Me, The Missus and Bobby McGee

Had an anniversary this week, me and The Missus did. Four years in and this time, neither one of us forgot. Based on that, I’m happy to report that the state of our union is strong!

[pause for applause]

Coincidentally (don’t ask), Kris Kristofferson was playing a show in Santa’s Village here on Christmas Island on the night of our anniversary, and we decided to leave The Man Cub with a friend and head on into town for some class and culture – dinner and a show.

If you don’t know, Kristofferson, semi-famous for writing Janis Joplin’s “Me and Bobby McGee”, has a new CD out, This Old Road, which kicked my ass the first time I heard it. I browsed it on iTunes and went, “holy shit!” and bought the whole thing right away. It’s very much like Cash’s first record with Rick Rubin, except Kristofferson wrote all 11 songs on This Old Road.

The Missus scored us some crazy killer seats – sixth row center, orchestra in an old-timey Art Deco theater from 100 years ago. We could see every wrinkle on his face.

The review follows. I will try to keep it as concise and frills-free as Kristofferson’s compositions – not that I don’t love the sound of my fingers poking the keyboard, but I’m blowing work deadlines right and left already.

Kristofferson was great, in spite of the fact that I play guitar almost as well as he does, and I don’t play guitar. And, to quote Dennis Miller (don’t remember who he was talking about), Kristofferson’s voice has all the range of a Daisy air rifle. Plus for most of the show, he seemed to think he playing a soundcheck that was going over really great with the crew.

Lucky for him, his presentation and material more than made up for his admittedly vast technical shortcomings.

Sitting there in the first section on the floor, sixth row center, we could see his expression at every mistake and he was equal parts embarrassed and oh well. We both agreed he was cute. Being that close, and watching him absorb every shortcoming all over his face... It was really cool. I like my heroes to have fatal flaws; Kristofferson’s was the live performance.

Among the highlights:

• KK getting to end of a song and attempting to blow into his harmonica, only to discover (and announce to the crowd), “I was gonna play ‘Taps,’ but I put the damned thing in backwards.”

• Coming out after the intermission and playing the first 12 bars of the first song before realizing his guitar wasn’t plugged in.

• Repeatedly forgetting to position his harmonica rack and having to adjust it mid-song, at one point explaining, “Oops – sorry, my lips aren’t long enough.”

• Bailing on the end of “The Best Of All Possible Worlds” and apologizing, explaining that Roger Miller could have done some cool scat to end the song properly, but he was no Roger Miller.

• Innumerable dropped, missed and mangled notes on the guitar, most accompanied by a wince and a smile.

The music, though, was awesome. And as the show went along, he seemed to become a little more focused and the performance improved. I had no idea how many songs other artists are renowned for that he wrote. Google him if you don’t believe me.

He played six or seven songs from the new disc, all but one of them in the second set. Like most veteran musicians, he seemed more engaged in his new material than in some of the ones he’s played ten thousand times before. Go figure.

I also liked the way he talked throughout about his influences and peers, particularly Johnny Cash and Roger Miller. It’s easy to throw Cash’s name around these days for some instant second-hand cred, but giving props to Roger Miller earned him a lot of love from me.

Anyhow, if he’s coming to a town near you on this tour, The Missus and I heartily recommend you seek him out. And if you can’t get sixth-row center seats, bring some binoculars. Half the show was enjoying watching him suffer his shortcomings, and in the end, surmount them.