Artist: Kris Kristofferson
Title: Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends: The Publishing Demos 1968-72
Label: Light In The Attic
Genre: Country : Folk-Rock
UPC: 826853005029
Territory: World Ex-France
Release Date: 05.11.10

The fantastic Light In The Attic Records has garnered a well-earned reputation as one of the very best reissue and rarity labels active today. Their catalog includes reissues and re-masters from some of music’s most legendary, yet unsung heroes and masters. One of the best new releases they have coming out this year has to be country legend Kris Kristofferson’s Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends: The Publishing Demos 1968-72, a collection of his demos and personal drafts from the musician’s formative years. Included on the album is an early recording of arguably Kristofferson’s most legendary song, “Me and Bobby McGee,” which found itself charting under numerous artists besides Kristofferson over the years including Roger Miller, Janis Joplin (went to #1 posthumously), Jerry Lee Lewis, and later fellow member of The Highwaymen: Johnny Cash. The record is a fantastic look into the original versions of some of the most-covered songs of all time. His songwriting is practically the soundtrack to classic American life. This is true, bad-ass country-western music in its most pure form.

Over the years, Kris Kristofferson has enjoyed a distinguished music career that has encompassed the authorship of such classic American songs as “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” and “Help Me Make It Through the Night.” He has also earned cinema stardom from such feature films as Lonestar, the Blade Trilogy, A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries, Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid and A Star is Born. His honors include induction into the Songwriter Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame, three Grammy Awards, and a Golden Globe Award, as well as years of outspoken political and social activism. Next November, Kristofferson will be feted as a BMI Icon at the performing rights organization’s Country Awards.

Kristofferson first gained notoriety as a key figure in the Outlaw country that was most popular during the late 1960s and the 1970s (and even into the 1980s in some cases). The focus of the movement has been on self-declared “outlaws,” such as Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, David Allan Coe and his Eli Radish Band, Willie Nelson, Leon Russell, Hank Williams Jr., and Billy Joe Shaver. The reason for the movement has been attributed to a reaction to the Nashville sound, developed by record producers like Chet Atkins who softened the raw honky tonk sound that was predominant in the music of performers like Jimmie Rodgers, and his successors such as Hank Williams.

Kristofferson was born in Brownsville, Texas, to parents Mary Ann (née Ashbrook) and Lars Henry Kristofferson, a U.S. Army Air Corps (later U.S. Air Force) major general. When Kristofferson was a child, his father pushed him toward a military career. Like most “military brats”, Kristofferson moved around frequently as a youth, finally settling down in San Mateo, California. An aspiring writer, Kristofferson enrolled in Pomona College in 1954 where he had many achievements in collegiate rugby union, football, and track and field, graduating in 1958 with a BA, summa cum laude in Literature (he also earned a Rhodes scholarship to the University of Oxford).

In 1967, Kristofferson signed to Epic Records and released a single, “Golden Idol”/”Killing Time”, but the song was not successful, however other songs he composed enjoyed success with other artists. Eventually, he found success as a performer himself, arguably resulting from Johnny Cash’s introduction of Kristofferson at the Newport Folk Festival. Legend has it, the songwriter first grabbed Cash’s attention when he unexpectedly landed his helicopter in Cash’s yard and gave him some tapes including “Sunday Morning Coming Down.” Later on, “For the Good Times” (Ray Price) won “Song of the Year” in 1970 from the Academy of Country Music, while “Sunday Morning Coming Down” (Johnny Cash) won the same award from the Academy’s rival, the Country Music Association in the same year. This is the only time an individual received the same award from these two organizations in the same year for different songs.

Kristofferson released his second album, The Silver Tongued Devil and I in 1971; the album was a success and established Kristofferson’s career as a recording artist in his own right. His third album, Border Lord; the album was all-new material and swept the Grammy Awards that year with numerous songs nominated, winning country song of the year for “Help Me Make It through the Night.” He is without doubt one of country’s most referenced and celebrated figures. Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends is a great look back in time to the beginning of a distinguished life, examining some of Kristofferson’s most beloved tunes in their pure, original form.