Big Bob Young

For Immediate Release
Contact: Martha E. Moore

martha@somuchMOORE.com




Big Bob Young's "Somewhere Tonight" Debuts At #1 On New Christian Music European And Country Charts

Fans & Deejays Embrace Tale Of Lost Youth And The Power Of Prayer


Nashville, TN (January 29, 2009) -- Big Bob Young's third international release, "Somewhere Tonight," debuts at #1 on both the New Christian Music European and Country Charts this week. The inspirational tale of lost youth and the power of prayer is resonating with fans and deejays alike, and it's taken Young to the top of the charts for the very first time against strong competition.

"I am very grateful that 'Somewhere Tonight' received this kind of response," Big Bob says. "It's a song that's very close to my heart and it's very meaningful to me that it is my first #1."

The track is from Big Bob Young's critically-acclaimed debut CD, HARD WAY TO MAKE A DOLLAR. Fans can enjoy audio clips, video and more at http://www.myspace.com/bbuiltonblues. For interviews, email martha@somuchmoore.com.
For more information on NCM , click on www.newchristianmusic.co.uk .





- Mratha Moore

Reviews

Artist:Big Bob Young
Album:Hard Way to Make a Dollar
Tracks:10
Label:Man around the House Records
Website:http://www.myspace.com/bbuiltonblues

I have to admit that knowing nothing about this artist I had no idea what to expect; compounded by initial confusion at a male name with a female image on the cover! However, Big Bob Young is indeed a new male artist who hails from TULLAHOMA, Tennessee. Real name Robert L Young, age 53) He has had a life that be the basis of a song - A married father and high school dropout at 17, he has been an airman, soldier, mechanic, collegian, jazzman, country bandleader, farrier, telegram singer and clown. He has twice married and divorced and lost a wife to cancer. Young served his country for 23 years in the Air Force and Army National Guard, including a 13-month stint (April '03-May '04) in Iraq for which he was awarded a Bronze Star and an Army Commendation Medal. I guess he found his way to music via a somewhat unusual path, though you can tell as he sings that he has seen a lot of life. Hard Way to Make a Dollar is his debut CD on which he began work in 2008 upon retiring from the military. He contacted a longtime friend - bassist Jeff "Stick" Davis (Amazing Rhythm Aces/Burrito Deluxe)and together they tracked down other talented musicians for the project, including: Michael Webb (Gary Allan/Allison Moorer) on piano, organ and accordion; Rick Lonow (Poco/Burrito Deluxe) on drums; Carlton Moody (Burrito Deluxe/Moody Brothers) on acoustic guitar and mandolin, and bluesman Colin Linden (Bruce Cockburn/The Band) on electric guitar, slide guitar and Dobro. The album was recorded and mixed in Nashville, with Davis, Webb and Moody also taking on roles in production. It is clear from the opening track that Big Bob's vocals and the musicianship of these talented men was a match that would be hard to rival.

Presented in the increasingly popular digipak format, the CD includes a booklet with all of the song lyrics - a sure fire way to curry my favour - but then, even more impressively, under each song title, is a statement as to the song's origins. There is always something special in hearing a song and knowing from where it is derived.

Immediately obvious from first playing the CD is the face that this is a man who writes and sings real traditional style country music; the kind we don't hear a lot of these days. The song's title track, Hard Way to Make a Dollar, was inspired by a waitress named Marie in a town called Heber Springs, Arkansas, who he tells us in his notes, 'gave as good as she got' From rowdy customers.

Young's father told him that if he died, he wanted to be buried not in Chicago where he had been working but back in his native Arkansas; "Take me south where I can hear the Mockingbirds". This remark inspired the beautiful song Bury me in Dixie, an old style country song with piano and without a doubt the most moving on the album.

Mississippi Nights brings the pace down with a slow moving song with Southern undertones whilst I Call it Love is the closest we get to a ballad. Ship of Fools is a stunning song, with a country blues sound, using slide guitar and dobro to good effect.

