Adrienne Young

For a young female songwriter, treading the folk-bluegrass line can be tricky. Tip too far toward the sensitive folkie side and you might get tossed altogether into the “women’s music” ghetto. But sing or play with too much of a twang and you can be relegated to the stodgy “pickin’” circuit, where politics lean to the right and men wear mustaches. Young gracefully navigates this dodgy terrain with music that takes cues from American tradition but doesn’t seem stuck in the past. She’s a country girl at heart, which shows in abundant agricultural metaphors (Plow to the End of the Row was her first album), her liner-note dedications to 4-H’ers and organic farmers, and album art that’s full of ornate vintage prints and folksy-philosophical musings. But she’s well versed in the world beyond the back fence, deftly touching on current events and big questions in her astute lyrics. It doesn’t hurt that her Little Sadie sidekicks are first-rate pickers who seem spiritually connected to their flaxen-haired leader. This is hand-sown, pesticide-free music in a megafarm world. 416 Cedar Ave S., Minneapolis; 612-338-2674; www.thecedar.org