Veteran singer/songwriter Jesse Colin Young, best known as the frontman of the folk-rock group The Youngbloods, will take part in a special multimedia event on Thursday, October 12, at Haight Street Art Center in San Francisco.
Jesse Colin Young: An Intimate Evening of Songs, Stories, and Cinema will feature an acoustic performance, an interview conducted by famed Rolling Stone journalist and author Ben Fong-Torres, and a screening of the previously unreleased Young documentary High on a Ridgetop, which was filmed in the early 1970s in the Bay Area.
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High on a Ridgetop was filmed by award-cinematographer Hiro Narita, and captures Young’s passion for his music and dedication to his family and community.
Tickets for the event can be purchased at GiveButter.com, and proceeds raised by ticket sales will benefit Haight Street Art Center’s efforts to support education and community building.
The event is being held in conjunction with the recently released remastered digital reissue of Young’s 1973 solo album Song for Juli in celebration of the record’s 50th anniversary. Song for Juli, which was Young’s fourth solo effort and the second he released following the breakup of The Youngbloods, peaked at No. 57 on the Billboard 200, and featured the single “Morning Sun.”
A similar event, dubbed Reel To Reel: Jesse Colin Young, also featuring a performance, an interview and a screening of High on a Ridgetop, will be held on Wednesday, October 18, at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. Tickets for the event can be purchased at Universe.com.
In addition, Young will be playing a show on Friday, October 13, at Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, California. The concert will raise money for the California Film Institute.
Young most recent album, Highway Troubadour, was released in 2020. It’s an 11-track collection featuring new solo acoustic versions of songs from throughout Young’s 50-year-plus career, including renditions of the Youngbloods tunes “Darkness, Darkness” and “Sugar Babe,” and “Cast a Stone” from his 2019 studio album, Dreamers.
More recently, Young released a cover of the 1970 Cat Stevens gem “Trouble” in 2021 that featured guest vocals by Young’s daughter Jazzie.
Young undoubtedly is best known for The Youngbloods’ hit version of the Chester Powers-penned peace anthem “Get Together,” which peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1969.