Kris Kristofferson - The Austin Sessions

When an artist rerecords the songs that brought him fame, fans have a right to be skeptical. After all, such moves are generally prompted more by a yearning to restore one's financial rather than artistic standing. This project by country maverick Kris Kristofferson, however, has one major factor in its favor: Kristofferson's original early-1970s recordings of the likes of "Me and Bobby McGee," "Help Me Make It Through the Night," and "The Pilgrim: Chapter 33" were significant, but less than definitive. Here he returns to the tunes that helped lay the groundwork for the Outlaw movement of the '70s, but in place of the stolid Nashville arrangements on the originals is more sympathetic accompaniment. While The Austin Sessions is star-studded (guests include Steve Earle, Jackson Browne, Vince Gill, and Alison Krauss), the project really rests on the broad shoulders of Kristofferson, who fares well. Never a threat to George Jones as a vocalist, he nevertheless sounds comfortable in a largely acoustic setting rasping his way through songs he should be prouder than ever for penning. --Steven Stolder Amazon.com

Texas tea and sympathy.

You don't realize what a giant of American poetry and songwriting Kris Kristofferson is until you hear a CD full of him doing his own stuff. Success of friends like fellow Highwayman Johnny Cash ("Sunday Morning Coming Down") singing KK's material has partially obscured KK's greatness. "The Austin Sessions" will cause any scales of obscurity/ignorance to fall from the eyes.
Recorded at Arlyn Studios in Austin, Texas, in 1999, Kristofferson reviews his art on the cusp of a new century in powerful and very spiritual ways. Remarks in the CD's jacket notes bring to mind the biblical prophecy of the valley of the bones (Ezekiel 37) - Kristofferson: "Time and the road have whittled the fat away `til there is nothing but bone and sinew. I am struck by how alive they are...I will carry these versions of these songs as my artistic ID into the hereafter." And, at that time, Kris, I suspect you'll be dealt kindness and truth since that's the road you chose in life.
An all-star cast backs Kristofferson in "The Austin Sessions" including Jackson Browne (harmony vocal on "Me and Bobby McGee"), Marc Cohn, Vince Gill, Alison Krauss, and Mark Knopfler of Dire Straights. The pace and messages are pure Kristofferson, though.
True fans will notice subtle changes. Contra Janis Joplin's rendition, Bobby McGee is a woman in KK's version. Kristofferson changes the line in "Help Me Make It Through The Night" from "...it's SAD to be alone..." to "...it's BAD to be alone..." (although the jacket lyrics lists the original "sad" line). Again, the artist is reaching for something highly spiritual/biblical - see Genesis 2:18 when G-d says it's not good ("lo tov" in Hebrew) for man to be alone.
Kristofferson also displays a Jewish sensibility in the "Silver-Tongued Devil and I" when he describes the Devil as being in all of us (known as the yetzer ha-ra, or evil inclination, in Judaism) as opposed to an identifiable personage walking around sporting horns, a red tail, and pitchfork. KK bridges it wisely here and in "To Beat The Devil" when he shows the Devil to be like a whole other personality yet as tied to us as our own shadows.
"Why Me?" is a potent Christian spiritual. Its gratitude and contrition could do more to promote true G-dly living than 100 speeches by Reverend...Well, let's leave off the names. Sadly, Kristofferson's music isn't played much on Christian radio and much less on corporatized, bulls**tized mainstream radio. This great song is falling between the cracks. Past time that it made its way into Protestant hymnals and the air waves.
Insightful social commentary also flows from Kristofferson's pen. Historian Tony Judt, in his fine collection of essays "Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten Twentieth Century," wonders if Western man has accepted the ethos of globalist capitalism along the lines of how Karl Marx explained the "iron laws" of economics. KK comes at the question in a different way, showing us that economics can't be dismissed although Judt and Kristofferson would agree that economics isn't an end-all. In "To Beat The Devil," Kristofferson urges persistence against what seems like a stacked deck.
"You see the Devil haunts the hungry man
You don't want to join him
You gotta beat him
I ain't saying I beat the Devil
But I drank his beer for nothing
Then stole his song."

Freedom isn't an end-all either. Note the crucial difference between Joplin's "Me and Bobby McGee" and Kristofferson's. The Full-Tilt Boogie Band Janis version reflects the spirit of the 1960s, holding out freedom as The Goal. Janis sings: "Nothin' ain't worth nothing IF it ain't free." A mature Kristofferson is skeptical of that - "Nothin', ain't worth nothing BUT it's free." KK seems to have found something higher than freedom. The CD cover photo of Kris prominently sporting a wedding ring may be the answer.
Looking from one end of his life to the other, our artist with the redundant name (little joke there) concludes "The Austin Sessions" with "The Pilgrim: Chapter 33" and "Please Don't Tell Me How The Story Ends." (Tell me if you don't recognize yourself in these lines).
Past and present:
"He's a poet (he's a picker)
He's a prophet (he's a pusher)
He's a pilgrim and a preacher and a problem when he's stoned
He's a walking contradiction
Partly truth and partly fiction
Taking every wrong direction on his lonely way back home."
("The Pilgrim: Chapter 33.")

