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Record Review: Kris Kristofferson, 'This Old Road'
By L. KENT WOLGAMOTT / Lincoln Journal Star
Friday, Mar 24, 2006 - 12:01:28 am CST

Kris Kristofferson got his due in Austin last week — honored by the Texas film community, interviewed on stage at the South By Southwest Music Conference while playing two rapturously received shows. Those performances included some of his greatest hits, such as “Me & Bobby McGee,” but they were also filled with songs from “This Old Road,” his stunning new album.

A rugged, stripped-down affair that’s mostly Kristofferson on acoustic guitar with his ragged voice delivering his powerful, poetic lyrics, “This Old Road” is most easily compared to Johnny Cash’s “American Recordings,” which brought him a new audience and renewed respect late in his career.

But there’s a major difference: Kristofferson writes his material and he’s got plenty to say, taking on the passing of his fellow Highwaymen Cash and Waylon Jennings on “The Last Thing to Go” and the album-closing “The Final Attraction” while name-dropping Native activist/singer John Trudell, Steve Earle and Merle Haggard on “Wild American,” a song praising individualists who stood their ground.

Still steadfastly political, Kristofferson throws a solid anti-war punch on “In the News,” brings back “The Burden of Freedom,” a song that has rung true since it first appeared in 1972, and argues for revolution, prayer, respect and compassion on “Pilgrim’s Progress.”

That sense of reverence continues through “Holy Creation,” a touching song about faith and family, and the gentle “Thank You for a Life,” a look back as he approaches 70.

Joined by producer Don Was, drummer Jim Keltner and his longtime bandmate Stephen Bruton, Kristofferson swings through a clear-eyed take on addiction, “Chase the Feeling.” Bruton also supplies guitar for “The Show Goes On,” a meditation on a rock ’n’ roll life.

Kristofferson’s still not a great singer — he once told me his voice sounds like a “damned frog.” But he is so honest and direct and his songs so personal, intelligent and somehow universal that his rough, soulful singing is perfect.