KRIS Kristofferson commences his Irish tour at Mount Errigal Hotel, Letterkenny, tomorrow, and plays Dublin's Mean Fiddler on Monday, June 3rd. A multi talented but distinctly linear individual, Kristofferson has written more than a handful of insightful, quite powerful mainstream country songs (Me And Bobby McGee, Sunday Morning Going Down, and Help Me Make It Through The Night, to name but three) that fused rebel hippie sensibilities with folk/country perspectives. He might not be as high profile a star as he used to be but an adventurous integrity still manages to shine through him.
The son of a two star general, Kris Kristofferson is the only country singer to have received a Rhodes scholarship to attend Oxford University, where his passion for literature his primary ambition then was to become a novelist was transfused with a love of pop and country music. Kristofferson's early years in Nashville proved the making of him as a songwriter of note, and as a man who chronicled his rather more desperate moments in a series of controversially honest vignettes. Eventually, luminaries such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Roger Miller recorded Kristofferson's songs, and by 1970 he was considered to be one of country music's most promising acts.
From then to now, Kristofferson's career has been like a rollercoaster ride unbridled highs coupled with fathomless lows, the latter brought about by a fondness for the demon drink and an accompanying dazed attitude to his creative needs. A very successful and mostly credible film career (he has worked with, among others, Martin Scorsese, Sam Peckinpah, Paul Mazursky, and Michael Cimino) threatened to transcend his outlaw country star status, but this was typically tossed aside due to lack of aggressive determination and concentration.
