Kris Kristofferson touring Australia Mar-Apr

[Dave, Melbourne,Australia]

Char will be interested to know I just heard a radio advertisement promoting Kristofferson's Apr8 concert at Melbourne's Palais Theatre. It's part of a 2-month tour of Australia and New Zealand. Venues include Geelong (my state Victoria's 2nd-biggest city), Shepparton (a country town in northern Victoria) and Renmark (in the middle of nowhere, just outside Victoria's north-west corner).
http://www.ripitup.com.au/music/arti...ustralian-tour
http://www.kriskristofferson.com/shows

[charlene]

oh yes I've seen the e-mail notifications from his website and google alerts for some time now...wishing I was around for those but will be watching for him to come around here again.. His announcement that he has been forgetting things has me quite worried...
I got this alert the other day: http://cphpost.dk/news/when-kristoff...-won.3424.html

[charlene]

nice honour for Kris - http://www.cmt.ca/news/grammy-hall-i...s-debut-album/

Dolly Parton’s pleading 1973 single “Jolene” and Kris Kristofferson’s poetic 1970 album Kristofferson have been added to the Grammy Music Hall of Fame. Folk guitarist Doc Watson’s self-titled album from 1964 has also been added to the registry.
According to the Recording Academy, the annual honor “acknowledges both singles and album recordings of all genres at least 25 years old that exhibit qualitative or historical significance.”
With 27 new titles, the list currently totals 960 and is on display at the Grammy Museum in downtown Los Angeles.
This is Parton’s second song to join the Grammy Hall of Fame. Her 1974 single “I Will Always Love You” was inducted in 2007. Meanwhile, Watson’s 1964 single “Black Mountain Rag” was inducted in 2006.
Other newly added singles include Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son” (1969) and the Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Women” (1969), as well as Run-D.M.C.’s “Walk This Way” (1986) and B.J. Thomas’ “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” (1969).
Among the albums joining the list are George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass (1970), U2′s The Joshua Tree (1987) and Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush (1970), as well as the soundtracks to Mary Poppins (1964) and Woodstock (1970).
Other artists with recordings added to the list this year include Louis Armstrong and the All Stars, James Brown, Hoagy Carmichael and His Orchestra, Chicago, Sam Cooke, Miles Davis, the Drifters, Gil Scott-Heron, Robert Johnson, B.B. King, Charlie Parker Septet, the Sugarhill Gang, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and War.
In addition, the Grammy Hall of Fame’s 40th anniversary is being commemorated with a collector’s edition book. The Grammy Awards will air live on Jan. 26 on CBS.
- See more at: http://www.cmt.ca/news/grammy-hall-i....V4ao5uBg.dpuf

[charlene]

I'm heartbroken: http://www.showbiz411.com/2014/01/26...humor-is-great

You can’t help but love Kris Kristofferson. Superstar singer and songwriter, Kris is also a great actor with many film credits from “A Star is Born” to “A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries.” But Kris, who’s 77, is suffering from a form of dementia called “Puglistica.”

He has severe memory loss from years of head injuries from boxing and football when he was younger. This is no joke. He remembers his songs and is able to play them pretty well. He knows his family. But memories of his career are almost all gone.

Kris’s wife of 30 years, Lisa Meyers, is by his side as much as she can be. But over the course of the last few days here during Grammy week, Kris’s issues have been revealed. He looks fine and has no physical deficits. But when anyone asks him about an old project or song, or tries to engage him, his face changes. With a real sweetness he says, “I wish I could tell you about that but I don’t remember anything.” He then explains his condition.

Lisa says, “It’s not Alzheimer’s.” She’s right, to an extent. But Boxer’s Dementia seems to mimic that disease. When I mentioned his hits “Me and Bobby McGee” and “Help Me Make it Through the Night,” Kristofferson looked at me blankly. Of “A Star is Born,” he said, “That was a long time ago.” He doesn’t recall Leelee Sobieski, who played his daughter in “Soldier,” or Kaylie Jones, James Jones’s daughter, who wrote the book upon which the movie was based.

But he knows his songs. He played at the Grammy Foundation legacy concert on Thursday night, and he’s scheduled to perform on the Grammy show Sunday night. At the Special Merit Awards yesterday, Ringo Starr referred to Kris’s memory loss. Kristofferson took it in stride. “I just got hit in the head too many times,” he told me.

Nothing can change what a great guy he is, though, and a superstar. We all remember that.

[charlene]

glad to see Kris at the Grammy's but disappointed there wasn't a Kris tune when he, Willlie, Merle and Blake Shelton sang..It was planned but perhaps he wasn't up to it.. http://perezhilton.com/tv/Willie_Nel...&autoplay=true
and
http://www.twangnation.com/2014/01/2...evement-video/

[Dave, Melbourne,Australia]

Char,

http://www.elvis.com.au/presley/kris....4HozPA8z.dpbs

This is the only "review" I've found from Kristofferson's Australian tour. It's just a few lines from a member of an Elvis Presley fan club who had a minute with Kristofferson as he left the Melbourne concert venue.

