Kris Kristofferson – The Essential Kris Kristofferson Legacy C2K 64992 (2004)
Kristofferson was something of the Tim Hardin of country music: a gifted songwriter with so-so performance abilities. The classics like “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” have definitive versions recorded by others, but this collection features one great tune after another, so it’s easy to look past Kristofferson’s limited vocals and the plodding, broad-brush production values. Lyrically, Kristofferson, especially in his early years, wrote in a way reminiscent of beat writer Jack Kerouac, also recalling French writer Jean Genet a little too: these were songs about those operating just outside acceptable society, out traveling the country, trying to make some sense of it all and find a place.