Another fine addition to the album is Somewhere Tonight- inspired by his worry for his four children - two of whom were daughters. He states that whilst the events in the song never happened he often wondered what if they had? The song is basically about how in such situations prayer is often the only thing there is.

Other impressive songs include Green Country Stomp, Can I take you Home and Best of a bad Situation. Prevalent throughout the whole album are the stand out, gravelly vocals of Bob, which bring to mind several old timers, or current singers such as Tom Russell, and in all of these instances the gravelly sound adds an extra dimension to the vocals.

In short, it may have taken Big Bob Young a while to find his way to music and to creating this debut album but I am confident that once you have heard it you will be glad he did. Having looked on his MySpace page and found tracks such as The Letter, Mr Moon and If We'd Had Paris I am confident that his next album will be equally as good!

Helen Mitchell

- FATEA Magazine

BIG BOB YOUNG Quotes (as of 1 28 09)

“Falling under the 'big tent' side of the Country music equation comes Big Bob Young and his blues-laced debut album Hard Way To Make A Dollar "Ship Of Fools" has a deep blues-rock undercurrent to it that's actually not far from what has helped make Jimmy Buffet a long-time favorite (when he's not singing party songs). Vocally Big Bob Young also resembles Buffett's weary, aged voice. is a fine album that showcases the kind of great talent that comes in all shapes, sizes and ages in our great country.” -Matt Bjorke, ROUGHSTOCK
“Somewhere Tonight---Another great story song singer who communicates clearly and tunefully. “ Roger Hill, IN TOUCH MAGAZINE

“”The mood (of the CD) covers country, blues and blue-eyed soul. The latter underrated genre is perhaps Bob’s strongest with some similarities to Russell Smith especially on “ I Call It Love.” He should be very content with the making of a first rate album which will sound as good in ten years as it does today. Well done.” Keith Glass, CAPITAL NEWS (Australia)

“A CD that's certainly different from the current mass productions and that reminds me of some Texan songwriters: Straight forward, honest and sometimes inconvenient. Let's hope that Young gets his well deserved attention. His fan base is certainly growing with this album.”
- Bruno Michel, AMERICAN-COUNTRY (Switzerland)

“Big Bob has an expressive, passionate vocal style that grabs you and makes you want to listen deeply to what he is singing about. The main thrust of the music is blues driven; and there’s some pretty powerful stuff in the package.”
- Larry Delaney, COUNTRY MUSIC NEWS (Canada)

“This is a record that offers a wide spectra of styles and appeals to most people who want some ‘go’ in the music. The music this 53 old guy produce can be described as Americana with blues/rock influences. A comparison that comes to my mind is Delbert McClinton. When it swings as most, as in the title track, you at once come to think of The Tractors and their often hard driving music. Big Bob Young is a man you must not miss.”
-Olov Lindgren, KOUNTRY KORRAL (Sweden)

“Hard Way To Make A Dollar is a 10-track joyous debut of fulfilled ambition. It’s where determination and talent meet at the fork. Produced by Jeff ”Stick” Davis, Carlton Moody and Michael Webb – all respected for their many and varied musical indulgences – the album with Young’s self-penned offering is, well, simply, a keeper. There’s the voice. It’s lived-in. There’s a soft growl. There’s a biting grit. There is a melody, a vocal richness, something not taught at music school, rather lived out in the streets. The bars, and lived out in situations and circumstances of the examined life.” – George Peden, COUNTRY STARS ONLINE

“Hard Way To Make A Dollar (the single) blew the cobwebs away for sure.”
- Kjell Horlin, MCWC Radio (Sweden)

“Hard Way To Make A Dollar (the single) is packed with more energy than a battery.”
– Gerd Stassen, EVW Radio (Germany)

“Prevalent throughout the whole album are the stand out, gravelly vocals of Bob, which bring to mind several old timers, or current singers such as Tom Russell, and in all of these instances the gravelly sound adds an extra dimension to the vocals… I am confident that once you have heard it you will be glad he did. “- Helen Mitchell, FATEA MAGAZINE ( U.K.) “
“Mixing Americana with solid country and a touch of blues, Big Bob could well become something of a cult figure.” – David Allan, COUNTRY MUSIC PEOPLE (U.K.)