Kris Kristofferson : Elvis was my Hero
By: David Troedson
Source: Elvis Australia
April 8, 2014 - 11:58:44 PM
Elvis Articles, Elvis Interviews, By David Troedson

I have had the most incredible experience tonight talking with Kris Kristofferson following his concert at the Palais Theatre. After Kris autographed my copy of one of his recent CD releases, and at the very moment he was pulling away from the fans at the gate having delighted all that braved the cold and waited in hope of an autograph, I asked him, 'Kris could I ask you a question?'. 'What do you think of Elvis Presley's recordings of your songs?' He stopped, looked at me directly as close as you can be from someone - his eyes lit-up, his face showed he really wanted to talk about this, and said 'Just the fact that Elvis Presley recorded any of my songs was incredible, Elvis was my HERO'. Kris would have spent over 5 minutes just talking about ELVIS and answering further questions from the group of fans that had gathered - he could not have been more interested in talking. The evident passion was a real surprise to me.

This in itself is not new, Kris talked in detail to Ken Sharp for the FTD book release, 'Writing For The King', but to have this incredibly talented singer, songwriter, actor, say this so personally to me, and to those around me - EVERYONE was interested when Kris Kristofferson started talking about Elvis Presley -- just made it so much more 'real', I had read his comments before about Elvis but I know not only for sure how genuine Kris' feeling's are, but how strongly he really feels. Just the tone of of his voice to start with, something you don't get reading an interview, [or this!!!], and I must say, what a down to earth guy, just an incredible experience.

And the experience of the concert, what a concert, just Kris and his guitar and a load of talent, oh and his talented daughter Kelly adding a nice touch with her sweet voice and a good deal of humor between the two for a few songs. And I was not only fortunate to be able to shoot a number of photos kneeling in the isle down the front during the encore, I reached out to Kris as he was walking off stage and he stopped and shook my hand, I wasn't sure what he thought of me sitting there taking photos but evidently he didn't mind!

- See more at: http://www.elvis.com.au/presley/kris....W9KP7e4O.dpuf

[charlene]

I saw that earlier today!! -I've been keeping watch for reviews...

thanks!

[joveski]

hmm, no melbourne listed on the site yet, bt sydney is roughly $100... bit steep for me

[charlene]

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/ente...410-36fd5.html

Kris Kristofferson
The Palais Theatre
April 8

He's been a Rhodes scholar, US Army captain, helicopter pilot, Oscar and Grammy winner and a Country Music Hall of Famer.

His songs have been covered by some of the biggest names in music - Johnny Cash, Roger Miller, Janis Joplin, Elvis Presley, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Gladys Knight among them..

Yet Kris Kristofferson could not have been more humble on stage at the Palais, dressed in denim and armed with only a guitar ploughing through 35 songs from his extensive back catalogue.

The 77-year-old storyteller kept banter to a minimum but delivered heartfelt tales and truths through his music and lyrics. He opened with Shipwrecked, followed by Darby's Castle and remarked, ''Don't you love paying a lot of money to watch an old fart blow his nose'', before playing one of his best-known tunes, Me and Bobby McGee, which was a hit for one of his old flames, Joplin.

The show was split into two sets, with Kristofferson's daughter Kelly joining him in the second half playing banjo and singing on five songs including The Pilgrim, during which she cheekily and tellingly tilted her head towards her pa during the chorus line, ''He's a problem when he's stoned.''

After Kelly's exit the sparseness returned as he treated the audience to melancholy favourite Sunday Morning Coming Down.

The American country music legend, who has released 28 albums, won over the crowd. At times he seemed frustrated with his own guitar playing and almost forgot lyrics, but his vocals never faltered.

The recurring subject in Kristofferson's songs is the human condition, loaded with misfortune, alcohol, loneliness, scars and disappointment. Given his achievements Kristofferson might seem a walking contradiction to his musical themes, yet he remains quite the enigma.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/...#ixzz2ys8upM00

[charlene]

http://www.theage.com.au/entertainme...413-36ljc.html

Reviewer rating:
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Kris Kristofferson
State Theatre, April 11
As with his mentor, inspiration and drinking companion Johnny Cash, there is something of the grand old man of music and letters about Kris Kristofferson these days. But as ever, it is done his own way.
The silver-tongued devil is now a silver-haired one, but he still has charisma, and instead of some biblical presence delivering with gravitas, he is more avuncular and embracing, his (never the greatest) voice less secure but not yet gone.
The songs remain consistent gems of concise storytelling about people getting by and sometimes getting done. From the deeply familiar Me And Bobby McGee and For The Good Times through the pungency of Broken Freedom Song and Duvalier's Dream to the sentimental, but no less potent for that, Daddy's Song and Jody And The Kid, Kristofferson's best songs reach you directly and stay with you for good.
The ''Kid'', his daughter Kelly, joined him with voice and banjo for several songs in the second set, and their unspoken interplay was a pleasure. Almost as much as hearing Kristofferson singing about having a ''stomach full of empty'' and how ''hearing Joni Mitchell feels as good as smoking grass''. They might be nearly 50 years old those songs, but they feel more like 50 years young, with a long life ahead of them yet.
That said, as a friend of mine put it, a little bit more care would have been appreciated. Like having the guitar tuned throughout the first set, fewer mistakes and flubs, a Sunday Morning Coming Down that held its shape and lived up to its quality. Odd too was the way some songs ended abruptly and others were launched into almost before the last chord of its predecessor had stopped resonating.
And I at least would have enjoyed more chat - some yarns and more scene-setting. Though he did declare he wasn't a funny man (witty lines in many songs notwithstanding), don't tell me there aren't some stories to tell about these songs, about some of the people who covered them, about some of the people Kristofferson drank with, played with, loved with.
So not perfect. Not great either, as a concert experience. But none of us left unhappy, and certainly none of us left feeling we hadn't caught a hefty dose of songwriting quality, sung with charm and a twinkle in the eye. And hey, he's 78, he isn't resentful of anything (except maybe crass capitalism) and he was with us for two hours.
Maybe in the circumstances, it really was the best of all worlds.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/...#ixzz2ys8kmwPo

