K is for Kris Kristofferson

Sunday 28th April

The wonderful Kris Kristofferson emerged like so many others in the early seventies.  He had had a variety of jobs including being a janitor in a Nashville recording studios where he met, among others, Bob Dylan.  He was a struggling songwriter and his manager had the idea that if he recorded an album of his own songs maybe someone would pick them up and Kris could earn some royalties at last.  And someone did, none other than Janis Joplin who recorded ‘Me and Bobby McGee’ and interest in the album was sparked.  Well, it turns out that it contained some cracking songs including maybe his greatest ‘Help me make it through the night.’  Also people started buying it because of Kris’s voice, which was a deep almost gruff baritone.  So he went back into the studio and recorded more songs and put a band together and the rest as they say is History.

He released a string of splendid albums, especially with Rita Coolidge, with whom he had a love affair they practically celebrated in song, at times almost kissing over the microphone.  Then he and Rita parted and the crap eighties years took over.  Almost without exception hardly any major artist from the sixties and seventies made great albums in the eighties, as synths and drum machines and disco and ‘production’ overtook great acoustics, simple melodies and simple songs.

Kris has had a bit of a renaissance of late but like so many others his first few albums were so wonderful that they are really all the Kris Kristofferson you will ever need..