Kris Kristofferson - This Old Road (CMT Special Edition) [2007/VBR/2CD]-uF

Description

ARTiST: Kris Kristofferson
TiTLE: This Old Road
LABEL: New West
GENRE: Country
TiME: 96:34 min
SiZE: 114,7 MB
BiTRATE: VBRkbps
RiP DATE: May-06-2007
RELEASE DATE: Apr-16-2007
WEBSiTE: n/a

Track List:

CD1

01. This Old Road 03:59
02. Pilgrim's Progress 02:14
03. The Last Thing To Go 03:00
04. Wild American 02:27
05. In The News 03:31
06. The Burden Of Freedom 03:26
07. Chase The Feeling 04:06
08. Holy Creation 04:38
09. The Show Goes On 03:20
10. Thank You For A Life 03:44
11. Final Attraction 02:57

CD2

01. Introduction 01:02
02. This Old Road 03:59
03. Interview (Part I) 04:44
04. Pilgrim's Progress 02:15
05. Interview (Part II) 04:04
06. Wild American 02:26
07. Program Break 00:32
08. Introduction To The First Live Performance 00:18
09. The Pilgrim (Live Performance) 02:40
10. Interview (Part III) 05:39
11. In The News 03:29
12. Interview (Part IV) 05:56
13. Chase The Feeling 04:05
14. Interview (Part V) 03:23
15. Sunday Morning Comin' Down 04:12
(Live Performance)
16. Program Break 00:23
17. Interview (Part VI) 06:34
18. The Final Attraction 02:58
19. Conclusion 00:33

Release Notes:

KRIS KRISTOFFERSON has 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), longtime
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. It wasn't long after arriving in
Nashville that he was receiving armloads of acclaim
and being hailed as one of America's clearest and
most important voices, having penned such classics
as "Me and Bobby McGee," "Sunday Morning Coming
Down," "For the Good Times," and many others.

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."

The album pays tribute to those who have gone before
Kristofferson - particularly on "The Last Thing to
Go," wherein he salutes "those of us who took things
seriously, who were trying to move people;" and on
"The Show Goes On," a song he calls "a fond look
back at the way we were putting ourselves out there
and trying to create something special." On "Wild
American" he reminds listeners of some personal
heroes; people like Native American activist John
Trudell and others who "happen when you need 'em"
like Merle Haggard and Steve Earle.
Special Edition containing a 2nd CD entitled "Down
this old road"... Enjoy

He gives a nod to music-lovers on "Final
Attraction," a song that was inspired by watching
the communication between Willie Nelson and a large
crowd of listeners. "It's a special thing, that
relationship between the singer and the audience,"
he says. The song ends with the words Guy Clark said
to him when he was going out on stage one night: "Go
break a heart" instead of the standard "Go break a
leg."
"In the News" takes a hard look at modern-day life
with the refrain of "I want nothing but the endin'
of the war," while the prayer-song "The Burden of
Freedom" focuses on "the fact that freedom is a
double-edged sword," Kristofferson says. "When I
wrote it back in the late 60s, it was about leaving
the path I had been prepared for-West Point and all
that-but it's mostly about doing what you believe is
right whether that makes you enemies or not."
All of the songs are intensely personal, but one of
his favorites is the bluesy "Chase The Feeling",
which he calls "a meditation on what destructive
behavior feels like, what it does to you." Although
unfailingly modest, even Kristofferson can't deny
that "Holy Creation" is one his most beautiful
compositions. He says the song was inspired by his
eight children, whom he calls his "greatest legacy."
Kristofferson also pays homage to his family on
"Thank You For A Life". However, the song is
multi-layered. "The best love songs can be taken on
a couple different levels, so that song is being
sung to my wife but also to God," he says. "In the
end, it's all love."

And in the end, this album is all about love,
freedom, and about Kristofferson giving a piece of
himself to the listener. After all, that's the thing
he's always been best at. And on this, the most
intensely personal album of his career, he goes the
extra mile, creating a thing of rare beauty, grace,
and eloquence.

---

www.bitsarah.com/