[charlene]

http://www.northerndailyleader.com.a...s-fans/?cs=157

US COUNTRY music legend Kris Kristofferson wowed his audience in Tamworth last night with his songwriting and storytelling.

The 76-year-old country singer-songwriter said, before the show, he looked forward to playing old and new songs for his Australian fans.

His latest offering, Feeling Mortal, Kristofferson’s 28th album, was recorded in three days.

About 800 fans from the region, North Coast, Sydney, Queanbeyan, Dubbo and beyond enjoyed seeing Kristofferson in intimate mode at the Tamworth Regional Entertainment and Conference Centre playing hits including Me and Bobby McGee, Help Me Make it Through the Night, Sunday Morning Coming Down and For the Good Times.

He was joined by his daughter Kelly during the concert.

“I always try to be as honest as I can in the songwriting, and what I’m finding, to my pleasant surprise at this age, is that the words are more inclined to laughter than tears. I hope I’ll feel this creative and this grateful until they throw dirt over me,” he said.

[Dave, Melbourne,Australia]

That was a very positive review from his Tamworth concert. Tamworth is Australia's "Nashville" (country music capital) and is located 300Km (200 miles) north of Sydney and 200Km (120 miles) inland. Judging from the article, many people travelled at least 250Km (150 miles) to attend the concert. The ones from Queanbeyan (near Australia's capital city Canberra and well south-west of Sydney) must have travelled 500Km (300 miles).

[charlene]

I sure hope he's around TO again in 2014...

[charlene]

video - http://www.theherald.com.au/story/22...punch/?cs=2373

I'M glad I got to see Kris Kristofferson play live. I just wish it had been 40 years earlier. There are no singer/songwriters that I know of who are still in their prime at age 77.

Kristofferson's efforts were admirable, his attitude gracious. There was no attempt to deceive: it was simply Kris and his six-string guitar and harmonica for the opening set.

He reeled off 15 songs in 45 minutes in that first set.

His voice was genuine, his timing dramatic. You could almost feel the emotional weight in silence from the first song, Shipwrecked in the Eighties.

The crowd, a great many of his generation, were on his side from the first note.

Even a few catcalls and shout-outs. They were hanging on every word, and even though many of his tunes are short, they are poetic and personal.

In the final stanza of Me and Bobby McGee, he offered, "Feelin' good was good enough for me, Janis, and Bobby McGee".

The second set featured Kristofferson's daughter, Kelly, and a surprise appearance by Charlie Owen.

There is no doubt about the quality of his songs, that's why he's a legend. Long may his words live.

[charlene]

http://www.frasercoastchronicle.com....gster/2237058/

Age does not weary veteran songster Kris Kristofferson

Have your say » Carlie Walker 23rd Apr 2014 5:20 AM

A SELL-OUT crowd of 800 people enjoyed an incredible performance from one of country music's longest-serving stars at Maryborough's Brolga Theatre on Monday night.

Singer, songwriter and actor Kris Kristofferson, 77, with only his voice and an acoustic guitar, brought the venue to life, performing some of his biggest hits and some lesser known songs, some of which, he wryly noted on stage, are starting to show their age.

Songs like They Killed Him, referencing the deaths of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Jesus Christ, timely on Easter Monday, may betray Kristofferson's vintage, but the songs have lost none of their potency.

Me and Bobby McGee, arguably Kristofferson's greatest hit, was performed early in the night, with the singer playfully referencing Janis Joplin in the lyrics, the woman who made the song famous in the 70s.

Humour was also injected throughout the performance, with Kristofferson picking up a handkerchief to blow his nose at one point and remarking: "Don't you love paying a lot of money to watch an old fart blow his nose," prompting laughter from the audience.

Kristofferson's daughter Kelly also performed with him on stage, playing a banjo and showing she is just as vocally gifted as her father.

[charlene]

This is beautiful and I think we can relate our own feelings about Gordon to much of this review.. http://justheardreadseen.com/just-se...civic-theatre/

Just Seen … Kris Kristofferson at the Auckland Civic Theatre
Reviewed by Angelique on May 1, 2014

I’ve just realised I have not included a concert review on here before. I even resisted the urge to review the two Springsteen shows back in March – although I did blog about them . But I may have to revisit this policy in light of last night’s concert at Auckland’s Civic Theatre.

Solo Accoustic

I’ve long been a Kristofferson fan and if anyone is interested, I am not even mildly disturbed by the fact that most people find this very uncool. Anyone who can write the way Kristofferson does is a winner in my book. There’s an honesty and simplicity to his work that I find very powerful – and often very moving. To be able to have experienced those lyrics live was something I will always treasure.

