Kris Kristofferson
‘This Old Road’
(New West)

Kris Kristofferson always identified himself first and foremost as a writer, and true writers know that what works best is giving a piece of themselves to the listener.

With his latest album, ‘This Old Road’, Kristofferson lays a chunk of his own soul on every track. This beautifully sparse recording, produced by Don Was (Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones ), puts an emphasis on his fine lyrics and distinctive voice by featuring Kristofferson, his guitar, and harmonica.

Subtle accompaniment is added by Was ( bass, piano, backing vocals ), long-time sidekick Stephen Bruton ( guitar, mandolin, backing vocals ) and Jim Keltner ( drums ).

The album is so intimate it makes the listener feel as if they are sitting in Kristofferson’s living-room while he picks and sings just for them.

Kristofferson’s story is fairly well known: he had a dream—along with the necessary talent and ambition—to become a songwriter. After turning down a teaching position at West Point, the Rhodes Scholar hoped to get his foot in the door of the music business by taking a job as a janitor at Columbia Records.

Now Kristofferson has reached living legend status, but that hasn’t changed or hindered his skills. ‘This Old Road’ contains eleven gems that explore love, gratitude, aging, war, and his ever-present theme of freedom.

If you took freedom out of the songs, you’d have very few Kristofferson songs, he laughs.
“If I had to describe it in one word, I’d say it’s honest,” he says of ‘This Old Road’. “It’s all pretty close to the bone, about my own personal journey. It’s about what sense I've made of my life up to now.”

Kristofferson says a recent return to the road without his band helped to put a focus on the songs. “There’s an honesty in the sparseness. It feels like direct communication to the listener,” he says. “I still have more fun when I’m with the band, but being alone is freer, somehow. It’s like being an old blues guy, just completely stripped away.”

The tunes cover deeply emotional and personal territory. ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ (a sort of sequel to his beloved classic ‘Chapter 33’) is a song that Kristofferson says, tells the truth, a progress report.