“Hard Way to Make a Dollar”, has ten superbly crafted songs, beautifully performed and leaving me a little perplexed. Can this really be a debut album when in reality it seems to be the work of a well-seasoned star? This is an album no self respecting country fan will want to be without.”
- Pete Smith, THE ADVERTISER (U.K)
“The density of the complete work is an impressive piece of Americana.”
- Max Achatz, COUNTRY JUKEBOX (Germany)



“In fact songs of Big Bob are intense and rich of passion, not only the love to the center
of its thematic one, but life every day, that one of common people that it faces, with difficulty, every sacrifice; and the cure and the attention for the spirit and for spirit, the memories, also those ugly, those that have it carried in turn for the world, in the war zones.”
- Davide Frascella, TARANT OGGI ( Italy)

“This is a very melodic record that is difficult not to take to your heart, with everything from stompy country to jazz and soul. Totally I liked the record and Big Bob Young should certainly be bigger in Nashville.” Hans Bloom, DALADEMOKRATEN (Sweden)
“The sound is a bluesy mix of road-house rock with country overtones that suits Young's age roughened and weathered voice... a hard working bed rock integrity is at the heart of his songs. This is the kind of album that tends to get little attention in the media but i - Martha Moore

Euro Americana Chart
The Euro Americana Chart is compiled by DJs, journalists, retailers, promotors and other people who are interested in Americana music from all over Europe. Every month they send in their favourite CD top 6. These are the ingredients for the chart.
Here is the Euro Americana Chart of December 2008 :

14
Otis Gibbs
Grampa Drove a Picketline
Benchmark


15
Heybale
The last Country Album
Shuffle 5


16
Big Bob Young
Hard Way to Make a Dollar
Self rel.


17
Tokyo Rosenthal
Love Won Out
Bronx Flash Music


18
Hundred Year Flood
Poison
Frogville
SZ, LM

19
Eric Hisaw
Nature of the Blues
Saustex Media


- euroamericana charts

Big Bob Young - Hard Way To Make A Dollar
Review By: George Peden, CSO Staff Journalist
12/20/08
“There’s an ocean filled with tears,
It’s been building down through the years
And on this sea of broken hearts
Where there are no rules
I’m the captain of a ship of fools…”
The soundtrack to Big Bob Young’s life plays out like a well-lived song on a well-kicked corner jukebox. As revealed in his liner notes, the journey comes complete with lowlights and high times, and they all tell, in honest and open terms, a guy steadily and purposefully on track. With career stints as a mechanic, bandleader, telegram singer and clown, along with a 23 year service record of Air Force, Army and National Guard, which includes a tour of Iraq, this twice divorced father of four has finally made his way to the recording studio.
Hard Way To Make A Dollar is a 10-track joyous debut of fulfilled ambition. It’s where determination and talent meet at the fork. Produced by Jeff ”Stick” Davis, Carlton Moody and Michael Webb – all resected for their many and varied musical indulgences – the album with Young’s self-penned offerings is, well, simply, a keeper.
There’s the voice. It’s lived-in. It’s not unlike, on some tunes, Lee Hazlewood. There’s a soft growl. There’s a biting grit. There is a melody, a vocal richness, something not taught at music school, rather lived out in the streets, the bars, and lived out in situations and circumstances of the examined life.
Big Bob (Robert L. Young on his birth certificate) has a voice made for the ache, pain and passion of his music. And when that phase is complete, there’s the thighslappin’ ode to good times “Green County Stomp,” showing laughter and fun as a needed backdrop to tears. More of the same plays out on the band-bounced “Best Of A Bad Situation”. In a liner revelation Big Bob shares: “Having played clubs for several years, slipping home at night was a common occurrence. I never found a note pinned to my guitar. But I have been married three times.”
On a goodly mixed album of country, blues and Americana, the big guy delivers his best work on the ballads.
When Big Bob unloads the emotion, the feared concerns, the deep rooted longing of a father, “Somewhere Tonight” takes on universal understandings.
“Somewhere tonight a good girl made a bad choice
Now she feels dirty inside
She believed that boy when he said he loved her
Now she knows he lied
Broken hearted, decides to take her own life
Feelin’ there’s no other way
But somewhere tonight
A daddy thinks about his little girl
And with his face in his hands begins to pray…”
Other standout cuts include the evocative “Mississippi Nights,” and the timeless need for love – no matter how long it lasts – “I Call It Love”.
On an album made memorable with thoughtful lyrics and a strong, emotive and tough voice, let’s not forget the band. The all star line-up boasts Jeff ”Stick" Davis on bass; Michael Webb on piano, organ and accordion; Rick Lonow on drums; Carlton Moody on acoustic guitar and mandolin, and Colin Linden on electric guitar, slide and Dobro, with Dennis Taylor on saxophone and Rusty Russell on trumpet.
The album is available on A Man Around the House Records.

