| About Big Bob Young | Big Bob Young For a lifetime, Big Bob Young, a working man’s storyteller with a comfortably-weathered voice, has carried his songs around, shaping and refining them until they’re solid, sturdy and built to last. The grooves run deep, the stories and emotions ring true, and the words shine like the modest gems they are. Young’s 10-song debut CD, HARD WAY TO MAKE A DOLLAR, is a home-cooked sonic buffet of bluesy, roots-rockin’ Americana, with simply eloquent lyrics: literate but unpretentious, well-crafted and semi-autobiographical. Robert L. Young was born in 1955, and while he may have taken a circuitous route to reach this point in life, his songs are richer for their travels. A married father and high school dropout at 17, Big Bob 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. Along the way, he has musically chronicled heartache and jubilation, innocence lost and insight gained, pleasures of the flesh and matters of the soul. Now, these songs can finally be heard. Music has surrounded Young since his birth into a musical family in St. Louis — Mom and her eight siblings harmonized on gospel standards; Dad taught him guitar — and young Bob absorbed these influences and many more. He started writing songs as a teen, and caught the performing "bug" while serving in the Air Force. “I was 27 before I made my first dollar from music, playing at an Officers' Club for $300 a week,” he recalls. In the mid-’80s, while bandleader for a country artist in Arkansas, Young (who plays guitar, bass and drums), began honing his songwriting skills. In 1988 he moved to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where he earned a degree in Recording Industry Management from Middle Tennessee State University. He moved to Tullahoma, Tennessee in 1992, where he now lives with "Buddy" (a three-year old Yellow Labrador Retriever) and enjoys spending time with his fiancé, Vicki. Big Bob Young Bio, Page 2 When Young retired from the military in 2008, he committed himself to his music full-time and was finally ready to record his first CD. He called longtime friend and musical collaborator bassist Jeff "$tick" Davis (Amazing Rhythm Aces/Burrito Deluxe) to assemble a dream team of cosmic musicians: 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 and Dobro. The album was recorded and mixed in Nashville, with Davis, Webb and Moody producing. The all-star band and blue-collar singing poet are a perfect match on HARD WAY TO MAKE A DOLLAR. From album opener “Ship of Fools” (a soulful good-love-gone-bad blues) to the celebratory hoedown “Green County Stomp;" from the prayerful “Somewhere Tonight” to the swinging barroom come-on “Can I Take You Home” Young proves himself across a range of styles. Like the tough-as-nails Arkansas waitress in the title track, Big Bob Young knows how hard it is to make a dollar. But in his music, as in his life, he rolls up his sleeves and gets the job done. When it comes to writing great songs, with lyrics that move and rhythms that rock, he delivers. 10/31/08 |
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