“It’s been a bumpy road,” Young said, “but this has been in the making for the last two years.”The road to Nashville is not the first time this native Texan has set foot in the Volunteer state, but for the music he longed to set free and record took a long and winding route to reach this point in his journey.Young grew up in Corsicana and Eureka, and began playing around with the guitar at the age of two.When he was a little older he ran across an old victrola that had a few 78-rpm records featuring Lefty Frizzell, Earnest Tubb, and Hank Williams. He fell in love with the Frizzell tune “Always Late” and that was the turning point towards his lifelong music career.Later on, David became a big fan of Merle Haggard, in which most the songs he sings, show the influence the country singer has on Young.

It’s hard to tell the voices of the two apart on Young’s album.“Everybody has the blues,” said Young, “ups and downs, but them songs would always fill the hole inside my heart … when you got the blues, you got the blues.”Young’s family was always musically inclined, and often they would play together just for fun.

His love for playing the guitar and the older country tunes was influenced by one of his uncles who played a variety of stringed musical instruments.As he grew older his talent for playing in front of the crowd grew even more, and in the early 1980s, he and his first wife hit the road for Nashville, TN.Young was in the studio recording tracks and playing in local honky tonks when he could so he and his wife could live on, but after a few years he started getting homesick and returned home to his roots.

He took on odd jobs here and there, but the music still burned inside of him.Years after his first attempt at stardom in the country music business he was given another chance.“This is one job (music) I’ve stuck with all of my life,” Young said. “Sometimes it gets old, but if it hadn’t been for going to Nashville I might have laid it down … I might not have tried as hard.”Young said this might be his last go round, but hopes it’s the opening to a new door.Years of heartache and pain, good times and bad, the words of his sometimes troubled and restless past had been laying in wait for the opportunity to be immortalized through the lyrics of the music playing in his head.One of the songs on his new CD titled, A Country Called America, features the song “Livin’ On The Edge” about a man working hard to provide for his family and eventually being laid off from his job and falling on hard times.Something Young has experienced from his past, and can relate to folks who’ve been through the same trials and tribulations.

“No Place I’d Rather Be Tonight” will make you get the urge to put on your boots and head to your favorite saloon and two-step across the dance floor!“A Country Called America,” written by Gus A. Steele, and performed by Young, pays tribute to the great country we live in, and borders on the patriotic side.His CD can be ordered by calling (903)-874-5959, between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. weekdays, or purchased here at the Navarro County Times, and available soon at Black Jack McCanless Steakhouse and Saloon.

“I’m ready to move on to the next level,” said Young, at the end of the interview. “This is all I’ve got left … I’ve got a large family, and lots of friends, and a lot of people has told me verbally that “you’ve been at this so long, but you haven’t quit,” and I would say, “that’s because I wanted to show people that you can write your life story in a song, and you can share it with others.’”Young said if it hadn’t been for Steele he might have been just another guitar picker playing one-night stands.

“These songs were written to share with others like me,” he said.

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