I suppose that most people who have heard a Steve Young song got there because of the Eagles. Back in the early days when they fancied themselves a country-rock band, that outfit cut his magnificent "Seven Bridges Road." I stumbled into Young's music, though, on his 1969 A&M album Rock Salt & Nails, which I purchased on impulse because it looked intriguing and because I recognized the title tune, written by Bruce "Utah" Phillips and recorded by Flatt & Scruggs.

In later years I became mildly acquainted on a personal level with Phillips, who was a first-rate songwriter in his own right, but I never met Young (1942-2016), though we had friends in common. Phillips and Young were moved into creative expression by American folk-music styles and themes. My first exposure to "Bridges" was on a Joan Baez recording. Yet Young pursued the bulk of his career out of Nashville, explaining in part why he is often described as a "country" singer. There is no doubt that country was an influence, but his writing transcended the limitations of that genre -- the usual relational celebrations and laments generally did not much hold Young's interest -- while it incorporated the story-telling traditions of early Southern ballads and, one might venture, Southern literary fiction.

Wild Birds Warble is a son's tribute to his father's genius. In point of fact, Jubal Lee Young's singing is so much like his father's that it's easy sometimes to forget that you're not listening to the latter. Not all the songs Jubal Lee covers are Steve Young creations, but every one of the 14 cuts here feels of a piece, from the oldtime Appalachian "East Virginia" to "Rock Salt" to relatively more recent compositions, here represented by selections from Richard Dobson, Mickey Newbury, David Olney and Warren Zevon. Since I don't have all, only most, of Steve Young's albums in my collection, I cannot declare with certainty these were his, not his son's, cover choices.

Nobody will ever vocalize Townes Van Zandt's "No Place to Fall" -- a relationship number, ironically -- better than the elder Young did, even as its shortcomings are Van Zandt's. It boasts one of TVZ's most memorable melodies, but occasional clunkiness suggests its composer might have reconsidered an occasional lyric. No song needs a shameless-hack line like -- a particularly cringe-inducing instance -- "we could help each other grow."

Hearing most of his classics ("Bridges," "Long Way to Hollywood" and "The White Trash Song," though not "Lonesome, On'ry and Mean" and "Montgomery in the Rain"), one is reminded just how staggeringly good Steve Young was. We also have occasion to reflect again how deep his connection to true roots music was. "Traveling Kind" emerges as a secular rewrite of the 19th-century hymn "Wayfaring Stranger," and "White Trash" owes at least a part of its spirit to "Little Maggie." One hears the bluegrass, Irish and even occasional r&b echoes, absorbed seamlessly into a stand-alone personal vision.

Thanks to Jubal Lee Young for bringing it out all back from silence, and for doing it with such love and art.