Kris Kristofferson

One of country music's most important songwriters reluctantly delivered this debut album in 1970, daring country fans to accept his combination of Nashville roots and hippie politics. No one bought it, but almost everyone in Music City covered a song off of it. Thirty years later, the record is nothing less than prophetic and Kristofferson's talent is startling.

After a two-year stint as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford, where he studied the visionary poetry
of William Blake, and a tour as a captain in the United States Army, during which he sang at
bases throughout Germany, Kris Kristofferson settled in Nashville in 1965. Working as a
janitor at the Columbia Recording Studios and as a helicopter pilot, Kristofferson trained his
sights on the Nashville establishment and began composing one of the great song... More >

"Me and Bobby McGee" is only the beginning--this former Rhodes scholar is as deft and common as any songwriter in Nashville, though he's better off keeping it personal with a heartbreak song like "For the Good Times" than justifying his scruffy appearance with penny-ante satire like "Blame It on the Stones." But he's the worst singer I've ever heard. It's not that he's off key--he has no relation to key. He also has no phrasing, no dynamics, no energy, no authority, no dramatic ability, and no control of the top two-thirds of his six-note range. Recommended to demo collectors. (Grade - C)