John Baldry – It Ain’t Easy (1971):  British bluesman Long John Baldry had a long and illustrious career in his home country but is little known in America.  It Ain’t Easy is his fifth solo album and has the easy groove of an accomplished musician.  The opening track, “Don’t Try to Lay No Boogie-Woogie on the King of Rock and Roll” is a rambling, mostly spoken-word record that was Baldry’s only song to crack the American charts.  Long John Baldry sings a duet of a Lead Belly song “Black Girl” with Maggie Bell (not to be confused with Madeline Bell of Blue Mink) and covers material by numerous top-drawer songwriters.  Rod Stewart and Elton John each produced about one-half of the songs on the album.  The backing band includes future Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood and many of the musicians who appeared on Rod Stewart’s landmark solo album Every Picture Tells a Story (one of Stewart’s best songs, “Maggie May” appeared on that album) that also came out in 1971.  While he was performing under his real name Reg Dwight, Elton John was a member of one of Long John Baldry’s backing bands called Bluesology.  His stage name “Elton John” is in honor of Long John Baldry and a saxophonist in Bluesology named Elton Dean.