Hello Walls: The Best of Faron Young

Faron Young

Shreveport, LA native Faron Young first gained attention via the popular Louisiana Hayride radio program in the early 1950s. After working with fellow honky tonk artist Webb Pierce, he began recording on his own in 1951, and joined the Grand Ole Opry two years later. After a stint in the army, he came back to Nashville and began scoring hit after country hit. Young was always able to move easily between hardcore honky tonk ("Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young") and more pop-oriented crossover ballads ("Sweet Dreams"). Young continued to be a hit-making artist into the 1970s, but by the '80s his alcoholism and increasingly erratic behavior got him into more and more trouble, and in 1996, depressed and in ill health, he shot himself, ending a long, impressive career.