Kris Kristofferson & the Strangers at City Winery

Born in Brownsville, Texas, Kris Kristofferson moved frequently as a child following his father's military assignments, finally settling in San Mateo, California. There he first experienced fame when he appeared in Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd" for his achievements in collegiate rugby, football, and track and field. Earning a Rhodes Scholarship, Kristofferson studied in Oxford, England, where he unsuccessfully launched a music career. Under pressure from his family, Kristofferson joined the U.S. Army and became a helicopter pilot. In 1965, Kristofferson was assigned to teach English literature at West Point, but he decided to leave the military and pursue songwriting in Nashville, Tennessee; his family disowned him because of his career decision. While working as a janitor at a recording studio, he met June Carter and asked her to give his demo tape to her husband, Johnny Cash, to little avail. Kristofferson soon gained Cash's attention by landing a helicopter on Cash's front yard. Cash recorded Kristofferson's "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down," leading to Kristofferson winning Songwriter of the Year at the Country Music Awards, the first of many industry awards. Kristofferson's peak music years in the 1970s helped redefine country songwriting, and led to a flourishing career as an actor in more than 70 films. Starting in 1985, Kristofferson had a brief resurgence when he joined Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash in the country music supergroup The Highwaymen, firmly establishing the outlaw country music movement. Although Kristofferson gained more fame as an actor than as a recording artist, his songs have been recorded by other artists an estimated 450 times. The three-time Grammy winner has recorded 29 albums; his most recent studio album is 2016's The Cedar Creek Sessions. He lives in Malibu, California, with a residence in Maui, Hawaii.

Almost 50 years after the release of his debut album, Kristofferson performed many of his earliest songs at City Winery tonight, including 10 of the 12 songs on his first album. In recent years, Kristofferson has performed many of his concerts solo and acoustic. This time he brought for backup the late Merle Haggard's band, the Strangers (Merle’s guitarist sons Ben Haggard and Noel Haggard, keyboardist Doug Colosio, fiddler Scott Joss, and drummer Jim Christie), and he and his musicians took turns singing six Haggard songs. For two sets over two hours, Kristofferson sang, played guitar and harmonics on 30 songs, hardly speaking or even moving. At 82 years of age, Kristofferson's songs took on a different perspective from when he was country music's outlaw  rebel; the keen narratives about heartaches, hard living and hangovers now took on a sage's wisdom. His once husky and forceful vocals were softer and yet still as passionate as ever. The band did a fine job bringing spark and body to the songs. One of his few newer songs of the evening, "Feeling Mortal," acknowledged that he is in the latter stages of his life. Nevertheless, his presentation of his body of work was as tasteful and classy as ever.

Setlist:

1. Shipwrecked in the Eighties (Kris Kristofferson and the Borderlords song)
2. That's the Way Love Goes (Merle Haggard cover)
3. Darby's Castle
4. Me and Bobby McGee
5. Here Comes That Rainbow Again
6. Best of All Possible Worlds
7. Help Me Make It Through the Night
8. Okie From Muskogee (Merle Haggard cover)
9. Casey's Last Ride
10. Rocket to Stardom
11. Feeling Mortal
12. From Here to Forever
13. Daddy Frank (The Guitar Man) (Merle Haggard cover)
14. Broken Freedom Song
15. Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)
16. Just the Other Side of Nowhere
17. Duvalier's Dream
18. I'd Rather Be Sorry
19. Sing Me Back Home (Merle Haggard cover)
20. Jody and the Kid
21. The Fightin' Side of Me (Merle Haggard cover)
22. The Pilgrim, Chapter 33
23. Jesus Was a Capricorn
24. I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink (Merle Haggard cover)
25. To Beat the Devil
26. Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down
27. For the Good Times
28. A Moment of Forever
29. Why Me
30. Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends (Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge song)