Carol Young

Carol Young is an Australian musician, and a founding member of the American bluegrass band The Greencards.

Biography

Early life

Young is originally from Coffs Harbour, New South Wales. Prior to the founding of The Greencards, Young won the Australian Independent Country Artist of the Year award in 2000, and had recorded two No. 1 Australian-charted country music singles. Young was previously nominated as "Best Female Vocalist" by the Country Music Association of Australia, and won the Australian independent country artist of the year award in 2000 due in part to her No. 1 singles "True Blue Fool" and "Part of the Past".

The Greencards Before the band formed, Kym Warner and Young both knew each other, and according to Warner had been drawn to bluegrass and American roots music through an appreciation of George Jones and Merle Haggard. Warner and Young toured together in Kasey Chambers's band. After meeting, Warner and Young made the decision to emigrate to America, to pursue musical careers there. Later, Young and Warner were living together in Sydney, and trying to find work in the moribund Australian bluegrass scene. After leaving Australia, they spent time in West Texas before relocating to Austin. Warner was producing an album for the recording artist Bill Atkins, and found they needed a fiddle player, which led to the recruitment of McLoughlin. Initially, they got to know one another through their mutual love of Monty Python, Benny Hill, and Fawlty Towers. They eventually began to perform shows locally in Austin to finance the recording of what would become their debut album, 2003's Movin' On.

Their first performance together as a band was at the Austin Irish pub, Mother Egan's. Given a noon to 3:00 pm time slot, they surprisingly began to fill the pub with patrons week after week, with fans there calling them the "Bluegrass Bunch". Several months later, The Greencards began performing an additional three to five times per week in Austin, in addition to their Mother Egan's Sunday show. Warner credited the frantic pace of their performance schedule during their Austin formation for their cohesion as a group and for driving them to create more new original music.