[Cover photo credit to Jubal Lee Young]
Jubal Lee Young is a singer/songwriter and guitarist who currently resides in Nashville, with ties to California and time spent in Oklahoma, too. His recently announced album, Squirrels, will be arriving on August 15th, 2025, building on several album releases, and following 2024’s covers album, Wild Birds Warble.
Jubal Lee’s father, Steve Young, supported Outlaw Country music, authoring The Eagles’ hit “Seven Bridges Road,” and Waylon Jennings’ “Lonesome, On’ry & Mean.” Meanwhile his mother, Terrye Newkirk, penned “My Oklahoma” and “Come Home, Daddy”. Raised surrounded by powerful musicians and songwriters, Jubal Lee has many reflections on music’s role in his life, past and present.
For his new album, Squirrels, Jubal has collected his own “Outlaw observations about life,” with stories “from back before he became sober,” as well as “reminiscences about mainstreamia, family, heirlooms, distracted thoughts and life advice.” Sonically, he taps into Texas style Country Folk and and the feeling of backwoods music.
We’re very pleased to premier the title track to his new album, “Squirrels” here on Wildfire Music + News here today, along with its video. It arrives widely this Friday, July 18th, 2025.
“Squirrels” feels like the flagship track of the album which sets out the idea of confessional directness that Young pursues throughout, backed up by the album and single art, making squirrels a central image for the collection. The energy behind the song, an energetic, warm, knowing vibe, makes it feels like a track to dance to, and certainly a great one to hear performed live. Add to that the approachable subject matter, to which a huge number of people will relate, and you have a very welcoming entry point to Young’s new album.
The central image that Young develops is of “squirrels in the rafters” as a comparison to one’s wandering, and even racing thoughts, suggesting an inability to pay attention for very long at a time. Lyrics tap directly into modern life, and amusingly build up all the possible deprivations that a lack of focused attention causes in life. While in some ways this could be a serious subject, expressing regret and frustration, Young makes sure that he handles it with humor and acceptance, and that’s a great gift for audiences who can absolutely relate to his experiences. It may help them be a little more tolerant with themselves in turn.
Little turns of phrase throughout the song reinforce the theme, and meanwhile, the music is given plenty of room to breathe and shine, suggesting instrumentally the reeling and scampering thoughts that Young often finds himself pursuing. Even those who usually feel that they can concentrate well have their own off days, so this is a song for everyone. You’d be hard-pressed to find a human who hadn’t experienced “squirrels” and few who wouldn’t express appreciation to Young for capturing human befuddlement with a smile.
The track’s accompanying video is a delightful take on silent film and very basic early film technology, capturing Jubal Lee Young as a vaudeville stage performer, and also showcasing his collaborating instrumentalists. Cutting between live play, footage of squirrels, cartoon gags, and Young’s consultation with a psychiatrist over his rambling mind (a psychiatrist who is also his enabling bandmate), the video leans heavy on the humor and the humanity behind the song. Though it’s very theatrical, the video is also somewhat understated in the sense that we still get the sense that Young is being a little apologetic about his “squirrels in the rafters”, a kind of gesture that audiences will find just as familiar from their own lives. When sheepishness gives way to acceptance, there’s new ground for humans to understand one another.
Jubal Lee Young shares about the track “Squirrels”:
I am of the opinion that I fell through the cracks in the wave of 70s and 80s ADHD diagnoses. Probably because I could be fairly calm on the outside, and I was intelligent and tested well. But I am pretty sure it, or something like it, absolutely exists in me. “Squirrels” is the anthem that some neurodivergent folks have sorely needed for years. I have simply captured the experience with some humor and flair. I’ve still never been diagnosed, and I don’t know. I have a quirky life where it works, whatever it is. Squirrel!
Squirrels was produced by Markus Stadler at Bumpin’ Heads Studio in Nashville and mastered by Alex McCullough at True East Mastering. It includes Jubal Lee Young on vocals, guitar, and harmonica, Markus Stadler (Michael Martin Murphey) on banjo, dobro, mandolin, bouzouki, baritone guitar, guitar, and vocals, Christian Sedelmeyer (Jerry Douglas, Kacey Musgraves) on fiddle, Charlie Pate (Lee Ann Womack) on bass, and Jeff Taylor (Vince Gill) on accordion.
The “Squirrels” video was directed by Jubal Lee Young, assistant directed by Sophie Young and Lucy Stubbs, and audio engineered by Truland Stadler. It was filmed on location in Nashville, Tennessee, and Goodlettsville, Tennessee, featuring a band of Jubal Lee Young on vocals and guitar, Markus Stadler on banjo/dobro, Ally White on mandolin, Christian Sedelmyer on fiddle, and Charlie Pate on bass.
Jubal Lee Young says about the upcoming album:
Making Squirrels reminded me a bit of witnessing my father, Steve Young, making Switchblades of Love. He was just about my age now, at the time. And I think he must have felt similarly about that album, as a collection, as I do about Squirrels. This is the work of a man who knows who he is and, maybe more importantly, who he is not.
Jubal Lee Young’s previous albums include debut Not Another Beautiful Day (2006), his self-titled sophomore album (2007), Last Free Place in America (2009), Take It Home (2011), On a Dark Highway (2014), and Wild Birds Warble (2024).
