Real Gone Music Releases Janie Fricke's IT AIN'T EASY: THE COMPLETE HITS on CD

Two-time CMA and ACM Female Vocalist of the Year Janie Fricke announces Real Gone Music release of 'It Ain't Easy: The Complete Hits', available now. This 41-track, 2 CD compilation spans from 1977 to 1989, including not just her solo smashes such as "What're You Doing Tonight," "It Ain't Easy Being Easy," "He's A Heartache (Looking For A Place To Happen)," and "Tell Me A Lie," but also her chart-topping duets with Charlie Rich ("On My Knees"), Merle Haggard ("A Place to Fall Apart"), Larry Gatlin ("From Time To Time") and Johnny Duncan ("Come A Little Bit Closer"). As an added bonus, Janie penned the liner notes, which are accompanied by previously unseen photos and she autographed 100 booklets for fans who order 'It Ain't Easy: The Complete Hits' through Real Gone Music.

"It is with thankfulness and sheer pride to see this project appear at a time in my life when I least expected such a special gift," says Janie Fricke. "The team who researched my recordings worked many hours to come up with choice songs from my recorded repertoire. As I look back to those years of hours spent in the studio with the best producers, musicians and engineers, I never dreamed that it would become a pretty package all wrapped up, presented to me and the world in 2019."

Raised on a farm in Indiana, Janie Fricke began singing in church, and later turned that talent into a career which began as one of the marketing industry's most successful jingle singers. Long before her success as a country artist, millions of people became familiar with Fricke's voice through ads for United Airlines, Coca-Cola, 7-Up, McDonald's and Red Lobster. She soon became a session singer where she was singing background in the studio with some of the biggest country stars of the late 70's and early 80's, including Loretta Lynn, Eddie Rabbitt, Crystal Gayle, Ronnie Milsap, Barbara Mandrell, and Mel Tillis.

After a string of duets with such greats as Merle Haggard and Moe Bandy, Fricke landed a solo recording contract in the early 80's and scored several hit singles, including "Don't Worry 'Bout Me Baby," "He's a Heartache" and "You're Heart's Not In It." She won CMA's coveted "Female Vocalist of the Year" in 1983 and '84 and has been nominated for three Grammy Awards. She has been credited with over 1,600 album projects and scored 36 hit singles.

In recent years, Sony Music Entertainment made four of Fricke's classic albumsavailable to fans on Spotify, Apple Music and other digital platforms via the Legacy Digital Vault campaign, including The First Word In Memory, The Very Best of Janie Fricke, Black & White and Saddle in the Wind! The collection of albums features the 18-time chart-topper's biggest hits, including "It Ain't Easy Being Easy," "Tell Me a Lie," "She's Single Again" and more. Legacy Recordings also released The Essential JANIE FRICKE to all digital service providers earlier this year.

In addition, Fricke put a bluegrass spin with some fresh interpretations to many of her beloved tunes with the release of Country Side of Bluegrass. The 13-track collection was produced by Bil VornDick, whose credits also include Alison Krauss, Bela Fleck, and Marty Robbins, and features some of the finest pickers in the industry.

Janie Fricke 'It Ain't Easy: The Complete Hits' Track Listing

Disc 1:
1. What're You Doing Tonight
2. Come A Little Bit Closer (with Johnny Duncan)
3. Stranger (with Johnny Duncan)
4. Baby It's You
5. Please Help Me, I'm Falling (In Love With You)
6. On My Knees (with Charlie Rich)
7. Playing Hard To Get
8. Love Your Troubles Away For A While
9. Let's Try Again
10. But Love Me
11. Pass Me By (If You're Only Passing Through)
12. He's Out Of My Life (with Johnny Duncan)
13. Down To My Last Broken Heart
14. Pride
15. I'll Need Someone To Hold Me (When I Cry)
16. Do Me With Love
17. Don't Worry 'Bout Me Baby
18. It Ain't Easy Being Easy
19. You Don't Know Love
20. He's A Heartache (Looking For A Place To Happen)
21. Tell Me A Lie

Disc 2:
1. Let's Stop Talkin' About It
2. If The Fall Don't Get You
3. Your Heart's Not In It
4. A Place To Fall Apart (with Merle Haggard)
5. The First Word In Memory Is Me
6. Who Cares (with Ray Charles)
7. All I Want To Do In Life (with George Jones)
8. She's Single Again
9. Somebody Else's Fire
10. Easy To Please
11. Always Have, Always Will
12. When A Woman Cries
13. Are You Satisfied
14. From Time To Time (It Feels like Love Again (with Larry Gatlin and The Gatlin Brothers)
15. Baby You're Gone
16. Where Does Love Go (When It's Gone)
17. I'll Walk Before I'll Crawl
18. Heart
19. Give 'Em My Number
20. Love Is One Of Those Words

Janie Fricke On Tour:

AUG 17 - The New Granbury Live / Granbury, Texas
SEP 07 - Private Event / Centerville, Texas
OCT 05 - Confederate Square / Gonzales, Texas
NOV 02 - Sweetwater Municipal Auditorium / Sweetwater, Texas
NOV 16 - Orange Blossom Opry / Weirsdale, Fla.
FEB 20 - Leo J. Welder Center for the Performing Arts / Victoria, Texas
FEB 21 - New Brauntex Theater / New Braunfels, Texas
FEB 22 - Dosey Doe Big Barn / Spring, Texas
JUN 21 - Dick Clark's American Bandstand Theater / Branson, Mo.
JUL 10 - Blue Gate Theatre / Shipshewana, Ind.

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