KRIS KRISTOFFERSON – this old road

(CD, New West / Blue Rose)

He is an old man, but what a life. Wow, he’s been Billie the Kid, Outlaw-Trucker, Vampire Hunter, Texas Ranger and what not, and that’s only his movies. He has written songs like “Me and Bobby McGee”, “For The Good Times”, “Silver Tongued Devil and Me” and one of my all time favourites “Who’s to bless and who’s to blame” (and if you don’t know the rest of them it is time to get his first three albums). Johnny Cash wrote the liner notes for his debut album and he was one of the original Nashville Outlaws. And now he is seventy years old and I wish I’ll look like that when I get old. He still stands up tall, in his cowboy boots, long grey hair and that sparkle in his eye, that still says “Lady, if you want to make a young man happy one more time, I’d sure like to spend the night with you” as well as easily as it says “freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose”. And if you take away the idea of freedom not a lot is left in Kristofferson’s songs. In a short word: the man is a living legend. But this here is not about the past or old records, it is about Kristofferson’s new record.

Of course, he envokes the ghosts and spirits of old friends and allies, calling them name by name at times – and you can count them with him: Willie Nelson, Johnny and June Carter, Steve Earle, Lefty Frizell, Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams, Janis Joplin, John Trudell, Merle Haggard, Guy Clark, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon and so on. All the way through my record collection of great songwriters and true “wild Americans”. Some songs are downright nostalgic and recollecting in sentiment, but always drenched with a sturdy notion that is somewhere between upright hero and stubborn. But what is it he says: “a hero comes when he is needed”. Nevertheless there is a tense outlook into the future as well. Kristofferson still sings for the Lord to help him to “become what I can” and about how to “perfect myself in my own peculiar way”. These ideas still make him a wanderer and a philosopher (make that a pilgrim).

It is a good guess that some of the songs most remarked upon will be the ones outspoken political, and Kristofferson’s personal politics unsurprisingly all revolve around the idea of freedom. He sings “I want to end the war” directly and also “If they burn down a brother in the name of freedom I don’t care if it’s left or right, it’s wrong”. And in the song “In the news” you might find the most direct criticism of the Bush-administration in country music these days this side of Steve Earle. But, of course, as a seventy year old with lots and lots of experience, he clothes his current criticism within more general terms, thereby making them more universally true. (Steve Earle’s last record had that mark of being a “current politics” record, but I want my country-songs to search for universal and everlasting truths.) I find it more interesting to dissect his personal grap on religion and the good Lord above in the song “Holy creation”, which has some interesting points to start from, if you believe in a higher power but not a single bit in organized churches. It’s all about freedom again – we’ll get back to that again and again with Kristofferson.

The music is completely stripped down and bared to the bone. Mostly Kristofferson’s gravel and guts voice, acoustic guitar and harmonica, with the help of a small band of people at times with more guitars, some drums and piano. There is nothing of the cliché that had some acoustic / songwriter -comebacks of old musicians of late, like Neil Diamond or Dolly Parton, whose strategic approach killed off most of the feeling. This feels as true as the man playing guitar and singing in your living room. Which is probably where the songs come from, anyway. And because it’s Kris Kristofferson I’ll forgive him playing the same harmonica solo he played when covering Mickey Newbury’s “San Francisco Mabel Joy”, which is a wonderful song in itself.

Some great songs stand out with first hearing: the wonderful closing track of “go break a heart” or the ever wonderful “last thing to go”. Then there is the jingly jangly blues rocker of “chase the feeling” and its drunken guitar licks. But the true wonders are within the ballads and melancholic introspective songs, which seem so bare and basic that every single note counts. The odd melody of “Pilgrim’s progress” explains itself with time and you’ll find yourself humming that melody more than the others. You’ll also notice a lot of variety within the basic setup of the arrangements, from the densely strummed melodies of “The show must go on” (a criticism on how the music industry has changed from bad to worse in his time) to the prayer-like “Thank you for a life”. It would be a nice extra-work to find parallel songs to all these here to Kristofferson’s old and legendary songs (e.g. “Thank you for a life” to “Why me”, “Chase the feeling” to “I got a life of my own”), but that would only point you two things: these songs here are in no way copies of old songs, they are true Kristofferson stuff, that’s why they sound like Kristofferson. Second, where’s the “Bobby McGee”? Answer is easy, there never will be another, but we knew that for twenty years or more now, so why bother.