Related Links:
MySpace





- George Peden

American Music

2008 Top 100... plus*

compiled November 20 , 2008 out of more than 900 albums
* includes some 2007 late arrivals
feel free to use this for publicity

18. Sierra Hull

Secrets

Rounder


19. Big Daddy Weave

What life would be like

Word


20. Big Bob Young

Hard way to make a dollar

BBY


21. Trisha Yearwood

Heaven, heartache and the power of love

Big Machine


- American Music Radio Belgium

Big Bob Young : Hard Way To Make A Dollar

BIG BOB YOUNG : HARD WAY TO MAKE A DOLLAR: (MY CD PICK OF THE WEEK)

About 18 months ago, I was privileged to receive a new album from an artist I had - to my shame - never heard of.

When I heard it, it sent shivers down my spine. It was proof that Country music does still exist and today I count the guy who wrote and recorded it, Homer Joy, as a close friend who I've actually known my entire life.

His album "Someday It'll Be Country" was the antidote to the pop trash Nashville is forced to push out by the accountants and lawyers who chase greenbacks from their high rise offices in Manhatten and LA

When I put "Hard Way To Make A Dollar" in the player - I got the same chills running down my spine. This is real Country music, and while Big Bob Young may not have written a huge worldwide hit (Joy wrote "Streets Of Bakersfield") he comes from the same line of true Country artists .... he's a guy who writes and sings from the heart about things you and I face every day!

The truth of that is on the album liner notes. Every song has a single paragraph to explain why it came about. BRILLIANT!

Best track on the album is undoubtedly "Bury Me In Dixie".

It has one ingredient which NO songwriter can fake: REAL EMOTIONS! And Young has the skill to sing it so you KNOW he feels it!

Young's father told him that "if" he died, he didn't want to be buried up north in Chicago where he'd moved to find work, but back in his native Arkansas. He said: "Take me south where I can hear the Mockingbirds".

And that's the basis of the song. I can tell you that this tough-looking cowboy with a voice made of gravel and rock and roll rhythm pulsing in his veins has a heart and he misses his Daddy, big time! BOB, I know that feeling, and this one made me cry!!

One of the finest songs on the album has to be "Somewhere Tonight" - a song about men who spwend hours and days worrying about whether their girl's all right.

I can't pretend to have been there, my child is a lovely little boy. BUT Big Bob Young DOES - he has two daughters: his lyrics make his feelings plain, his vocals make the emotion plain. Simply a superb song!

As a lyric writer, Young has few peers. "I Call It Love" is close to free verse - a series of thoughts and definitions put to music. The simple arrangement allows Young to show his vocal skills.