Present and future:
"Never's just the echo of forever
Lonesome as a love that might have been
Let me go on lovin' and believin' `til it's over
Please don't tell me how the story ends."


August 8, 2008

RHODES SCHOLAR, U.S. ARMY VETERAN, ACTOR, SINGER-SONGWRITER. (Kris and some famous friends rework his greatest songs)

Over the years, Kris Kristofferson has written some of country music's greatest songs. Me and Bobby McGee, Help Me Make It Through The Night, For The Good Times, Sunday Morning Coming Down, Why Me Lord, the list goes on and on. He was friends with Johnny Cash, Janis Joplin, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and many more. A Rhodes Scholar (Oxford), a standout collegiate athelete (football, rugby), a war-era U.S. Army veteran, a helicoptor pilot, and a movie-star who's starred as a leading man in several major Hollywood productions, the guy is an American icon. Who doesn't know Kris or his songs and movies?

This 1999 album finds Kris in Austin, Texas (his home state) re-recording his greatest songs with backing vocals from friends Jackson Browne, Vince Gill, Alison Krauss, Mark Knopfler, and Steve Earle, to mention a few. These recordings are for the most part done live in the studio with acoustic guitars, mandolins, harmonica, piano, some pedal steel guitar, and so on. The album is very well produced, and brings out the crispness of the acoustic sound. The performances are inspired, energetic, and focused. O.K.! O.K., already! I know Kris isn't the greatest singer in the world, but that's not the point, here, anyway. His songs are so real, so alive, and so human that they are almost out of fashion in this modern age of music, where sometimes it seems that self-serving arrogance is the order of the day. As I listen to these songs today, I can remember when they were hits and winning awards (how can we ever forget the long-haired Kris in 1970, showing up wasted at the CMA Awards show on TV, and staggering up to the podium to accept his award for best song, Sunday Morning Coming Down. Roy Acuff just about had a stroke over that one!). The world has changed tremendously since then, but the basic human condition that Kristofferson so penetratingly sings about in these songs is still the same. Kris can say it better than I ever could:

He has tasted good and evil in your bedrooms and your bars,
And he's traded in tomorrow for today.
Running from his devils and reaching for the stars,
And losing all he's loved along the way.
But this world keeps right on turning for the better or the worse,
And all he ever gets is older and around.
From the rocking of the cradle to the rolling of the hearse,
The going up was worth the coming down.
July 2, 2007

The Silver-Pilgrim-Bobby Mc Sunday Morning Devil

How can anyone not give Kris BIG KUDOS for revisting some of his signature songs. You know he's that Silver-Pilgrim-Bobby McSunday Morning-Devil! Well HELL! He's more than that. He's even Willie's good buddy and he's Johnny Cash's favorite songwriter. So roll on Kris I'm lovin' this great-great CD...And you keep on keepin' on good friend. March 4, 2006

A must have for Kristofferson fans!

I have been a Kristofferson fan for many years but was never aware of this 1999 album until just recently (which must have been the world's best kept secret if I didn't know about it). Just about every song on this album represents an improvement over the original studio recording. The sparse, acoustic arrangements highlight Kris' voice- it has never sounded better. The guitar, accordian, mandolin and piano playing are superb. The harmony vocals add the icing on the cake (particularly good are Jackson Browne and Vince Gill). When I hear Steve Earle, a lifelong heroin addict, sing the chorus "on the Sunday morning sidewalks, wishing Lord that I was stoned" with Kris on Sunday Morning Coming Down, it's one of the most powerful collaborations ever recorded. My only minor complaint is that the harmony vocals are mixed down way too much on most tracks (you have to really concentrate to hear who's singing). I just wish that every track had a guest harmony vocalist (The Silver Tongued Devil suffered from no harmony vocal). The bottom line is that this is a must have for any Kristofferson fan even if you own all these songs from other albums. You won't be disappointed.
February 24, 2006

honest love songs

This is a great Kris Kristofferson album. These are all songs from the depth. By depth I mean the depth of experience and using that depth of experience to achieve some kind of unity of mind, body, heart and soul. The songs, and the singing of them, are a long way from the often narcissistic efforts of a lot of contemporary song.

These marvellous songs revisited are all sung with real feeling. There is no cliché here whatsover. They come from someone who has looked into himself with great honesty and arrived at some kind of self-acceptance. The feelings expressed in these songs are based on truth. Kris writes and sings songs that describe but also share in and empathise with the human condition. They are all really songs about living and loving. No easy task. July 15, 2004

More reviews at Amazon.com ...