When Wayne Hancock was 25, he had trouble finding a job. There was plenty of work to be had, but all of the positions wanted applicants with experience, which he couldn't get because nobody would give him a job.

"At the same time, we had George Bush Sr. telling everybody that this isn't a depression, it's a recession. There's all these good jobs you can have if you had experience," Hancock said. "But there were a whole lot of people out there that didn't have experience."

So the budding songwriter from Texas wrote "Workin' at Workin,' " which contained the line, "the rich folks call it recession, but the poor folks call it depression."

Yet Hancock never released the song he wrote during the early 1990s until his seventh full-length album, "Viper of Melody," came out this year.

"About the time when all this stuff came down, I was going through my catalog, looking for stuff to use, and I found it and I thought that was perfect."

When Hancock wrote "Workin' at Workin,' " he had hopes of becoming a big star in the music industry. But he's perfectly happy these days to make a living by setting up his four-piece juke joint swing band in bars and pool halls across the country.

"I think I made it pretty big," he said. "I don't have to punch in and I don't answer to anybody else, except my wife."

At the age of 44, Hancock performs about 200 shows a year and usually plays sets that last three hours. But he's not exhausted by the schedule and set times that are twice as long as those of most touring bands.

"It's really easy," he said. "It's like having sex. It's fun."