Consumer Guide Album

Chris Smither: It Ain't Easy [Adelphi, 1984]
Unless you're a genius on the order of John Hurt, who's remembered in a medley here, 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, and they're all on side one. Overdisc the two originals are for real and the way he wraps his voice and fingers around "Maybelline" and "Glory of Love" makes them sound not brand new but old as truth. B+