Aug. 3, 1978 review: Rita Coolidge and Kris Kristofferson in Kleinhans Music Hall

 


A high-flying couple with one engine sputtering.

Aug. 3, 1978 

Leaden-Tongue Devil

Gets Best of Kris

        There was only one thing wrong with the Kris Kristofferson-Rita Coolidge concert in Kleinhans Music Hall Wednesday night. Too much Kris and not enough Rita.

        Kris looked great – tall, lean, square-jawed and beardless. “Kris, how about a happy birthday kiss?” one woman in the sell-out crowd proposed.

        But he sounded terrible. He rarely unfolded his deep voice from a slouching monotone. Furthermore, the songs that made him famous don’t fit him right any more as a Hollywood star. And he stayed on stage signing them a good 20 minutes too long.

        The basic Kristofferson tune is Nashville schmaltz filtered through a three-day hangover – “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” “Loving Her Was Easier than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again” – burned-out ballads, every one of them.

        Kris plowed through his aging repertoire for more than an hour and the effect was truly stupefying. “Every instinct tells me I should split after that,” he said finally. Then he did one more.

        As for wife Rita, the headliner of the show, she left far too soon. Her set was shorter than her husband’s and he spent nearly half of it back on stage with her, doing duets.

        “You’re beautiful,” some guy shouted to her. There’s no denying the allure of her long, black hair and her big, dark eyes, but she didn’t exploit her looks. She planted her boots firmly and poured out her sweet, slow, molasses voice without so much as a wiggle.

        She once was a rhythm and blues backup singer, but she’d smoothed out all the wrinkles in her revisions of old rock favorites like “The Way You Do the Things You Do,” “Bye, Bye, Love” and “Higher and Higher.” Best were her Boz Scaggs ballads – “We’re All Alone” and “Slow Dancer.”

        Mated with a devoted Kris in the duets, she was a steadying force in the harmonies. It all came together for their final “Me and Bobby McGee” – Kris’ greatest hit.

        The six-man band, old Kristofferson buddies like Donnie Fritts and Mike Utley from Nashville, perked up considerably behind Rita.

        A double encore found them rendering “I Fought the Law (And the Law Won)” and Billy Swan’s ancient “Lover Please,” exposing what was an essentially country music crowd to something dangerously close to rock ‘n roll.

        Guitarist Swan, who succeeded Kristofferson as janitor in that Nashville recording studio in the ‘60s, stayed on stage with the band after he opened the evening with a brief sampling leading up to his biggest success, “I Can Help.”

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: Rita Coolidge and a beardless Kris Kristofferson on the back cover of their 1978 duet album, “Natural Act.”

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: Kris and Rita had a high-profile romance after meeting on a plane from L.A. to Memphis in 1971, followed by a tumultuous marriage in 1973 and an equally big-deal divorce in 1980, provoked by his drinking and womanizing.

Even so, after publishing her memoir, "Delta Lady," in 2016, Rita told People magazine that they never completely disconnected. "We laugh at stuff that nobody else gets," she said. "We just have a bond that is beyond any kind of understanding." Plus they made some great harmonies together.

Kristofferson in 1978 was basking in the success of his role in the 1976 remake of "A Star Is Born" with Barbra Streisand. It's said that after Kris saw himself portraying a broken-down alcoholic on the screen, he gave up drinking.

No songs from this show on setlist.fm. Here's how it went Nov. 6 in Baton Rouge, La., at LSU.

(Kris Kristofferson set)

Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)

Easter Island

Sabre and the Rose

Jody and Ed

Jesus Was a Capricorn

The Pilgrim, Chapter 33

Sunday Morning Coming Down

The Silver Tongued Devil and I

We Had It All (Waylon Jennings cover performed by keyboardist Donnie Fritts)

Blue As I Do (performed by guitarist Steve Root)

Louisiana 1927 (Randy Newman cover performed by guitarist Jerry McGee)

(Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge set)

Help Me Make It Through the Night

Me and Bobby McGee

Why Me

You're My Man

Loving Arms (Tom Jans cover)

(Rita Coolidge set)

Who's to Bless and Who's to Blame

We're All Alone (Boz Scaggs cover)

Let the Good Times Rol

Fever (Eddie Cooley cover)

(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher (Jackie Wilson cover)

Stormy Monday (T-Bone Walker cover)

(Kris and Rita encore)

For the Good Times

Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends

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