There are not too many people, who at the age of 78 (give or take a couple of months) can undertake an international tour let alone hold an audience spell bound for two hours. I had prepared myself for the experience of seeing and hearing a writer I admire enormously and was prepared to cut an aging singer a bit of slack. From the moment we arrived at The Civic the evening was full of surprises. The first was that we were among a very tiny minority of - hmmm, tact is required here – non senior citizens. Now, I’m perfectly well aware that this is going to cause much hilarity for my offspring – but yes pretty much everyone at last night’s concert was at least in Mr Kristofferson’s age group. At the grand old ages of 51 and 47, Dennis and I were well – babies in comparison.

The show was billed to start at 8pm and at about 8.05 Kristofferson strolled out on to the stage, guitar in hand and began singing. No fanfare, no loudspeaker announcements. Just a quiet arrival and straight into it.

He opened with Shipwrecked in the Eighties and Darby’s Castle – LOVE that song – but it was the third song that just took my breath away. With no warning, or introduction, he launched into a very understated and very powerful Me & Bobby McGee, in which he even mentioned Janis Joplin. I’ve been listening to that song by a myriad of performers from Joplin to Kristofferson himself, and passing by nearly every Country artist who has ever lived, my entire life – and last night’s pared down and haunting delivery was, in my opinion, the best I have heard. It was haunting and achingly beautiful - and followed by Here Comes That Rainbow Again. Now if you are one of the many who dislikes Country on the grounds that it can be corny (and to which I reply – seriously, I can name some rock numbers that make C & W look positively DEEP), then Rainbow is probably not the song for you. As it happens, I love it. It reminds me of those books or movies you watch because you know, just know, they’ll have a happy ending and sometimes a happy ending is what you want. I shall probably be humming “aint it just like a human, here comes that rainbow again” for the next month. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
Before the show, I had been trying to guess what songs we might get and I had a hunch we would get one of two songs as a closer – and since we had just had Me & Bobby McGee, I was fairly sure I knew what was waiting at the other end of the evening.
What I wasn’t prepared for, was what was laying between the two.

Classics
The first set closed with Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever do Again) having passed by Help Me Make It Through The Night, Best of All Possible Worlds, and the amazing Casey’s Last Ride. Now Casey’s Last Ride is one of those songs - a bit like Springsteen’s Jungleland – which in a different era or lifetime would have been a poem delivered by a troubadour and remembered for generations. I’ve always suspected that had the likes of Jim Morrison covered Casey, it would have become an overnight sensation – but maybe that’s just me.
The second set was for me, the real winner. They Killed Him, To Beat The Devil, Why Me Lord, and Who’s To Bless and Who’s To Blame are my favourite Kristoffersen songs but I was convinced the only one we had any chance of getting was Why Me Lord. Ha – show’s what I know. The only one we didn’t get was Who’s To Bless and Who’s To Blame. I was astounded we got They Killed Him - a song about Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Christ – and had the show ended there I would not have felt short changed. I love everything about that song – the lyrics, the meaning, the tune – everything – and it has lost none of its power with time.

At this point, I would like to comment on Kristofferson’s voice. Let’s be clear – this is a 78 year old man singing and there were a couple of times when his age was very evident in his voice. But rather than detracting from the song or the performance it added to it. We were in the presence of a man who has made his living writing some of the most beautiful lyrics and who delivers them with a simplicity that is at times breathtaking. No he doesn’t have the world’s greatest voice, no he is not going to win prizes for guitar playing – but he doesn’t need to. Anything he might lack in technique – he makes up for in belief and honesty. This was no ‘by rote’ performance – this was a man sharing his beliefs – and it was a huge gift to be able to hear him.
His daughter Kelly joined him onstage during the second set - among the songs they did together, The Pilgrim was the highlight mostly because he clearly got a kick out of performing it with her.

Simply Powerful
As it turned out, I was right – the closing song was a movingly prophetic rendition of For The Good Times. I am going to choose to believe I wasn’t the only one moved to tears when he sang the words “Don’t look so sad, I know it’s over” – which took on a whole new meaning in this context. Yes he was saying goodbye, yes he was saying thank you, and yes it was both sad and beautiful. He left the stage for about ten seconds and came back for a very moving three song encore that simply added to the feeling he was taking his final bows in a far greater sense than just the end of the evening: A Moment of Forever, Please Don’t Tell Me How The Story Ends, and Why Me Lord.

Now a lot of people are surprised I love Why Me Lord – I am after all a practicing Buddhist, not a Christian. But there is a power in this very simple song that I really love – and a passion I find inspiring. I am always moved by people who not only have faith, but really live that faith and I’ve always felt this song portrays that.
This was a very understated show by a man who is aware there is far less time ahead than there is behind. And who clearly, has loved every minute of the ride. The power in his performance comes from that simplicity – the sheer reliance on the imagery he creates with words and the direct and simple delivery of them.

All I can say is thank you Mr K for that moment of forever.

