Kris Kristofferson
A great song-writer. R.I.P.
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@slaw: Me too Steve, as well as a few of his with Rita, and her solo. I don't know why I didn't get into them back in the 70's, but better late than never. I became acquainted with Billy Swan when we both lived in Sherman Oaks, CA. He served as Kris'es band leader/guitarist/harmony singer for years, and is pictured on the back of T Bone Burnett's Truth Decay album. He told me about seeing Elvis, Scotty, and Bill Black perform on the back of a flatbed truck in 1956. That was before D.J. Fontana had been hired to play drums with the trio. I was impressed.
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All right, here’s another with the same guitarist as in the above video---Jedd Hughes, wherein he talks about an album in my all-time Top 10, The Houston Kid by Rodney Crowell. He also speaks about Emmylou, as well as Buddy Miller, Albert Lee, and Richard Thompson, three of my favorite guitarists.
https://youtu.be/eNsLNY6YruY?si=Mo3ipX_DDl1XzA1R
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I’ll do that Matthew.
Speaking of YouTube, singer/songwriter Otis Gibbs regularly posts videos of his interviews with (mostly) musicians, many of them Country. Here’s one of my favorites:
https://youtu.be/_7PT_f5G5z8?si=eZSr5nnq6bSDvZfG
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@bdp24 , I don’t know beans about the banjo (or any other string instrument) but I could tell just by watching and listening to the guy that he was crazy good. What I really got a kick out of was how deadpan he was the whole time , every time. I remember watching an episode in which he did one of his smoking solos and when the number was over, Glen Cambell said something to the effect (and I am paraphrasing) that he had the best 5 string banjo player alive on his show; Larry McNeely simply mouthed a silent "Thank you." I really enjoyed that. And then Jerry Reed would play along side Larry McNeely and he (Jerry Reed) was anything but deadpan. Every time he looked like he was just having the most fun in the world. People are always talking about people that come off as someone they’d like to have a beer with, and that’s the way Jerry Reed always came off to me. If you are ever bored, search out some of those episodes of Glen Campbell’s Good Time Hour on Tubi (or probably youtube), I bet you’ll get as big a kick out of it as I did.
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Matthew: Larry McNeely! I have an album of his, Live At McCabe’s (Takoma Records), the well known acoustic instrument shop on Pico Blvd. in Santa Monica (a favorite haunt of Ry Cooder). There is a concert venue in the back of the store; I saw Van Dyke Parks there in the 90’s. The two other players on the album (of Bluegrass music) are Jack Skinner and Geoff Levin, the latter a member of the San Jose group People (a 1-Hit Wonder, with a 1968 cover of The Zombies "I Love You"), whom I saw live many times in 1965 through 1969. In ’69 my teenage Garage Band opened for them at The Cocoanut Grove Ballroom on the boardwalk in Santa Cruz. Ah, memories.
Both Glen Campbell and Jerry Reed were excellent guitarists, very high paid session musicians before becoming performing stars. Glen in the L.A. studios (as a member of The Wrecking Crew), Jerry in Nashville.
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Steve Earle does have a way with words. I probably suffer from the aging process which has an effect on the way I remember "the good old days." Although, at the time, I didn’t think of those days as all that great. And although I listened to it (then) because my choices were limited, (then) I didn’t care for what I think was then mainstream as much as I like it now. I think back and what I think of then being "mainstream country" strikes me as being more honest than what I consider "mainstream country" now. However, that may not be entirely true. A while back ago I bored and surfing youtube and watching segments of the Buck Owens show (which I used to watch on a fairly regular basis back in the old days) and it reminded me that I was not all that crazy about all of his guests. I am more forgiving of Tanya Tucker now than I was then, but I still don’t like the Hager brothers (I remember seeing them at a state fair in ’77) and I never did like that guy who bore a suspicious resemblance to Buck Owens and that he (Owens) frequently had on as a guest and there were quite a few others that struck me the same way back then. It could be that the performers/artists that I remember more fondly were the exception and not the rule. Lastly, I will say that I once went on a binge of watching The Glen Campbell Good Time Hour (not to be confused with The Charlie Manson Good Time Hour) reruns on Tubi, and I completely loved it. I get the impression that Glen Campbell’s "innocent routine" was pretty much a facade, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the interaction of Jerry Reed (who always looked like he was having nothing but a great time) with anybody (in particular the banjo player, Larry McNeely) and he had a lot of great guests. | |
@immatthew: Yeah, the lines separating Country & Western, Hillbilly, Bluegrass, Folk, Singer/Songwriter, etc. are not clear cut. And it was---imo---the emergence of Garth Brooks, Shania Twain, etc. that led "mainstream/commercial" Country music to lose it’s credibility. Steve Earle declared Shania to be "the highest paid lap dancer in Nashville." But remember at one of the long-ago Country music awards ceremonies when Charlie Rich opened the envelope containing that year’s winner of some category, saw the winner’s name, then pulled out his lighter and set the card on fire? The winner was John Denver, whom Charlie obviously had no respect for. In retaliation, the Nashville business establishment black-balled Charlie for the rest of his life. John Denver Country? Not imo. On the other hand, the "New Traditionalist" movement of the 1980’s produced a new generation of real Country artists: Steve Earle, Randy Travis, Patty Loveless (love Patty!), k.d. Lang, George Strait, Clint Black, Alan Jackson, Ricky Skaggs, Rodney Crowell, Jimmy Dale Gilmore, Vince Gill, Keith Whitley, Dwight Yoakam, Marty Stuart, and Lyle Lovett, all equally Country as the guys and gals from the 50’s and 60’s.