Way back when I was a young reporter, there was a local band called the East Side Torpedoes. They were brilliant and this song reminds me of them at their very best. Wonder where they are now.

"Green Country Stomp" is - I fear - mis-titled on the album. For the lyrics are about the "Green County Stomp" a kind of dance they do in the south of Mississippi. The dance is a bug dance in Tennessee, a clog dance in Carolina, and the song is perfect for doing just that!!

Young shows he can turn an old style Western swing song too. "Can I Take You Home" is a thought that millions of men think many times in their lives, but few ever have the nerve to say!

"Best Of a Bad Situation" is a late-home-broken-marriage song whose lyrics read like a tragedy but whose music pumps along like an express train whole "Mississippi Nights" is a wonderfully slow love song that meanders powerfully - just like the river.

That annoying little gizmo that pops up when you play an album and tries to name the tracks automatically insists that the opening track on the album is called "Ship Of Tools". That SHOULD be "Fools", of course.

This is a bluesy feel with that organ swirling around behind Bob's big bold vocals.

"Hard Way To Make a Dollar" is the album's lead off single, about a waitress called Marie from Heber Springs, Arkansas. When Young saw her struggling to cope with rowdy customers just to make a few dollars, he went all gooey inside and wrote a fine song to tell the tale.
Throughout the album there's a sense of something special to come. Musically, "Stand Up" - the closing song - is far from the best track on the album, but it's the one song here that Young uses to say where he stands on "such matters".
For "such matters" read religion, and it comes as no surprise at all to find out his views!
A superb album which lovers of real Country music MUST buy!!!

Footnote:
I was delighted to discover that the guy pumping bass across the album is one Jeff "Stick" Davis. Now, I DIDN'T KNOW this but Stick is a long time friend of Bob's. He was also part of the Amazing Rhythm Aces. And that's a band I'd totally forgotten about, that I recall loving and have decided I must hunt out again.





- John D Lewis

Friday, March 6, 2009 12:00 am

Spin Factor By: Reviews by Ron Wynn

Big Bob Young
Hard Way to Make a Dollar
(Builtonblues)

Big Bob Young musically operated right in the middle ground where country meets the blues, and his new CD perfectly mixes and matches the two.

Some of that’s due to the A-list lineup of players on this session, whose collective associations include Gary Allan (keyboardist/accordion player Michael Webb), Poco (drummer Rick Lonow), Burrito Deluxe (acoustic guitarist/mandolinist Carlton Moody) and Amazing Rhythm Aces (bassist Jeff “Stick” Davis).

But it’s Young’s tough, engaging vocals on such numbers as “Ship of Fools,” “Somewhere Tonight,” “Best of a Bad Situation” and “Stand Up” that reflect his diverse and distinguished (23 years of military service) background — one that gives his narratives and vocals an authenticity and stature that can’t be faked or acquired.

These aren’t trendy or disposable numbers, but slice-of-life portraits and musings from someone whose own experiences are every bit as compelling as those he sings about in Hard Way to Make a Dollar.
- the City Paper