First Set:
Shipwrecked In The Eighties
Darby’s Castle
Me And Bobby McGee
Here Comes That Rainbow Again
Best Of All Possible Worlds
Help Me Make It Through The Night
Sam’s Song (Ask Any Working Girl)
Casey’s Last Ride
Nobody Wins
Feeling Mortal
From Here To Forever
The Heart
Broken Freedom Song
The Law Is For Protection Of The People
Sky King
Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again)
Second set:
The Only Weakness In My Armour
Duvalier’s Dream
The Golden Idol
Billy Dee
They Killed Him
Daddy’s Song
Just The Other Side Of Nowhere
Jody And The Kid
Good Love (Shouldn’t Feel So Bad)
The Hero
Between Heaven And Here
The Pilgrim, Chapter 33
The Wonder
To Beat The Devil
Sunday Morning Coming Down
The Silver Tongued Devil And I
For The Good Times
A Moment Of Forever
Please Don’t Tell Me How The Story Ends
Why Me Lord

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXJbtAQ-Qjo

[charlene]

http://13thfloor.co.nz/reviews/conce...april-30-2014/

Kris Kristofferson – Civic Theatre April 30, 2014

We’ve been privileged to witness a parade of brilliant songwriters over the past few weeks here in Auckland…Jason Isbell, Don Walker, Elvis Costello, Steve Earle…but as Kris Kristofferson proved last night, there are songwriters and there are songwriters. Kris kicked off his 7-city tour of New Zealand with a 36-songs set that included some of the best tunes written in the last 50 years.

Armed with just his guitar and harmonica, the 77-year-old troubadour strode out on to the stage promptly at 8pm and began the evening with the Dylanesque Shipwrecked In The Eighties. Kristofferson’s voice was stronger than I expected it to be. It has certainly weathered over time, but his character and emotion still come through.

Although he cherry-picked from his entire career, Kris obviously holds a soft spot for his earlier material (as do his fans) and he eventually played all but one tune from his 1970 debut album, beginning with Darby’s Castle and a surprisingly early Me & Bobby McGee, in which he threw in a sly reference to Janis Joplin.

Being such a master storyteller in his songs, I expected Kristofferson to be one of those performers who breaks between songs to tell long, rambling stories about his life and his work. That was not the case.

Incredibly, Kris seems to be struck by a certain amount of stage fright, and he often punctuated his songs with a quick, “thank you” and then immediately started up the next gem.

When he did speak he was self-effacing and charming. At the end of Best Of All Possible Worlds he paused and commented that he could never scat the way Roger Miller did when he recorded the song and so ended it with a broad smile instead.

During Sam’s Song, he forgot a line (not surprising considering how many lyrics he got through during the evening), quickly recovered and then noted it was his buddy Willie Nelson’s birthday.

Many of Kristofferson’s songs have become standards, but even after hearing hundreds of times over the years, tunes like Loving Her Is Easier and For The Good Times still retain their power.

For me, the high points were hearing lesser-known, but equally heart-rending tunes like Daddy’s Song and Nobody Wins, songs that were borne out of Kristofferson’s own personal experiences.

The evening was divided into two sets.

Halfway through the second set, Kris was joined on stage by his daughter Kelly, who along with her banjo and beaming smile, added harmonies to a handful of songs including Between Heaven And Here and The Pilgrim, Chapter 33. Needless to say, they sounded beautiful together.

Kris closed out the evening with a trio of classics…Sunday Morning Coming Down, The Silver Tongued Devil And I and For The Good Times.

And With his 78th birthday just a month or so away, songs like A Moment Of Forever and Please Don’t Tell Me How The Story Ends seemed even more poignant.

Chances are, this will be the last opportunity to see Kris Kristofferson perform in New Zealand…don’t miss it.

Marty Duda

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Michael Flynn:

[charlene]

http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/30...-cross-dunedin

PHOTO at link.

Standing on stage with his namesake, country music star Kris Kristofferson, Kris Collins is lost for words.

Not only is the 22-year-old named after the Country Music Hall of Famer who played at the Dunedin Town Hall last night, but he is also a keen country musician himself and often covers Kristofferson songs.

He told Kristofferson he particularly loved his song Me and Bobby McGee.

''It's amazing, a real thrill,'' Mr Collins, of Dunedin, said after the brief meeting.

Because of a chance meeting 23 years ago, Kristofferson (77) made an exception to his rule of not meeting anyone before a show to talk to Mr Collins and his parents, Dalaine Walker, of Oamaru, and Dunedin radio host and former city councillor Neil Collins.

The story is Collins' family folklore - how Neil Collins and then wife Ms Walker, who was heavily pregnant at the time, met Kristofferson in a hotel lift and got talking about babies.

Ms Walker said the couple had attended a concert by the Highwaymen (which included Kristofferson) at Athletic Park in Wellington in June 1991.

It had been a tough day, as she was eight months pregnant, but as a Kristofferson fan she had not minded, especially when they ended up riding the lift at their hotel with the musician.

The star was holding his baby daughter Kelly - who sang with her father last night - and he commented about Ms Walker's pregnancy, saying if the baby was a boy, the couple should call him Kris.

The baby was born on July 14 and while Ms Walker wanted to call him Kristopher, she gave in to her then husband's request that it be just Kris with a ''K''.

''To meet him then was fantastic. Tonight brought back very good memories. The years have just flown by,'' Ms Walker said.

