Pop Music Review : Kristofferson Classics Are Sweet to Loyal Ears

SANTA ANA —  Whatever it is that Kris Kristofferson is doing now, it might not quite qualify as a career. His last album is a distant memory; it stiffed, and he has been without a contract for years. He hasn’t made a movie of note since “Heaven’s Gate” in 1980, and as most critics noted, “Heaven’s Gate” sucked potatoes big time.

He evidently has taken it all in stride, though. Someone interviewing him for a British publication recently quoted a critic to the effect that in all his post-”Gate” films there has been “very little difference between Kristofferson comatose and conscious.” To which the 58-year-old performer gamely replied: “Aw, that’s just nit-pickin’, ain’t it?”

If he is not perturbed by his plummet from the heavens, neither, clearly, are his fans. There may be no loyalty like that of a country fan. On Monday night, Kristofferson’s first of four shows at the Crazy Horse Steak House (two shows Monday, two on Tuesday) was nearly sold out, and even though he had throat problems, he was given two standing ovations.

Early in the set, he related that “Willie joined me once onstage, and I said, ‘Thank God you’re here. I’m losing my voice.’ And he asked, ‘How could you tell?’ ”

Kristofferson indeed does have a craggy ravine of a voice, into which his sore throat made scant inroads Monday, other than prompting him to cut some songs off short. But, as usual, it got the job done, although he certainly has given more effective performances at the Crazy Horse in past years.

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The chief difference between those shows and this one was that, for reasons of muse or economic necessity, Kristofferson no longer tours with his fine seven-piece band, the Borderlords, a group rambunctious enough to make his innumerable songs about freedom feel free.

For most of the past couple of years, Kristofferson has been backed only by keyboard player Danny Timms. His current tour is somewhat buoyed by the addition of guitar roadie Scotty Music on drums or percussion for several numbers.

Music’s presence saved the Monday show from the dire manner in which it started, with the once-touching “Help Me Make It Through the Night” being sent to disco hell by Timms’ barrage of sequenced synthesized drum sounds, slap-happy bass and syrupy synth tones.

That number aside, Timms proved a generally capable sideman, with a piano style reminiscent of Leon Russell’s and vocals from the Bob Seger school that mixed well with Kristofferson’s and stood out on three solo numbers. Throughout the show, though, the keyboards were mixed so high in the sound system that they obscured some lyrics.

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Kristofferson is reported to have an album of new songs in the can, recorded with hit producer Don Was, but most of the set was devoted to the usual suspects, songs that fall into two schools: his early ones about relationships and inner battles, and the more recent ones about politics and causes.

Though he is one of the few writers who can use the word freedom in nearly every song without making listeners gag, his newer songs offer no match for the insight and personality that went into his early work. And one couldn’t help but notice that a full third of his 21-song set was drawn from his debut album (“Kristofferson,” from 1970), and that those were the songs that seemed to reach his listeners the most.

In any case, along with the expected classics “Sunday Morning Comin’ Down,” “To Beat the Devil,” “For the Good Times” and “The Best of All Possible Worlds,” we did get to hear the ignored treasure “Casey’s Last Ride,” a sad ballad placed in a British pub where “the lonely men reach for anything they can to keep from going home.”

There were a couple of new songs, including one story song evidently titled “The New Mr. Me” in which one character is described as having “a face like Bobby Dylan, only worse.” “Slouching Toward the Millennium,” an unreleased song Kristofferson has been doing in concert for a few years now, included some new observations about the Menendez brothers, the Bobbitts and other recent events, but the gist of them was lost in the sound mix.