COUNTRY ROUTES
In The Wings.
ON THE BLOCK.
Brian Ahern.
Towards the end of last year Big Bob Young contacted Country Routes website via the Guestbook to enquire if the publication had listened to his Hotdisc release single taken from his album “Hard Way To Earn A Dollar”. Our editor Irene replied with an encouraging “We loved it”.
Inspired by Bob’s initiative to self promote his wares to a British publication via the internet and having received a promotional copy from American publicist Martha Moore via her publicity house “So much MOORE media” based in Nashville. I thought that the start of a brand new year would be a good time to bring to you a new names “Waiting in the wings” for country music stardom.
Big Bob Young aint no new hat kid bidding for fame and fortune from a pop orientated modern country music scene that is only kind to those who can sell records and downloads super fast.....thus generating fast cat profits...and dare I say short term fame for the young charmers.
In fact Bob is in this 50s and has spent most of his adult life serving his country. He has served in Iraq and won a Bronze Star for bravery in combat before settling down in small town Tullahoma Tennessee. A time served vet is always held in high esteem in America and Big Bob certainly served his country well for over 23 years. He is now showing the same determination to serve his music and songwriting skills with his debut album “Hard Way To Earn A Dollar”. To 10 self penned songs based on life’s experience and blue collar upbringing.
Big Bob is one of 8 children to a St Louis family who grew up singing gospel harmonies and playing guitar. He also learned to play bass and drums. He started song writing in his teens. He caught the entertaining bug while in the air force and entering a talent comp in Little Rock Arkansas. Bob tells that he was 27 before he made his first dollar from music by playing in an officer’s club. In the mid eighties he was a bandleader for a country artist in Arkansas. He also earned a degree in recording industry management from The Middle Tennessee State University.
Along the way Bob was a high school dropout at 17. He has been married and divorced twice and lost a wife to cancer. He has been an airman, soldier, mechanic, collegian, jazzman, country bandleader, farrier, telegram singer, and clown. He has 4 grown children and a fiancé Vicki.
Pretty good credentials for a country singer songwriter with a lived in voice and a heap of life’s blue collar experience to write about and bring to the likes of you and me, the fans.
Big Bobs album backing band are hot too. Bassist Sticks Davis(Amazing Rhythm Aces).Piano Organ and Accordion Michael Webb (Garry Allen). Drums Rick Lonow (Poco). Acoustic guitar and mandolin Carlton Moody (Burrito Deluxe) Electric and Slide guitar Dobro. Colin Linden (Bruce Cockburn. Produced by Davis Moody and Webb.
Of the album “Ship Of Fools” is splendid and reflective blues. “Best Of A Bad Situation” is a fun musician’s anthem. “Somewhere Tonight” Kicks hard especially for me the father of 3 girls. “Hard Way To Make A Dollar “is the story of a hard working waitress. Also kick in with me the grandfather of a female bar worker in the gay village. “Bury Me In Dixie” must be every country persons wish. “Mississippi Nights”. A gentle reflection. “Green Country Stomp” Come on you dancers grab a slice of this stomper. “I Call It Love” Makes the world go around for sure.” Can I Take You Home” Boy Girl, Girl Boy. Life. Love. “Stand Up” Inspirational.
A smashing country album taken from blue collar lived in life and sung with conviction and passion in proof that real country music is still with us if we look, learn and listen from the heart and not the chart.
Brian Ahern.
- Country Routes, England