I recently went to a small club in Portland to hear a new favorite Country singer and songwriter of mine---Brennen Leigh, and at one point in the show she mocked the term Americana, opining that the term was used in the effort to make Country music cool to those who don’t view it as such. In her opinion, Country is already cool, and requires no validation from those who don’t think likewise. Before Americana, there was the Alt-Country movement, spearheaded by the likes of Uncle Tupelo (members included Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar). And before that there was the Cow Punk scene, which was pretty big in Los Angeles. Both Alt-Country and Cow Punk were Country music made for Rock music audiences, and while I appreciated the band’s of that music’s apparent love of Country music, to me it sounded like kids attempting to play adult music.
There will never be another Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell, Hank Thompson, Johnny Horton (his greatest hits album was my first LP purchase), Bob Wills, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens (though Dwight Yoakam is sure trying
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@garebear , I am inclined to agree with you. I remember growing up in Montana and listening to AM country radio stations and hearing Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynne and Charlie Pride and Glen Campbell and Johnny Cash and Kris and Waylon and Willie and Buck Owens and Roy Clark and Freddy Fender and even Kenny Rodgers and so on and so on . . . and that is what I remember being as mainstream Country & Western at the time. I might be wrong, but it seems that mainstream Country & Western became, at a certain point and I don’t exactly remember when, Garth Brookes and Toby Keith and a lot of performers that I don’t know the names of but that strike me as Country-Pop. I do like Emmy Lou Harris and I am glad she is still around, and I like the Millers and Iris Dement and Steve Earle and Lucinda and Allison Krause and I can think of others . . . but the thing is, I don’t feel they meet the criteria for being in the C&W genre anymore. As a matter of fact, I am pretty sure that back when I was going to the CD store and buying CDs, those artists were not found in the "Country" section, but were actually in the "Alternative Folk" or maybe even the "Folk" sections of the store. Which, although related to Country, is in my mind a different genre.
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For those who haven’t heard it, Gordon Lightfoot’s recording of Kris’ "Me And Bobby McGee" is a great version (it’s on his If You Could Read My Mind album, originally issued as Sit Down Young Stranger). As a bonus, it features excellent recorded sound quality. In Country music, there is no show of respect greater than for one songwriter to record another’s song. Merle Haggard recorded Iris DeMent’s devastating "No Time To Cry", and while a good version it doesn’t come close to Iris’ own.
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Hello bdp24 ...and no offense taken as I understand where you are coming from. I guess I have looked at " the real country music " with the artists such as ; Willie, Johnny, Waylon, Hank, and Kris Kristopherson along with Merle and lets nit forget the country ladies as well. I have seen Emily Lou, Rodney, Lucinda and John Hiatt many times in my life and always have enjoyed them in my home. Let's not forget that the 90's was a great time for country and I think and again my opinion, he last time that good country music was being made. I am actually heading to Nashville in December to The Mavericks play and have caught them twice already this year on their 2024 tour. Great band and hopefully you have seem them live ......you know Luke Bryan for current country music isn't bad. I just don's think think Hank would have played it this a way ........enjoy | |
@garebear: Not to be argumentative---and appreciating the sentiment expressed directly above---but now is also a time when Country is Country and is good music. Sure, not the stuff on the radio or awards shows (except for the annual Americana Music Association Honors & Awards Show), but in the underground/cult scene. For those old enough to remember it, it’s very much as things were in 1967-8 when underground FM radio stations started playing Rock, Blues, and Psychedelic music for listeners who wanted more than what Top 40 AM radio was offering. There is a very healthy, active "Traditional" Country Music community making a LOT of great music, but you have to look for it. I could name a hundred artists, but I’ve already done that here a number of times. If the names Buddy Miller, Rodney Crowell, Steve Earle, Iris DeMent, Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch, Jim Lauderdale, and John Hiatt don’t mean anything to you, well, you have a very pleasant surprise awaiting you. And those are just a few of the better known artists. I could easily name a couple dozen lesser known (but not lesser talented) artists. You’ll notice the list is made up of solo artists, not bands. That’s because in Country music, it is the song that is King. Rock music is dominated by bands, because it is often the sound a band produces that is what listeners like about their music. In Country it has always been the song. The well known Country songwriter Harlan Howard coined the term "Three chords and the truth" to characterize Country music.
