James Young is a guitarist, songwriter and singer who is a founding member of Styx, a band whose musical and social impact Rolling Stone Magazine compared to Pearl Jam, which continues to earn gold albums and hit singles in the 90's. He came up through the Chicago public school system and first tasted success with the British Invasion-styled Catalinas. These winners of the "Talented Teens of America" battle-of-the-bands contest toured Europe in 1967. JY, soaking in the inspiration of Jimi Hendrix through records and live performances, formed his next band: Monterey Hand. The group grew in popularity while JY was attending the Illinois Institute of Technology. A college buddy, Dave Yoshinari, developed a unique distortion box (usually referred to as "the Yoshinerator") that helped to create JY's distinctive sound. Even though he earned his engineering degree, he knew that his career would be that of a guitarist.

Monterey Hand split up in the fall of '70 just and another local band, TW4, was looking for a new lead guitar player. TW4 was mainly a pop band with an accomplished singer in Dennis DeYoung and a solid rhythm section in the Panozzo twins, drummer John and bassist Chuck. They had seen JY in Monterey Hand and admired his playing. Dennis' pop vocal orientation originally was at odds with JY's progressive sence but eventually they understood each other's aesthetic. When JY joined, TW4 was transformed into Styx, a band that encompassed the values of progressive rock, intelligent lyrical songcraft and strong harmonic singing. In addition to hot guitar playing and songwriting, JY was ready to meet the new challenge of lead singing. "I'll credit Dennis for that. He really encouraged me to become a lead vocalist."

Styx, with JY and other guitarist John Curulewski, worked hard throughout the Midwest achieving their initial notoriety as a progressive guitar band. Their debut album was on RCA-distributed Wooden Nickel Records. Their top ten hit "lady" gave them national mainstream fame. A switch to A&M sustained and elevated their success to a level rarely achieved. Four triple-platium albums in a row and more than a dozen hit singles in three consecutive decades. "There's always been a tug-of-war in STYX. I was always the hard-edged faction which was much more dominant on the early records. Dennis' focus was on melody and communicaiton of the human voice. My emphasis is on finesse and attitude. His is on the power of song and mine is on the power of sound. It was very hard to maintain the balance with the creative tension that made the group so interesting and gave it such staying power. With the addition of Tommy Shaw we had three writers and lead vocalists all with different syles. When there's only forty minutes of music to put on one album every two years..." After the massvive "Kilroy Was Here" tour it was both time to rest and for the trio of songsmiths to rejuvenate by working on solo projects. JY sought out the best musicians for his album, City Slicker, in particular keyboard master Jan Hammer. "I had been a big fan of Mahavishnu. I thought these guys were the greatest musicians who had walked the planet. My aim in that record was to further establish myself as a lead guitarist and get back to what I enjoy the most: playing heavy rock."

JY didn't tour on that record because he didn't want to make a commitment to a group of musicians when he believed in his heart that STYX would be getting back together soon. When Tommy Shaw elected not to return to the fold, eventually forming Damn Yankees with Ted Nugent and Jack Blades from Night Ranger, the resumption of the group took a bit longer. Shaw was replaced by Glen Burtnik, a former Jan Hammer bandmate and solo artist. Styx's The Edge of the Century album place three singles on the charts with "Show Me The Way" hitting #3 in early 1991.

For a few years JY explored film and television scoring in Los Angeles but found that it involved too little music that he actually enjoyed playing. He had completed another solo hard rock album called Out On A Day Pass for his own Absolute Records label. With Styx on another hiatus, he made the commitment to form a great live band. Longtime mover, shaker and soundman of the Chicago scene Keith Marks helped assemble a group of crack players to complement JY's sound. The music demands stellar musicianship and tremendous vocal ability and this outfit meets the challenge. He remains proud of his Styx compostions and this band, (the James Young Group) perhaps performs it better, in some ways, than Styx did. "I love playing live and the immediacy of it." He's been calling this congregation "The Greatest Hard Rockin' Live Band On the Planet." Their first album together is "Raised By Wolves."