- rebecca.fox@odt.co.nz

[charlene]

http://www.offthetracks.co.nz/gig-re...on-may-5-wgtn/

May 7, 2014 by Simon Sweetman
Gig Review: Kris Kristofferson (May 5, Wgtn)

KKKris Kristofferson

Monday, May 5

He’s nearly 78 years old. And there he is with just his guitar, a couple of harmonicas to rasp on occasionally and speaking of rasp – his voice. A bit of extra bark, not quite the bite of before. But you’re going to see the songwriter. You are in fact there to see the songs. If you’re there for any other reason – beyond the weight and history and majesty of the music – you’re going to easily find fault in the fluffed lines, in the way the guitar does that busker’s buzz when he steps out of a circular guitar figure, in the way it starts to feel circumlocutory.

None of that matters when you have a songwriter as fine as Kris Kristofferson and songs as fine as those from his 1970s debut, Kristofferson and from the albums that swiftly followed, particularly 1971’s The Silver Tongued Devil and I and 1972’s Jesus Was A Capricorn.

Over 30 songs trickled down from the stage, a stoic Kristofferson offering mid-song jokes and asides, sometimes rushing into the very next tune while the audience was still applauding the one before. KK guitar

It was all about the songs.

And that’s understandable when you’re dealing with Darby’s Castle and Me and Bobby McGee, Help Me Make It Through The Night and Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again), all somewhat remarkably served up in the first set.

After a short interval there were more great songs – but the second set started to meander at times. Even with a few songs shared with daughter, Kelly.

Yes, it might have been better with a sympathetic instrumentalist, a stronger guitar player perhaps. But there was something mesmeric and so powerful in the vulnerability on offer. If he seemed, at times, at little frail the songs only grew stronger. Sunday Morning Coming Down, obviously. It gets better with the years. And For The Good Times, now a real heartbreaker. KK Tour

The show was not about ego, not a victory lap, it was a reminder of the power in a great narrative song.

[charlene]

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture...interview-0514

KRIS KRISTOFFERSON IS STILL LIVING HIS EPIC LIFE
The fog descends and the memory is fickle, and a songwriter to compare with the greatest songwriters ever is having some trouble summoning his own lyrics. But at seventy-seven, by God, with his old Gibson, and his harmonica, he's sharing the secrets of his soul.

By Turk Pipkin on May 12, 2014

Published in the May 2014 issue, part of our music section

The Crest Theatre in Sacramento is an old movie palace, one of those places from another time that was magnificent in its day, then spent a long time empty and abandoned, only to be revived by somebody who saw some life there still and knew a good thing when he saw it. And so the Crest is magnificent again.

What Sacramento lacks in magnificence, it makes up for in authenticity. Like one of those places that Kris Kristofferson might write a song about. And so it seems right natural to see the man up there onstage, singing what he says is his favorite of the many songs he has written.

"Busted flat in Baton Rouge, heading for the trains, feeling nearly faded as my jeans …"

All around me, a thousand people sway and sing along, eyes fixed on the man standing onstage alone, with just his old Gibson and a harmonica. Janis Joplin made this a blues song when she made it famous, because every time she opened her mouth blues came out, but coming from Kristofferson the song is more straight up and down, a country song. The fact that his voice is not great has always been its greatness. Like the voice of his Texas compadre Townes Van Zandt, Kristofferson's never quite seemed to take flight, but his being stuck down here with the rest of us mortals made him that much more one of us. It's a voice held together by scars, and the songs that he made up out of his imagination always had the benefit of being founded on some kind of truth, like that voice in your ear you just know is right.

Kristofferson will tell you the same thing. One day he stepped up to the first tee of Willie Nelson's nine-hole golf course, out west of Austin. Driver in hand, slick cowboy boots on his feet, Kris promptly sliced one into the woods.

"Nobody ever accused me of being a golfer," he said.

"No one ever accused you of being a singer, either," Willie replied.

Tonight's his last date in the States for a while—who knows when he'll be back? This show is actually a political benefit, with the proceeds going to local sustainable-agriculture causes and to the support of industrial hemp. But there are no political speeches from the stage, and something as prosaic as politics might just ruin this moment, anyway. And that would be a terrible shame.

"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose, and nothing ain't worth nothing, but it's free… ."

Beside me, a couple hugs close. The woman reaches up to wipe a tear from her cheek. She turns to the man and smiles sweetly. There is something almost unbearably intimate about this setting and something almost unbearably vulnerable about the man standing up there by himself.

It's not the way he looks, because he looks great. Kristofferson's in black and wearing the same pair of cowboy boots he's worn for thirty years. He still has the lean flanks of the boxer he was coming out of Brownsville. His cheekbones, cut from granite, are tight-wrapped in the kind of wrinkles you get from laughing hard for a long time. As he's aged, his eyes have receded deeper into the geology of his face, deep-blue pools set back in a way that makes you look at them more intently. And the surest sign of his years is in his voice: The deepest baritone will erode to a higher pitch in an old man, and so it is with Kristofferson, whose voice has gone a bit feathery now. You might say that his voice has finally caught up to his words.

The man is seventy-seven years old.

"I'd trade all my tomorrows for a single yesterday… ."

These solo performances are still pretty new for him, ever since Steve Bruton up and died, way too young and way too soon for Kris. Bruton was his bandleader and friend for forty years, and when he died at sixty in 2009, Kristofferson decided that he wasn't going to stop performing, he couldn't stop if he wanted to, and that he would just go it alone from here on out. A solo act at seventy-three, still selling out theaters from here to South Africa and Australia and New Zealand, where he's headed for a long spell after he leaves California. He can't perform enough these days, almost as if he has so much left to do and is just trying to get it all in.

