Detailed item info | Track listing | 1. When My Ship Comes In
2. We Tell Ourselves
3. Burn One Down
4. Hard Way, The
5. Something to Cry About
6. Buying Time
7. Woman Has Her Way, A
8. There Never Was a Train
9. Good Old Days, The
10. Wake up Yesterday
| | Details | | Playing time: | 34 min. | | Producer: | Clint Black, James Stroud | | Distributor: | BMG Special Products | | Recording type: | Studio | | Recording mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
| | Album notes | Personnel: Clint Black (vocals, guitar, harmonica); Don Potter, Larry Byrom, Martin Young (acoustic guitar); Dann Huff, Reggie Young, Hayden Nicholas (electric guitar); Sonny Garrish, Jeff Peterson (steel guitar); Mark O'Connor, Rob Hajacos, Jeff Huskins (fiddle); Jerry Douglas (dobro); Hayden Nicholas (electric sitar); Matt Rollings (piano); Leland Sklar, Jake Willemain (bass); Eddie Bayers, Dick Gay (drums); Lenny Castro, Eric Darken (percussion); Curtis Young, Dennis Wilson, Jana King, Liana Manis (background vocals).
Recorded at Studio Sound, Burbank, California; Moonee Ponds, Los Angeles, California; Eleven Eleven Studio and Mesa Recording, Nashville, Tennessee.
Clint Black's third CD is aptly named--in the two years that passed between his second release and THE HARD WAY, Black went through a messy breakup with his manager, endured reports that he'd fathered an illegitimate child, and met and married actress Lisa Hartman. The latter event went on to inspire many of Black's future songs, but THE HARD WAY remains an album full of bitterness and melancholy.
That's not to say it's unpleasant to listen to--quite the opposite. Musically one of Clint Black's more adventurous albums, particularly the electrifying "We Tell Ourselves" with its sizzling guitar fadeout, he's in fine voice here, angrily spitting out the lyrics to "Something to Cry About," and drowning in misery on the excellent "Burn One Down." He also shines on the rueful, she-done-me-wrong ballad "A Woman Has Her Way," the haunting "Wake Up Yesterday" and the melodic, regretful title track. But Black's black mood does lift for two tracks: "When My Ship Comes In" and "There Never Was a Train," which, together with the sunny, Jimmy Buffett-inspired "Ship," display a cautious optimism. But overall, THE HARD WAY proves that no musical form captures pain and heartbreak better than country music.
| | Editorial reviews | 3 Stars - Good - ...although this album may be on the short side at around 30 minutes, it will be a fixture on the American country charts well into 1993....avoids the sentimental excesses of Nashville storytelling for a bluesier feel...
Q (09/01/1992)
..the record succeeds as Black's premier experiment in musical cross-pollination....Black skillfully and subtly insinuates enough traces of pop melody, aggressive rhythms, and soaring, soulful instrumental solos to carry his work to a broader audience...
Entertainment Weekly (08/07/1992)
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