It Ain't Easy is an album by American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 singer/songwriter Chris Smither

Chris Smither

Chris Smither is an American folk/blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter. His music draws deeply from the blues, American folk music, modern poets and philosophers.-Early life, influences and education:...

, released in 1984. The original contained 12 songs.

Reception

Writing for Allmusic, critic Brett Hartenbach wrote of the album "Smither never treats the songs as if they were museum pieces... There's not a false moment on the entire record. Highly recommended." Music critic Robert Christgau

Robert Christgau

Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...

 wrote of the album "...it's damn hard to make a consistently interesting album out of your voice and an acoustic guitar. Smither comes within a dud original and a few extraneous covers of bring it off..."

Track listing

1. "Footloose" (Smither)
2. "It Ain't Easy
   It Ain't Easy (song)
   "It Ain't Easy" is a song written and originally recorded by Ron Davies. Davies recorded the song on his 1970 album Silent Song Through the Land...
   
   " (Ron Davies)
3. "John Hurt Medley" (Mississippi John Hurt
   Mississippi John Hurt
   John Smith Hurt, better known as Mississippi John Hurt was an American country blues singer and guitarist.Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself how to play the guitar around age nine...
   
   )
4. "No Money Down" (Chuck Berry
   Chuck Berry
   Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...
   
   )
5. "Green Rocky Road" (Chandler, Kaufman)
6. "Guilty" (Randy Newman
   Randy Newman
   Randall Stuart "Randy" Newman is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist who is known for his mordant pop songs and for film scores....
   
   )
7. "Maybellene
   Maybellene
   "Maybellene" is a song recorded by Chuck Berry, adapted from the traditional fiddle tune "Ida Red" that tells the story of a hot rod race and a broken romance. It was released in July 1955 as a single on Chess Records of Chicago, Illinois. It was Berry's first single release and his first hit...
   
   " (Chuck Berry)
8. "Rosalie" (Smither)
9. "One Plus One" (Smither)
10. "Ninety Nine Year Blues" (Daniels)
11. "The Glory of Love" (Hill)
12. "Sitting on Top of the World" (Chatmon, Vinson)
13. "Once in a Very Blue Moon" (Alger, Levine)
14. "So Long, Harry Truman" (Danny O'Keefe
    Danny O'Keefe
    Danny O'Keefe is a U.S. based singer-songwriter, born in Spokane, Washington, in 1943. O'Keefe's musical career has spanned four decades from his early days playing in the Minnesota coffee houses to his present station in the Seattle area...
    
    )