His finishes up the song and says a quick "Thank you" before reaching over to change harmonicas. "Me and Bobby McGee" is obviously a sincere experience for the thousand present, and they let him know it, loud and long. Without another word, he starts "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down," and just like that we are all on that sleeping city sidewalk, knowing what it's like to be alone.

When he comes to the line "I don't care what's right or wrong" in "Help Me Make It Through the Night," he can't help but add "Yes, I do."

And then something happens, almost imperceptible. A change comes over him, a slight hitch in the song, a slight disorientation behind his eyes. The poetry that came out of his own mind as a younger man—he can't quite find it, and, well, he is confused. He looks out, imploring, "Did I already sing this verse?" The past couple years have seen his memory slip. His mind is no longer as sharp as it once was.

The crowd laughs, relieving the moment, and he glances at the iPad prompter at his feet to check. Sitting to the side of the stage and streaming his lyrics in case he needs them, his wife, Lisa, laughs and nods her head.

Kristofferson laughs at himself and reads the next few lines of his song. When he sings "This may be our last good night together," the crowd knows it's more than a line in a love song.

Full disclosure: Kris Kristofferson ruined my education.

In 1972, I was a freshman at the University of Texas with a heavy course load, two crappy jobs, and absolutely no direction. One day, I wandered into Inner Sanctum Records and picked up an album that had just arrived that day. It was called The Silver Tongued Devil and I, and it was by this guy from south Texas, Kris Kristofferson.

I didn't know anything about Kristofferson, except that he had written that amazing Janis Joplin song, and, buddy, that was good enough for me.

Back at my apartment, I listened to the record again and again. From the heartbreak of Jody and the Kid to the love and loss of a junkie friend named Billy Dee, I was entranced by the stories in his songs and the words in his rhymes, and they changed me. He sang of a freedom, love, and longing that I wanted to get started on right away.

You might say I was impressionable.

One day later, I quit the college I couldn't afford and started my search down a lot of wrong turns and dead ends. Under the incorrigible influence of Kris Kristofferson, this straight-arrow kid from west Texas realized that you don't have to do what's expected, that you can follow your own road and just see where it takes you.

I didn't know that after a Rhodes scholarship to study Blake, Kristofferson had followed his road to the Army as a helicopter pilot. He had even passed through Ranger school before turning down an assignment to teach English literature at West Point, choosing instead to take a job as a janitor at Columbia Records in Nashville—just to be nearer the life he meant to be living. I didn't know that his family never quite forgave him for turning his back on respectability.

He was sweeping floors in the halls as Dylan recorded Blonde on Blonde, but he couldn't bring himself to approach the reclusive Dylan for fear of being fired, an uncharacteristic timidity that he would soon make up for. Working weekends flying choppers for oil companies, Kristofferson had written a new batch of songs while sitting on a drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico, and one day, during a National Guard training flight in Nashville, he made a detour and landed his helicopter in Johnny Cash's backyard. It was Cash who would record Kristofferson's number-one hit "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down," starting a long string of hits that would see him win his first Grammy for "Help Me Make It Through the Night," a song inspired, Kristofferson says, by a quote from Frank Sinatra he had read in Esquire. Asked what he believed in, Sinatra said: "Booze, broads, or a Bible … whatever helps me make it through the night."

I didn't know any of that, because my dusty road out of Texas had taken me to a gig in the Navy and a cruiser in the Pacific, where, among other things, I was a part-time ship's projectionist, trying to get ahold of Kristofferson films because by then he was becoming a genuine movie star. I managed to trade films with another ship for a copy of Paul Mazursky's Blume in Love, starring George Segal and Kristofferson. When I say we traded films, I mean a giant cable was slung between two massive ships moving on a parallel track at twelve knots, and the film canisters were slid on pulleys above the churning waves.

Much to my relief, my fellow sailors had refined tastes and loved the quirky little movie about a guy who's in love with his ex-wife (and with her hippie boyfriend, Elmo, played by Kristofferson). For the next few weeks, Elmo's catchphrase was heard all over the ship. No matter how tough the challenge, there was "Nothing to it."

He still uses that line, even when it's not necessarily true.

part 2 in next post:

[charlene]

PART TWO:
Three years ago, I saw him tape an episode of Austin City Limits, and for the first time that I'd ever noticed, he seemed nervous and had trouble remembering some of the lines to his songs.

Now, I hadn't been so bold as to go and land my chopper on Kris-tofferson's lawn, but because life is funny and life is good, Kris and I had met by then and become friends. And backstage that evening was the first time he apologized to me in advance for his porous memory.

"My memory's not that good," he said. "I don't like it, but you can't go back and undo the concussions. The doctors say the concussions I had playing football and boxing have added up to me not remembering everything I should, so don't be surprised if I go blank on something," he warned me, his eyes searching mine.

An hour later, he told me the same thing again.

Backstage in Sacramento, I struck up a conversation with a big, friendly guy named Bucky Kahler.

"What's your connection to Kris?" I asked.

"I'm his best friend," Bucky beamed. "Since the fifth grade, when he moved from Brownsville to San Mateo. We did everything together, including football and boxing. It's the concussions from football that are hurting him now."

"I know he was a Golden Gloves boxer, but did you see him get tagged a lot?"

