Buoyed by the positive reaction he received opening
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's summer 1974 stadium tour,
Jesse Colin Young cut another album of attractive, frequently country-tinged music with his usual backup band, in which keyboardist
Scott Lawrence and reed player
Jim Rothermel had become near collaborators.
Young repeated "Josiane" and "Sugar Babe" from his
Youngbloods days and took on such unlikely subjects as the plight of Native Americans ("Before You Came"), while his romantic life seemed to be suffering ("Again") and he felt the need to answer his critics ("Slick City"). But his pleasure in playing music remained contagious, especially on the title track, and his fans responded, making
Songbird his highest-charting album ever. [Originally released in February 1975 as Warner Bros. 2845,
Songbird was reissued in 1994 as Ridgetop Music 1030.]