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...