| Two the Hard Way | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Allman and Woman |
| Cover: | TwoTheHardWay.jpeg |
| Released: | November 1977 |
| Recorded: | 1977 |
| Studio: | Record Plant, Los Angeles; Sunset Sound, Hollywood; Record Plant, New York City |
| Genre: | Pop rock |
| Length: | 38:35 |
| Label: | Warner Bros. |
| Chronology: | Cher |
| Prev Title: | Cherished |
| Prev Year: | 1977 |
| Next Title: | Take Me Home |
| Next Year: | 1979 |
Two the Hard Way is the collaborative studio album by American singer and actress Cher (credited as "Woman") and American singer and keyboardist Gregg Allman. It was released in November 1977 by Warner Bros. Records. The album, billed to "Allman and Woman", was a critical and commercial failure.
The product of the two musicians' unlikely and turbulent relationship and marriage, it attempted an even more unlikely musical melding of Allman's Southern rock with Cher's idiosyncratic, personality-driven pop. The uncharacteristically airbrushed cover notwithstanding, Allman's musical ideas and singing generally took the lead.
In conjunction with the release of the album Cher and Allman did a 21-show tour called the "Two the Hard Way Tour", consisting of seven shows in Japan and 14 in Europe. The tour ended abruptly when Cher parted ways with Allman and returned to the United States.
The album was never officially re-issued on CD or 8-track, although it has been bootlegged. In 2008, Billboard correspondent Keith Caulfield stated that Cher owned the rights to the master tapes of this album (as well as three solo albums she made in the mid-1970s) and hence she would have to approve any reissues.[1] The song "Can You Fool" was included in the 1989 Allman Brothers compilation album Dreams, which is still in print.
For many years "Can You Fool" was the only Allman and Woman song to have been officially made available online. However, on October 8, 2021, Cher released all 11 tracks, "restored and remastered", on her YouTube channel. A few days later, she also released several live videos produced in November 1977 for the BBC TV series The Old Grey Whistle Test.
The album was panned by critics. The Rolling Stone Record Guide wrote: "It's hard to imagine a more inappropriate combination... It's the bottom of the barrel after a long fall for Gregg, and more of the same for Cher." The guide gave the album zero stars, rating it "Worthless".
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