Kris Kristofferson - Boboquivari, KCET-TV Studio, Los Angeles, CA, 1970

The musical career of country singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson has had its up and downs. But in terms of albums, he peaked early. His 1970 album, "Kris Kristofferson," and his 1971 one, "The Silver Tongued Devil and I," are his most critically acclaimed. Around that time, many other musicians discovered his songwriting talent. There was a rash of covers of his songs that became big hits, including Ray Price with "For the Good Times," Johnny Cash with "Sunday Morning Coming Down," Gladys Knight and the Pips with "Help Me Make It through the Night," and Janis Joplin with "Me and Bobby McGee."

As a result, my interest in his music is the highest around this time, when he shook up the whole country music world with his songwriting style. So I was very delighted and surprised when I randomly found this recording from 1970 on YouTube the other day. 

There are two things about it I really like. One, the sound quality is absolutely fantastic. It was recorded for a short-lived public TV program with the odd name "Boboquivari." If you track down the video on YouTube, you can see there were a couple dozen people in the audience at most. They were totally silent during the songs, so it's not far from a concert in a studio. 

The second great thing is that the performance was acoustic. Kristofferson played acoustic guitar, and he was backed up by a bassist and keyboardist. No drums. If you've been following this blog, you probably have noticed I have a special love for acoustic performances, so this is right up my alley.

The one downside is that the concert is relatively short, at only 30 minutes. But it is what it is. I thought about augmenting it with some other live versions from that time, but the only ones I could find were with a full band. I think it's better to keep the acoustic vibe.

By the way, this concert aired in August 1971, but apparently it was recorded some time in 1970. If anyone knows the exact recording date, please let me know so I can update that information.

UPDATE: On February 18, 2021, I updated the mp3 download file. I stumbled upon a solo acoustic BBC session Kristofferson did around the same time. There was some overlap with the songs, but I added the four that were different. Luckily, these include two songs he wrote that became big hits for others, "Me and Bobby McGee" and "Help Me Make It through the Night."

01 Billy Dee - The Law Is for the Protection of the People (Kris Kristofferson)
02 talk (Kris Kristofferson)
03 Jody and the Kid (Kris Kristofferson)
04 talk (Kris Kristofferson)
05 Loving Her Was Easier [Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again] (Kris Kristofferson)
06 talk (Kris Kristofferson)
07 The Pilgrim, Chapter 33 (Kris Kristofferson)
08 For the Good Times (Kris Kristofferson)
09 talk (Kris Kristofferson)
10 Casey's Last Ride (Kris Kristofferson)
11 The Lady's Not for Sale (Kris Kristofferson)
12 Sunday Morning Coming Down (Kris Kristofferson)
13 Me and Bobby McGee (Kris Kristofferson)
14 To Beat the Devil (Kris Kristofferson)
15 Darby's Castle (Kris Kristofferson)
16 talk (Kris Kristofferson)
17 Help Me Make It through the Night (Kris Kristofferson)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16376570/KRISKRSTFFSN1970BobquivariKCETTVStudio__1970_atse.zip.html

The cover art is a screenshot taken from the video of the exact concert featured here.