Despite descending from the acclaimed blues performer Howlin' Wolf, Zora Young spent her formative years performing gospel rather than blues material. The Mississippi native left her home state at age seven upon her family's relocation to Chicago, where she joined the choir at Greater Harvest Baptist Church and kept singing in that style. Only afterward did she move into R&B, maturing into a commanding blues singer who had already accumulated three decades of professional experience. Her stage partners have ranged across Junior Wells, Jimmy Dawkins, Bobby Rush, Buddy Guy, Professor Eddie Lusk, Albert King, and B.B. King, while her recording sessions have featured Willie Dixon, Sunnyland Slim, Mississippi Heat, Paul deLay, and Maurice John Vaughn among numerous others.
Young's solo output has appeared on the Deluge, Black Lightning, and Delmark imprints. She has also sung on both theatrical stages and television broadcasts, completing more than thirty European tours and serving as a featured artist on three separate occasions at the Chicago Blues Festival. Additional appearances have taken her throughout North America and onto stages in Italy, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, France, Switzerland, Greece, Austria, Tai Pei, and Turkey. Her discography includes the 1991 Deluge Records album Travelin' Light plus two Delmark Records titles, Learned My Lesson in 2000 and Tore Up from the Floor Up in 2005.
