Record Label: Atlantic
Released:1999
All songs by Kris Kristofferson, except where noted
Sunday Morning Coming Down
The Silver Tongued Devil And I
Help Me Make It Through The Night
Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)
To Beat The Devil
Who's To Bless And Who's To Blame
Why Me?
Nobody Wins
Pilgrim: Chapter 33
Please Don't Tell Me How The Story Ends
Kris Kristofferson is one of the finest and most influential songwriters Nashville ever has seen, having written some of country music's most seminal tunes of the past 30 years. It wasn't just his hit-making ability that made him important, though, but the attitudinal shift that marked songs like the libidinous "Help Me Make It Through the Night" and the hitchhiking hippie anthem "Me and Bobby McGee," both of which revolutionized Music City's staid mores.
While Kristofferson's songs may have set country music on its collective ear, his own records never did, with his stiff, gravelly vocals undoing even his A-list material. On The Austin Sessions, Kristofferson gives his best stuff one more try. While that hardly makes for easy listening, it's staggering to hear to these songs, nearly every one a classic, laid end-to-end. With spare instrumentation (including contributions from Vince Gill and Jackson Browne), Kristofferson runs through gregarious, loose-limbed versions of the above-mentioned tunes, plus the sad kiss-off "For the Good Times," the hangover anthem "Sunday Morning Coming Down," and the prayerful "Why Me?" among others.
Re-recording hits for a new record company -- in this case, Atlantic -- is the oldest trick in the book, but Kristofferson manages to give these songs a fresh spin. The Austin Sessions likely won't do for Kristofferson what American Recordings did for fellow Highwayman Johnny Cash, but it should earn him the respect he deserves as an American original
-Daniel Durchholz