Kristofferson

A return to country-rock after the smash success of Stardust the year before, this is one of Willie Nelson's best albums. Admittedly, it doesn't withstand comparisons to Shotgun Willie or any of his earlier triumphs, but it holds up as one of his most enjoyable second-stringers. "Me and Bobby McGee" is given an exciting, thunderous performance and "Why Me" is terrific, but perhaps more memorable are Nelson's renditions of lesser-known Kristofferson treasures, such as the loping "The Pilgrim, Chapter 33" and the beautiful "Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends." As he demonstrated from the beginning, Nelson had one of the best interpretive gifts of any singer, and this album only strengthened that reputation.

Kristoffer ("Kris") Kristofferson has been an active force in the entertainment industry for the past half century. An influential singer/songwriter who changed the contours of American country music with the lyrical insight and penetrating honesty of his songs, a US Army veteran (who served from 1960-1965, achieving the rank of Captain) and former Oxford University Rhodes Scholar who won a Golden Globes Best Actor Award (for his starring role opposite Barbra Streisand in the 1976 movie smash "A Star Is Born"), Kris Kristofferson is both a multi-faceted artist and a bonafide American icon. This disc originally recorded 1970 & released 2016.

A Star Is Born is the soundtrack album to the motion picture of the same name. Of course, the main drawing card here is "Love Theme From 'A Star Is Born' (Evergreen)", the number one hit. Spurred by the hit single and the box office success of the film, A Star Is Born was the best-selling album of Barbra Streisand's career up to this point. "Evergreen", co-written by Streisand and Williams, won Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal.

Border Lord was a crucial album for Kris Kristofferson. After five years of scuffling in Nashville, he had broken through in 1970-1971 largely because of a series of song hits recorded by others, though his first two albums, Kristofferson (aka Me and Bobby McGee) and The Silver Tongued Devil and I had enjoyed healthy sales, the latter even spawning a Top 40 pop hit in "Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)." But he needed to consolidate that success and even increase it, especially as a recording artist. Yet, as is so often the case, he was afforded precious little time to craft his next work. Border Lord, which, like its predecessors, was an album of all-original compositions, was in record stores only seven months after The Silver Tongued Devil and I, and it was his third such collection in 20 months.

Kris Kristofferson has complained that no album he released after 1972's Jesus Was a Capricorn was given any promotion, and 1974's Spooky Lady's Sideshow is the first record that falls into that category. If his statement is true, it is understandable why Monument Records would have refrained from a major campaign on behalf of the album. Record companies tend to reserve their greatest promotional effort for developing artists who show commercial promise, expecting established artists to fend for themselves. And at the time of the release of Spooky Lady's Sideshow, the company probably considered Kristofferson an established artist; after all, two of his last three albums had gone gold, and he had hit number one in the country singles charts the year before with the gold-selling "Why Me" while at the same time topping the country albums charts twice, with Jesus Was a Capricorn and his duo album with Rita Coolidge, Full Moon.

Kristofferson sounds unusually relaxed, though his wheezy vocals, augmented by Utley, Bruton, Coolidge, and Billy Swan, are no better than usual. Shake Hands With the Devil became Kristofferson's first album not to reach the charts at all, though surprisingly "Prove It to You One More Time Again" got into the lower reaches of the country singles charts.

Two legendary artists together in a unique 1994 music & spoken word performance at the famous venue chaired radio host Vince Scelsa.