POP MUSIC REVIEW : Kristofferson: Classics and Contradictions

Kris Kristofferson doesn’t have a backing band on his current tour, and he’s without the company of his fellow Highwaymen, Waylon, Willie and Johnny.

His voice--plain at its peak some 20 years ago--is more ragged then ever, and on Monday at the Crazy Horse his sound system periodically made noises that sounded like an airliner’s wheel falling on the roof.

But it was all part of the casual charm of a show that in its ramshackle way celebrated the words of one of pop and country’s essential songwriters.

Danny Timms, formerly with the ubiquitous Los Angeles club band Little Whisper & the Rumor and a long-term member of the Highwaymen’s band, played backing keyboards and guitar while Kristofferson roamed the stage, wearing a contraption that held his harmonica and microphones in front of his face. The lanky singer sometimes seemed distracted by the technology, but when the guitar-and-harmonica sound came together it was a nicely organic blend of wood and wind.

Timms also took a few solo turns, and his soaring, soulful, Bob Seger-like voice was a bit of a mismatch with Kristofferson’s toneless croak. But this show wasn’t about balance so much as contradictions.

In his best down-and-out songs, Kristofferson excavates beauty out of desolation through sheer will, and the vintage tunes he performed Monday--”Sunday Morning Coming Down,” “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Help Me Make It Through the Night”--had the authority and enduring quality of classics.

Contradictions also surfaced in the political comments Kristofferson offered during and between songs. Despite his outspoken, liberal-to-radical stance on current issues (he noted that he had been picketed the last time he played the Crazy Horse), he lamented at length Ross Perot’s withdrawal from the presidential race.

There’s more coherence in his songs. When he turns away from his introspective studies of the individual’s struggle with life and loneliness, he is drawn to the stories of martyrs, from Gandhi to King to an American Indian activist dealt a crippling blow. These studies in human cruelty and resilience yield contemplations on the nature of freedom--the theme that emerges as a leitmotif in his work.

Kristofferson’s more recent songs might not rank with the timeless tunes he wrote in the early ‘70s when he was redefining country music, but some of the newer collaborations with Timms sounded fine, from the anthemic “Between Heaven and Here” to the pop-gospel Timms showcase “Without Love.” (Kristofferson reportedly is preparing to record an album in the fall with producer of the moment Don Was.)

The instrumentation’s narrow musical range and Kristofferson’s sometimes mumbling delivery slowed the momentum now and then, but an intimate encounter with a body of work like this is worth a few slack moments. Kristofferson and Timms also play the Belly Up in Solana Beach on Thursday.