey) on banjo, dobro, mandolin, bouzouki, baritone guitar, guitar, and vocals; fiddle virtuoso Christian Sedelmeyer (Jerry Douglas, Kacey Musgraves); Charlie Pate (Lee Ann Womack) on bass and Jeff Taylor (Vince Gill) on accordion.

Squirrels is a companion album to 2024’s Wild Birds Warble; except while Wild Birds was largely covers, Squirrels is all originals, rendering Squirrels Jubal’s personal coup de grace. Jubal says: “Making Squirrels reminded me a bit of witnessing my father, Steve Young, making Switchblades of Love. He was just about my age now, at the time. And I think he must have felt similarly about that album, as a collection, as I do about Squirrels. This is the work of a man who knows who he is and, maybe more importantly, who he is not.”

As his foundation, Jubal has six impeccable albums already filed in the musical canon — Not Another Beautiful Day (2006), his self-titled sophomore album (2007), Last Free Place in America (2009), Take It Home (2011), On a Dark Highway (2014), Wild Birds Warble (2024), and now his stellar new release Squirrels, is ready to take its rightful place at the head of the table.

With his new album, Jubal proves he can succeed, especially on his own terms. “I’m happy to stick with the outsiders,” he insists. “And I’ll still get it done.”

“Squirrels is an album only an older me could make. I feel like it has an eternal hope that can only come from someone who is either an innocent, or who has walked through hell many times. I also finally lived long enough to make whatever passes for collected wisdom within me to sometimes start coming out sounding a little ‘folksy’.

“When I look at situations in life, it fills me with less dread than it used to. And that isn’t because they aren’t scary or troubling at times, it’s because you become a veteran of life as you go through it. You’ve seen all of this before, more or less. The emotional peaks and valleys level out into gently rolling plains, as you age. At least, I think they’re supposed to. You know that when the time comes to do what needs to be done, you just will, because you have done so, many times. The songs on this album represent that space well, even if sometimes the answer is simply reacting with incredulous humor.

“My story is not a fairy tale, it’s a story about persistence. It’s about figuring out who you are, and accepting who you are not. And then being rigorously honest about that. Squirrels is an album that finds me very much where I am now.”

“Jubal goes out on the edge and doesn't just survive, he triumphs,” the late David Olney noted. “There is an acceptance of ‘The Great What Is,’ an unflinching attitude that blossoms into a flat-out joy in being alive.”

“God knows it has taken Jubal Lee Young a long enough time to find his roots, but find them he did,” Frank Gutch, Jr. stated in No Depression. “His dad, Steve Young, left them. Jubal is doing just fine…You can hear the ghost of Waylon and Steve at every turn.”