Overview

Singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson has maintained a career in music and film for more than forty years. He was the oldest son in a military family that planned for him to continue the tradition of military service, but he resigned his commission to pursue a career in songwriting. In Nashville, where he spent five years working menial jobs and learning to write songs, he combined his loneliness and alienation with countercultural directness to produce raw, emotional songs and generated eight studio albums through the 1970s that regularly joined the top 100 on U.S. country charts—four of which broke into the top ten. A fallow period followed in the 1980s and 1990s, but when Kristofferson re-emerged in the mid-2000s at age 70 with new studio albums, he again broke through both country and indie charts. In Kris Kristofferson: Country Highwayman, Mary G. Hurd surveys the life and works of this highly respected American songwriter. For many, Kristofferson’s songs remain the gold standard of modern songwriters, and Kris Kristofferson follows the commitment to freedom of expression that has characterized his songwriting and struggles with the music industry. The author also explores his film career, work with the Highwaymen, liberal activism, decision to write and record two albums of material protesting the U.S. government’s intrusion in Central America, and reflowering as a musical artist with the release of This Old Road in 2006 and other studio albums. Kris Kristofferson: Country Highwayman should appeal not only to dedicated fans of Kristofferson’s work as an artist but also to anyone interested in country music and its influence on modern Americana and the roots of music traditions.

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9780810888203

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Reviews

Singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson first became known in 1970, when he was awarded the Country Music Award for his song 'Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down,' as sung by Johnny Cash. Hurd provides the first detailed look at the 'arc of Kristofferson's creative output', starting with his first LP in 1970, which featured his classic 'Me and Bobby McGee'; through his best songs combining country and folk-rock in the 1970s, such as 'Loving Her Was Easier' and 'Why Me'; to his work with Cash and Willie Nelson in the country supergroup the Highwaymen; and finally to his critically acclaimed 2006 album 'This Old Road,' recorded at the age of 70. Hurd is excellent at showing how all of Kristofferson's work and life-including refusing to follow his family's long tradition of serving in the military, and his stint in England as a Rhodes Scholar-are connected by one theme: 'His mandate to live an artist's life as he thought it should be lived hinged on the concept of personal freedom.' This solid overview makes it clear just how important Kristofferson's work has been to the history of country and rock music. Publishers Weekly Kris Kristofferson: Country Highwayman succeeds in contextualizing the career of an unlikely country music icon: an educated liberal whose imperfect voice, organic songwriting, sophisticated lyricism, and introverted nature emerged during Nashville's slick and commercially oriented countrypolitan period... Hurd, a retired professor of English, accomplishes the difficult task of using songs to summarize Kristofferson's turbulent forty-year-plus career... Characteristically adept is her examination of Kristofferson's award-winning song, 'Sunday Morning Coming Down' (1970). She peers beneath the surface depiction of a miserable hangover: 'Aching with loneliness and alienation, the speaker renders a powerful evocation of alcoholism and the loss of traditional values (family, home, and faith)-not unlike Kristofferson's own situation-and the burden of freedom that follows that loss' (p. 35)... [T]he book might inspire casual readers to listen more intently-or perhaps for the first time-to Kristofferson's songs. What this book does best is illustrate the intimate link between songwriter and song, and the complex layers such a link can entail. Thinking On Music

Singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson first became known in 1970, when he was awarded the Country Music Award for his song 'Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down,' as sung by Johnny Cash. Hurd provides the first detailed look at the 'arc of Kristofferson's creative output', starting with his first LP in 1970, which featured his classic 'Me and Bobby McGee'; through his best songs combining country and folk-rock in the 1970s, such as 'Loving Her Was Easier' and 'Why Me'; to his work with Cash and Willie Nelson in the country supergroup the Highwaymen; and finally to his critically acclaimed 2006 album 'This Old Road,' recorded at the age of 70. Hurd is excellent at showing how all of Kristofferson's work and life-including refusing to follow his family's long tradition of serving in the military, and his stint in England as a Rhodes Scholar-are connected by one theme: 'His mandate to live an artist's life as he thought it should be lived hinged on the concept of personal freedom.' This solid overview makes it clear just how important Kristofferson's work has been to the history of country and rock music. Publishers Weekly

Singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson first became known in 1970, when he was awarded the Country Music Award for his song 'Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down,' as sung by Johnny Cash. Hurd provides the first detailed look at the 'arc of Kristofferson's creative output', starting with his first LP in 1970, which featured his classic 'Me and Bobby McGee'; through his best songs combining country and folk-rock in the 1970s, such as 'Loving Her Was Easier' and 'Why Me'; to his work with Cash and Willie Nelson in the country supergroup the Highwaymen; and finally to his critically acclaimed 2006 album 'This Old Road,' recorded at the age of 70. Hurd is excellent at showing how all of Kristofferson's work and life-including refusing to follow his family's long tradition of serving in the military, and his stint in England as a Rhodes Scholar-are connected by one theme: 'His mandate to live an artist's life as he thought it should be lived hinged on the concept of personal freedom.' This solid overview makes it clear just how important Kristofferson's work has been to the history of country and rock music. Publishers Weekly Kris Kristofferson: Country Highwayman succeeds in contextualizing the career of an unlikely country music icon: an educated liberal whose imperfect voice, organic songwriting, sophisticated lyricism, and introverted nature emerged during Nashville's slick and commercially oriented countrypolitan period... Hurd, a retired professor of English, accomplishes the difficult task of using songs to summarize Kristofferson's turbulent forty-year-plus career... Characteristically adept is her examination of Kristofferson's award-winning song, 'Sunday Morning Coming Down' (1970). She peers beneath the surface depiction of a miserable hangover: 'Aching with loneliness and alienation, the speaker renders a powerful evocation of alcoholism and the loss of traditional values (family, home, and faith)-not unlike Kristofferson's own situation-and the burden of freedom that follows that loss' (p. 35)... [T]he book might inspire casual readers to listen more intently-or perhaps for the first time-to Kristofferson's songs. What this book does best is illustrate the intimate link between songwriter and song, and the complex layers such a link can entail. Thinking On Music Hurd's study of one of our greatest singer-songwriters offers biographical information, but more essentially, a detailed study of his work...Now's the time to fully examine and appreciate an astonishing body of work by a timeless artist. Fans of Kristofferson or anyone who admires the art of songwriting will find the book fascinating fare. Pop Culture Classics

Author Information

Mary G. Hurd is retired from East Tennessee State University, where she was director of film studies and a member of the English department faculty. She is the author of Women Directors and Their Films and numerous articles and reviews.

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