KRIS KRISTOFFERSON APPRECIATION TUESDAY!

"This Old Road" with Full Band!

"This Old Road Solo Acoustic"

Along with Gordon Lightfoot, Kris Kristofferson is among my favorite male songwriters. I had the pleasure of hanging out with long-time Kristofferson band member and solo artist Billy Swan ("I Can Help") during the 4th show I saw with Kris and his full band on tour. Kris was being managed at that time by the late Bert Block and we talked about how Kris' albums historically were never blockbusters, although "Shake Hands with the Devil" (released after his co-starring role with Barbra Streisand in "A Star is Born") did well. In spite of the lack of huge sales, among his hits are "Me & Bobby McGee" (popularized by the late Janis Joplin on her final album, "Pearl"), "Help me Make it Through the Night" "Sunday Morning Comin' Down", "Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends", "For the Good Times", "The Silver Tongued Devil & I" (and a song I'd play at 4:00 AM driving on my way to the helicopter pad at Lunken Airport in Cincinnati when I was still reporting television news for NBC TV--- the clever "To Beat the Devil".

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To keep life interesting, Kristofferson, a Rhodes Scholar with a Masters degree in Philosophy, served in the military and resigned his commission in 1965 after turning down a teaching position at West Point Military Academy. Determined to make it in music, he became a janitor at Columbia Records in Nashville while watching Bob Dylan record his epic "Blonde on Blonde". While I never "connected the dots" between my singing along with the part narrative/part song "To Beat the Devil" in Ohio on those 3 degree Winter mornings, Kris also worked as a commercial helicopter pilot for Petroleum Helicopters International.

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"That was about the last three years before I started performing, before people started cutting my songs... I would work a week down here [in south Louisiana] for PHI, sitting on an oil platform and flying helicopters. Then I'd go back to Nashville at the end of the week and spend a week up there trying to pitch the songs, then come back down and write songs for another week... I can remember 'Help Me Make It Through The Night' I wrote sitting on top of an oil platform. I wrote 'Bobby Mcgee' down here, and a lot of them [in south Louisiana]."

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After pursuing Johnny Cash with cassette tapes (which John would throw into his lake at home), Kris decided on a new approach and landed a helicopter in Cash's back yard to "hand deliver" "Sunday Morning Comin' Down". By then it was 1969 and Cash was into his 2-year television variety show where he introduced it and the song became a hit.

Kristofferson was signed to Monument Records as a bona fide artist with Fred Foster managing Combine Music, Kris' songwriting label. While others had success with Kris' songs such as Ray Price's "For the Good Times", Waylon Jennings' performance of "The Taker", Bobby Bare's "Come Sundown"), and Sammi Smith with "Help Me Make It Through the Night", Kris's LP's sold slowly. So, Kristofferson decided to make his acting debut in Dennis Hopper's "The Last Movie" and "Cisco Pike". He appeared at the Isle of Wright Festival and released his 3rd album, "Border Lord". Again, sales were sluggish. Yet, he won big at the Grammy Awards after releasing his 4th album, "Jesus Was A Capricorn". Again, sales were slow but "Why Me" was a huge success. His 5th LP "Spooky Lady's Sideshow" was a commercial disappointment. So, he threw himself into movies such as "Blume in Love", Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid", Sam Peckinpah's "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia", "Convoy" (with Ali MacGraw no less!) , our most recent "Friday Movie Suggestion Night" feature, "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore", "Vigilante Force. a disturbing "The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea", "A Star is Born" where he described working with Streisand as a "sobering experience", and his 9th album that sold well but failed to chart "Shake Hands with the Devil" before resuming acting in "Freedom Road" and the well documented box office bust "Heavens Gate". Coolige and Kristofferson sadly divorced after three well accepted albums of duets. Here was a man writing songs only others could have success with! I have them all and I love them! He joined Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton and Brenda Lee for an album called "The Winning Hand". More movies followed until the country power group of Nelson, Kristofferson, Jennings and Kristofferson toured as "The Highwaymen". In 1977, he was inducted into The Songwriter's Hall of Fame, in 2004 The Country Music Hall of Fame and the rest as they say...is history.

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THAT'S IT FOR TODAY

HAPPY TUESDAY!