"I tagged him a few times myself," Bucky says. (And from the looks of him, he learned how to use his mitts.) "Tagged him hard. I wish I hadn't, but I did. We just didn't know."

Kris loved his early life in the Rio Grande Valley and credits those years with teaching him how to see the world. "South Texas seemed like the Garden of Eden," he told me recently. "I loved the flowers and the orchards and the ruby-red grapefruits. Brownsville was more Mexico than Texas, and that I loved.

"My mother once took me to a big parade for Jose Lopez, a guy from Brownsville who'd won the Medal of Honor. There was a lot of prejudice against Mexicans then, and at this whole parade we were the only Anglos in the audience. I'll never forget it. That was the kind of thing my parents did that gave me a sense of what I should do. That day affected the way I've lived every day since.

"And along the way, I felt like it was my duty, whether people wanted to hear what I had to say about the Contras or nukes or not, that it was my responsibility to speak up, and if I didn't live up to it I wouldn't be doing what God wanted me to do. A lot of people probably think I'm a Marxist or something," he says, laughing. "Hell, I'm not even a good Democrat. I don't much care for politics. It's about doing what you think is right.

"There was a thing Blake said that always rang with me: 'If he who is organized by the Divine for spiritual communion should refuse and bury his various talent in the earth, even though he should want natural bread, sorrow and desperation shall pursue him throughout life, and after death, shame and confusion are faced to eternity.' "

(It must be noted that the man with the fading memory recited Blake perfectly.)

"So if you're given the tools, you have a responsibility to use them," he says. "I'm doing what I'm cut out to do, the best thing I can do, until they throw dirt on me."

"I'm seventy-seven," he says. "For my family, I'm getting close to the end of the line. But I got a little wear left on these boots and I'm in no rush to get there."

On his feet that night in Sacramento, at the golf course outside Austin, and nearly every other time I've seen him, Kristofferson has been wearing the same pair of beat-up cowboy boots.

"They've brought me lots of luck."

A lot of people don't end up thinking they've been lucky.

"Why wouldn't I feel lucky? So many good things have happened in my life it makes me feel like someone else was writing the script."

So, after all these years, did your song come true? Did you beat the devil?

"I guess maybe I did. I'm pleased to find that I'm just grateful for the way my life has been. Lisa and I have been married for thirty-three years, the people who are my heroes ended up being my friends, and I've got eight children who love me. I don't know how much more I could want."

For a couple decades now, Kris has meant to publish his memoirs, to write his life down in what would be an epic book. The press releases from various publishing houses have noted that Kristofferson, being more than enough of a writer himself, would be writing "without benefit of a coauthor." The last release, from 2003, quoted him with regard to the prospect of telling his life story: "William Blake said, 'The road to excess leads to the palace of wisdom.' We'll see."

The last anyone heard, the book was supposed to have come out in 2005. Since then, the publisher has kept a respectful silence. Lisa says that Kris would still like to write the book, someday.

On Oscar night this year, the phone rang. It was Kris. All the excitement from Hollywood on the television had him thinking back on that part of his life. He has been in ninety-three films. "One benefit of my memory slipping is I don't remember all my movies. So I'm really enjoying watching lots of them again. My favorites are A Star Is Born with Barbra Streisand and the one with, um, you know, he's nominated tonight … McConaughey! … where I played the badass sheriff. It's called … it's called …

"Lone Star!"

Years ago, I wrote a Christmas novel called When Angels Sing, and I used Kris as inspiration for a character called the Colonel, a retired Air Force pilot who is emotionally estranged from his son. Last year, a film based on the book went into production, to a great extent because both Kris and Willie agreed to act in it.

The love Kris feels for Willie cannot be overstated.

"Willie had been the hero of serious songwriters in Nashville," he's told me. "We knew all his songs. I remember waiting at his farm where he lived outside of Nashville. I went there and just waited, but I never saw him. The first time I met Willie was in Mexico, on the set of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Willie came down to visit. I had him play some songs for Sam Peckinpah. When Willie played, Bob Dylan was in the room, and Bob was so knocked out that he asked Willie to keep playing, and Willie played all day long on the floor in the room.

"He's the great artist of our lifetime. You and I will never meet another artist like him… . Willie will be the last to go. I'm not sure he's meant to die, ever."

When it comes to expressions of love, Kris's mind is as clear as a bright-blue sky. And because your heroes sometimes become your friends, one day I found myself on the set of this movie with Kristofferson, Harry Connick Jr., Connie Britton, Willie, and a supporting cast of Texas music greats. In the scene, the family was singing Christmas carols at a holiday gathering, and Kris, as the Colonel, kept forgetting the final line of an emotional exchange with Connick's character, Michael. It was actually one word he was forgetting, and it was very moving to watch him search his mind for it, take after take. "Michael, I'm not …" he'd say, then he'd go blank, cuss himself, and we'd start again. "Michael, I'm not … Michael, I'm not …" As his frustration grew, I decided to write the word he was forgetting on the palm of my hand, where he could see it, as a spur to memory—the way Lisa stands nearby him with a prompter, to remind him of the words he himself once dreamed up that are now leaving him. But on the last take, without looking at me, the word came to him.

"Michael, I'm not senile!" Kristofferson said.

Then he turned to me. "Nothing to it," he said.