“Hard Pressed” is an original song by Tim O’Brien, the singer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter who was a founding member of the influential bluegrass band Hot Rize. The band recorded it for their album “Traditional Ties” in the mid-1980s.
Hot Rize, formed in Colorado in the late 1970s, was known for joining tight traditional bluegrass musicianship to strong original songwriting, and “Hard Pressed” is a representative example. O’Brien’s lyric carries the weary, hard-luck feeling that the title suggests, set against the band’s clean, driving sound.
The song became one of O’Brien’s better-known compositions and a piece that traveled well beyond Hot Rize itself, turning up in jam sessions and on other bands’ recordings. It stands among the original songs that helped show how new writing could sit comfortably inside the bluegrass tradition.
