POP MUSIC REVIEW : Silver-Tongued Kris Tames Mustang Set

If one were to excise all the songs using the word “freedom” from Kris Kristofferson’s opening show Monday at the Crazy Horse Steak House, the singer’s set would have lasted about as long as a cigarette. As it was, he gave the packed house more than 90 minutes of freedom-toutin’ tunes which, remarkably, never made his chosen banner seem rote or redundant.

One reason may be that Kristofferson and his seven-member Borderlords not only sang about freedom but performed with a goodsome heap of it. Though only the second show of the tour (the first was a benefit Saturday at the Crazy Horse to aid the homeless), the craggedly handsome singer and band displayed a cohesive, sure-in-the-saddle musicality that allowed them to hold loose rein on the songs.

More than that, Kristofferson brought a convincing emotion to his lyrics and weather-stained baritone. There was an immediacy and passion for life in all of the show’s 25 songs, whether they detailed the tender truths and fuzzy morning-afters of his free-living earlier years or railed at the abuses of freedom he sees our government practicing here and abroad.

And, as usual, he pulled no punches: He declared in his opening “The Eagle and the Bear” (a song decrying U.S. and Soviet meddling in the Third World), “I will help my brother--and if you don’t like it, Mister, I don’t care.”

It’s a testament to Kristofferson’s talents that he can play a country saloon in the heart of Bush country, sing the praises of Jesse Jackson, the Sandinistas and Leonard Peltier (the American Indian leader convicted in a disputed trial of shooting FBI agents) and leave not only with all his teeth, but with two standing ovations.

Avoiding the sometimes-didactic mood of some past local performances, he freely mixed his personal and political material. “They Killed Him” (a cry for fallen martyrs from Jesus to Martin Luther King) and other songs expressed a confrontational Christianity. “The Best of All Possible Worlds” was an uproarious, lurching hangover song. “Jesse Jackson” was an unabashed anthem for the man and his ideals (“There’s a better world a-comin’/Where a man can help a man and show some heart”) while “Johnny Lobo” told an Indian’s tragic tale, concluding, “All the dreams are dead but not forgotten/murdered like the holy buffalo.”

He offered a driving, roadhouse rendition of “Me and Bobby McGee,” a rocking, Waylon-ized “Help Me Make It Through the Night” and a moody, ruminative “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” which segued into “The Silver-Tongued Devil and I.” Among his new songs was a playful ode to fidelity, a refusal of temptation by a family man who doesn’t fool around any more, offering, “But if I did, I’d sure like to fool around with you.” Mixing material that is rowdy, politically rousing or overtly religious might make for a cluttered show in many performers’ hands. But Kristofferson made it all blend as parts of a life fully lived.