Kris Kristofferson: Country Highwayman

Mary G. Hurd

doi:10.5771/9780810888210

Summary

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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Bibliographic data

Copyright Year: 2015
ISBN-Print: 978-0-8108-8820-3
ISBN-Online: 978-0-8108-8821-0
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 159
Product Type: Monograph

1. Contents No access
2. Series Editor’s Foreword No access
3. Acknowledgments No access
4. Introduction No access
1 Beginnings and Influences No access Pages 1 - 20
2 “Freedom’s Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose” No access Pages 21 - 40
3 “Had to Try to Satisfy a Thirst He Couldn’t Name” No access Pages 41 - 62
4 “The Going Up Was Worth the Coming Down” No access Pages 63 - 80
5 Rebels, Outlaws, Highwaymen No access Pages 81 - 100
6 “I Don’t Believe That No One Wants to Know” No access Pages 101 - 118
7 “Ain’t You Come a Long Way down This Old Road?” No access Pages 119 - 136
8 Conclusion No access Pages 137 - 142
Further Reading No access Pages 143 - 146
Further Listening No access Pages 147 - 152
Further Watching No access Pages 153 - 154
Index No access Pages 155 - 158
About the Author No access Pages 159 - 159