COUNTRY ROUTES
In The Wings.
ON THE BLOCK.
Brian Ahern.
Towards the end of last year Big Bob Young contacted Country Routes website via the Guestbook to enquire if the publication had listened to his Hotdisc release single taken from his album “Hard Way To Earn A Dollar”. Our editor Irene replied with an encouraging “We loved it”.
Inspired by Bob’s initiative to self promote his wares to a British publication via the internet and having received a promotional copy from American publicist Martha Moore via her publicity house “So much MOORE media” based in Nashville. I thought that the start of a brand new year would be a good time to bring to you a new names “Waiting in the wings” for country music stardom.
Big Bob Young aint no new hat kid bidding for fame and fortune from a pop orientated modern country music scene that is only kind to those who can sell records and downloads super fast.....thus generating fast cat profits...and dare I say short term fame for the young charmers.
In fact Bob is in this 50s and has spent most of his adult life serving his country. He has served in Iraq and won a Bronze Star for bravery in combat before settling down in small town Tullahoma Tennessee. A time served vet is always held in high esteem in America and Big Bob certainly served his country well for over 23 years. He is now showing the same determination to serve his music and songwriting skills with his debut album “Hard Way To Earn A Dollar”. To 10 self penned songs based on life’s experience and blue collar upbringing.
Big Bob is one of 8 children to a St Louis family who grew up singing gospel harmonies and playing guitar. He also learned to play bass and drums. He started song writing in his teens. He caught the entertaining bug while in the air force and entering a talent comp in Little Rock Arkansas. Bob tells that he was 27 before he made his first dollar from music by playing in an officer’s club. In the mid eighties he was a bandleader for a country artist in Arkansas. He also earned a degree in recording industry management from The Middle Tennessee State University.
Along the way Bob was a high school dropout at 17. He has been married and divorced twice and lost a wife to cancer. He has been an airman, soldier, mechanic, collegian, jazzman, country bandleader, farrier, telegram singer, and clown. He has 4 grown children and a fiancé Vicki.
Pretty good credentials for a country singer songwriter with a lived in voice and a heap of life’s blue collar experience to write about and bring to the likes of you and me, the fans.
Big Bobs album backing band are hot too. Bassist Sticks Davis(Amazing Rhythm Aces).Piano Organ and Accordion Michael Webb (Garry Allen). Drums Rick Lonow (Poco). Acoustic guitar and mandolin Carlton Moody (Burrito Deluxe) Electric and Slide guitar Dobro. Colin Linden (Bruce Cockburn. Produced by Davis Moody and Webb.
Of the album “Ship Of Fools” is splendid and reflective blues. “Best Of A Bad Situation” is a fun musician’s anthem. “Somewhere Tonight” Kicks hard especially for me the father of 3 girls. “Hard Way To Make A Dollar “is the story of a hard working waitress. Also kick in with me the grandfather of a female bar worker in the gay village. “Bury Me In Dixie” must be every country persons wish. “Mississippi Nights”. A gentle reflection. “Green Country Stomp” Come on you dancers grab a slice of this stomper. “I Call It Love” Makes the world go around for sure.” Can I Take You Home” Boy Girl, Girl Boy. Life. Love. “Stand Up” Inspirational.
A smashing country album taken from blue collar lived in life and sung with conviction and passion in proof that real country music is still with us if we look, learn and listen from the heart and not the chart.
Brian Ahern.
- Country Routes, England

January 19, 2009
Big Bob Young - "Hard Way To Make A Dollar"
By: Matt Bjorke
Falling under the 'big tent' side of the Country music equation comes Big Bob Young and his blues-laced debut album "Hard Way To Make A Dollar." A member of various parts of the US Armed Forces for 23 years, Big Bob Young certainly his lived a lot of life that serves him well as he constructs his stories present on the disc. "Ship Of Fools" has a deep blues-rock undercurrent to it that's actually not far from what has helped make Jimmy Buffet a long-time favorite (when he's not singing party songs). Vocally Big Bob Young also resembles Buffett's weary, aged voice. "Best Of A Bad Situation" finds Big Bob singing about the hard-to-ignore fact of a musician's strange life. Fans of 90s country shuffles should give this barely two minute song a spin.
While I don't think anyone could claim that Big Bob Young was gifted with the best voice, he does use it well on ballads like "Somewhere Tonight," where his sharp songwriting finds the fifty-something describing bad choices young children make while the parents simultaneously pray for those children to make it through their choices. "Bury Me In Dixie" has a sound and lyric that's indebted to the styling of Alabama while "I Call It Love" is a Hammond-filled ballad from a hopeless romantic that would be a great song for someone like Craig Morgan or Kenny Rogers to record.
The title track is a horn-filled, partyin' ode to those women who work very hard in the bars and honky tonks so the rest of us can enjoy our time away from our lives. The musicianship explodes here and it's also present on the honky Tonkin' track "Can I Take You Home." Sure, Big Bob Young's not gonna sell a million copies of "Hard Way To Make A Dollar" but that doesn't mean that the album isn't worth hearing either. In fact, "Hard Way To Make A Dollar" is a fine album that showcases the kind of great talent that comes in all shapes, sizes and ages in our great country.

- Roughstock