After spending a number of years on the road as a backup singer for her then-husband
Neil Young,
Pegi Young began recording her own material in the early 2000s. She began writing songs in high school, but found little time to pursue a solo career in the wake of caring for her son, Ben (who was born with cerebral palsy), touring with her husband, and co-founding the Bridge School. She recorded her meditative, Americana-tinged self-titled debut in 2006; it featured numerous cameos, including appearances by
the Jordanaires, former members of
Crazy Horse, and her husband. The album was released on Warner Bros. the following year. Her follow-up album,
Foul Deeds, was released on Vapor Records in 2010.
Young wrote or co-wrote three of the album's nine songs; the rest are covers by likely and unlikely sources including
Lucinda Williams ("Side of the Road") and
Devendra Banhart ("Body Breaks"). In 2014,
Young and her band -- now called
the Survivors and featuring bandleader
Spooner Oldham -- issued their third offering, Lonely in a Crowded Room, produced by
Niko Bolas and released by
New West. That same year, she and longtime husband
Neil Young divorced, a subject she confronted very directly three years later on her cathartic 2017 LP, Raw.
Pegi Young died on January 1, 2019 after a bout with cancer. ~ Thom Jurek