Resident sings in Grammy-winning choir, produces own album

Courtesy photo

Summerlin resident Jay Young released his album “One More Stone” in 2007.

By Jenny Davis

Friday, Oct. 10, 2008 | midnight

When Summerlin-area resident Jay Young was a young boy singing at family reunions and in church, he never dreamed he'd grow up to be part of a Grammy Award-winning gospel choir and self-produce an album.

Young, 42, raised as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in a small farming town in central Utah, developed an early love for music.

His mother would gather her children around the piano where they would sing popular songs of the 1940s and 50s, and family reunions always included aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents singing together. Every Sunday he sang hymns in church.

When he was 19, he served a mission for the LDS church in a place that opened his eyes to a new type of worship music: Georgia. He fell in love with gospel music, and that eventually led to the release of his 2007 album, "One More Stone." About 1,500 albums have been distributed.

"When I was serving as a missionary in the small towns of southern Georgia, I'd walk into a church to hear the music I heard coming out, and I felt the way they expressed their love for the Savior," Young said. "I was moved by the music. It was different from what I was used to, but it struck a note with me."

Young's album, which is for sale online and at Christian bookstores, is getting airplay on radio stations in Washington and Idaho. Young wrote and composed the title track, and he arranged other songs on the album.

Paul Gentle, gospel music programmer for 88.1 KCEP-FM — a non-commercial station owned and operated by the Economic Opportunity Board of Clark County — said Young's music is in the station's rotation and is gaining popularity.

After his mission in the mid-1980s, Young returned to Utah where he finished his schooling, attended law school and met his wife, who plays piano.

"I knew that I can't read music and I don't play any instruments, so I knew that if I was going to be performing, I needed someone to accompany me," said Young, a partner with Marquis and Aurbach Law Firm.

Young moved to Las Vegas in 1994 with his family and started practicing law. And although he is a lawyer, it's not who he is, he said. "It's what I do during the day," he said. "It's not how I define myself."

Although Young sang at different church services, his goal to make a gospel music album didn't develop until 2005, when he joined renowned singer Gladys Knight's gospel choir Saints Unified Voices.

Young, a featured soloist, was part of the Las Vegas-based ensemble that won the 2005 Grammy Award for Best Gospel Choir Or Chorus Album and went on to record a Christmas album with the group later that year.

He then started working on his album as a gift for his family and friends.

He had hoped to release his album in fall 2006, but suffered a setback when he was diagnosed with skin cancer. Now cancer-free, Young finally released the album in fall 2007.

"It really was a fulfillment of a life-long ambition," he said. "It felt wonderful to complete it. I'm pleased with the response I've gotten so far, and I'm happy it's being carried in bookstores throughout the United States, parts of Canada and England."