All in the Packaging
Unexpected Grammy nomination for Adrienne Young heralds a promising year for the local singer
by Michael McCall
Most artists want the artwork on their CDs to represent the musical contents, but Adrienne Young is obsessive about it. As a singer and banjo player with a contemporary slant on old-time string-band music, Young envisioned a cover for her debut album, Plow to the End of the Row, that resembled the graphic content of The Old Farmer’s Almanac and the Foxfire series of journals and books.
The elaborate CD cover, which included a package of seeds in every sleeve, drew enough notice to pull off a near-impossible feat, earning Young, who is still an emerging artist, a Grammy nomination for best packaging. “It’s unbelievable,” she says. “I first heard it and thought it was a rumor that probably wasn’t true.”
Young and her CD’s designer, Jami Anderson, join Jim McNally of Curb Records and the Fisk Jubilee Singers (for the In Bright Mansions CD) as the two sets of Nashville collaborators who have albums nominated in the Best Recording Package category. Other nominees include folksinger Ani DiFranco, the dreamy Icelandic band Sigur Rós and Chicago roots-rockers the Cathy Richardson Band.
What makes Young’s nomination extraordinary is that Plow to the End of the Row hasn’t had its official national release yet. Young had begun selling it through her own AddieBelle Music company at her shows, at local record stores and on indie Web stores like CD Baby, CDStreet and Miles of Music while finalizing career plans.
Since the nomination, she’s signed with new management and a national booking agency. She’s solidified her acoustic band, Little Sadie, and they’ve re-recorded several songs and reconfigured Plow to the End of the Row, dropping some titles and adding others. She’s also close to signing a national distribution agreement.
The cover concept for Plow to the End of the Row came from an old Victorian songbook. The CD itself shows a diagram for constructing a banjo that’s derived from a Foxfire article. Another page displays an astrological planting guide inspired by The Old Farmer’s Almanac. The song titles and lyrics are printed on parchment paper inserted into a gatefold, along with the package of seeds. Young modeled her liner notes after the folksy essays in the Foxfire series.
“I believe in the ancient arts and in time-honored crafts,” she says. “People who’ve lived on the land and by the land have always followed these systems. I’ve developed a great interest and belief in those systems, and I think our music and everything we’re involved in extends from those beliefs.”
