Easy From Now On

Album: Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town (1978)
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Songfacts®:

  • Many songs have been written about leaving a no-good man behind, but few plumb the depths of despair that follow. In this song, Harris lays her heartache down with a clear-eyed understanding of the work that lies ahead. She understands that it will take time (a "month of Sundays") and a change of venue to get over this, and she also knows she is vulnerable, with an empty heart that's easy to fill.

    The third verse takes us into rare territory: a one-night-stand where she feels neither shame or triumph - it's just another step on her path to healing, which she explains on her way out:

    When the mornin' comes and it's time for me to leave
    Don't worry 'bout me, I got a wild card up my sleeve
  • Carlene Carter and Susanna Clark wrote this song. Carter is the daughter of country music stalwarts June Carter and Carl Smith; Clark (who died in 2012) was the wife of Guy Clark. They each began writing songs in the '70s - Clark composed the 1975 #12 country hit for Dottsy, "I'll Be Your San Antone Rose," and Carter was just getting started on her songwriting journey at the urging of her mother.

    In a Songfacts interview with Carlene Carter, she explained: "Susanna and I were great pals and she called me up one day and she said, 'I have a great line for a song: 'It's a quarter moon in a ten cent town.'' I said, 'Come over.' By the time she got there, I had already sorted out the whole music, the melody and everything, and had started on the first verse. Then the second verse was, 'It's a quarter moon in a ten cent town.' From that we made a song."
  • The line, "quarter moon in a ten cent town" was used as the album title. The song's co-writer Susanna Clark did the cover art, showing a crescent moon over a stretch of highway with a light on the horizon.
  • After co-writing this song, Carlene Carter began recording as a solo artist, gradually building a following throughout the '80s. She recorded her own version of "Easy From Now On" for her 1990 album I Fell in Love, which was her breakthrough, making #19 on the Country chart.
  • Miranda Lambert brought this song to a new generation when she included it on her 2007 album Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. The song fit well on the album alongside other tracks that deal with getting over a breakup. Others to cover the song include Suzy Bogguss in 1981 and Terri Clark in 2000.
  • Miranda Lambert says the tattoo of the queen of hearts on her right arm was inspired by a line in this song that really connected with her:

    Don't worry about me
    I got a wild card up my sleeve


    Her 2019 song "Bluebird" she refers to as an "ode" to "Easy From Now On."

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