"... he's the worst singer I've ever heard. It's not that he's off key--he has no relation to key. He also has no phrasing, no dynamics, no energy, no authority, no dramatic ability, and no control of the top two-thirds of his six-note range ..."

-- Robert Christgau on Kris Kristofferson

in his 1981 book "Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies"

I'll be on Arkansas PBS tonight, talking about Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson during the pledge breaks. I'm honored to be a part of it. Public television, like songwriting, isn't about making anyone rich--it's about storytelling, about keeping something vital alive. And like many things that don't turn a quick profit, it needs support to survive.

I've been thinking a lot about Kristofferson lately. After he died last October, I wrote a piece about what he'd meant to me and heard from a few people who knew him. One of them, a Texas-based songwriter, said Kristofferson told him his favorite audience was other songwriters who didn't care "if you could sing real pretty or play guitar so well" but listened to and appreciated the song for what it was. He said Kristofferson was--especially at the beginning of his career--a reluctant performer.

Johnny Cash alluded to this in his liner notes for Kristofferson's 1970 debut album "Kristofferson," a record that's probably better known by the title it was reissued under in 1971, "Me and Bobby McGee," after Janis Joplin had a massive posthumous hit with the song.

If you go back and watch Kristofferson's live and televised performances from around that time, it's clear he was........

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