Somewhat as a reaction to the Psychedelic music of the mid-to-late-60’s, there was a contemporary musical movement that can be characterized as "Back-to-the-roots". The roots of Rock ’n’ Roll, essentially. Those roots were basically 2-fold: the 1- Hillbilly music and the 2- Jump Blues music that the white Southern young men like Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Buddy Holly, and dozens more were hearing on the radio (radio was the main source of entertainment in the 1940’s and ear;y-50’s). Elvis and the rest were also sneaking across town in Memphis to hear the Jump Blues bands plating in the "Colored" Juke Joints. That late-60’s search led back to Hillbilly music, the name originally given to Country & Western. Hillbilly came in a couple of different flavors, the most potent being Bluegrass. Elvis original releases---five Sun Records singles (released on both 7" 45 RPM and 10" 78’s)---contain a Hillbilly song on one side, and a Jump Blues on the other. He is often accused of "stealing" the music from the Negroes, but a comparison of his version of "Hound Dog" to the original by Big mama Thornton quickly dispels that myth. Elvis transformed both Hillbilly and Jump Blues into the original Rock ’n’ Roll: Rockabilly. Every decade since the late-60’s (when the Counterculture generation started listening to and playing Country music) has produced it’s own group of Country artists, both "good" and "bad". Of course good and bad are a matter of opinion, and taste.
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Hi Jafant, good to hear from you. I'm in temporary quarters with all analog in storage, but still enjoying digital sources, a modified BAT tube amp, and probably finalized with ye olde Merlin VSMs upgraded with Purify 6.5" drivers with matching passive radiators, contoured by a Manley Massive Passive analog EQ. Most DIY energy has transitioned to the resto-mod of an old Lotus Esprit owned since new. | |
To me he was very much of a man of the times, a troubadour, Zelig, and mostly back- to mid-field player with a light touch who showed up almost everywhere that mattered(in music Cash, Joplin, Coolidge, Webb; in film Peckinpah, Cimino, Sayles), broadly educated(military, oil rig roughneck, helicopter pilot, Pomona, Oxford). Great instincts and lots of courage. | |
Kris was the quintessential "Man for all Seasons". Laborer, Writer, singer, actor, Army Ranger and Rhodes Scholar. He requested that the first three lines of Leonard Cohen's "Bird on a wire" be on his tombstone. "Like a bird on the wire Like a drunk in a midnight choir I have tried in my way to be free". And so you are Kris, and so you are. | |
@mcstin: Carlene is quite a gal. She was married to Nick Lowe for a while, then Tom Petty’s bass player Howie Epstein. Lowe wrote a song called "Homewrecker", and I’ve long wondered if it was she to whom he was referring. Carlene was brought on stage at some big Nashville awards ceremony, and her greeting to the audience---which included her ma June Carter and her step-pa Johnny Cash---was "Howdy, I’m Carlene Carter, and I put the c*unt back in Country."
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I went to a John Mellencamp concert six or seven years ago. Carleen Carter was the opener. Her music was okay, but she told some great stories. After her mom married Johnny Cash, they bought a house and property in Tennessee. She ( about 12 years old) and the other kids were outside playing when they heard a helicopter landing on the property. She said the helicopter door opened and Kris stepped out wearing black leather pants. She said she didn’t know a man could be that pretty! She said she had thoughts a twelve year old girl should not be having. | |
... I meant, it's not easy to do well. It's extremely easy to do badly! Another version of the same song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRy53fb_7Sc
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What a great song writer. Even though he wrote great songs that other artist borrowed and made famous, I always felt that the best versions were of him singing them in that stressed strained voice of his. So sad to think that his parents disowned him when he decided to move to Nashville and pursue his music dream and not continue with his military career. RIP and enjoy the music | |
I’ve always loved his masterful use of imagery. He managed to utilize extremely poetic language to describe painful/gritty circumstances -- not easy to do! One of his classics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCgnbRWVvU8
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