Paragons of People's Music Kris Kristofferson

Join us as we mark the recent passing of Kris Kristofferson. He had been a composer, singer, guitarist, poet, short-story writer, film actor, helicopter pilot, janitor in Nashville, winner of the Free Speech Award from the Americana Music Association, a bartender, member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, an activist for social justice and peace, a boxer, an Army Ranger, construction worker, a Rhodes Scholar with a Master’s in literature from Oxford; a friend, colleague and comrade of Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Waylon Jennings, etc.

Kristofferson brought Dylanesque poetry, Blakean literary adventurousness, and a combination of the personal as the political and the political as personal to Nashville and country music. His work opened a connection between country music, folk music, rock music, and the “counterculture.” Bob Dylan said, “You can look at Nashville pre-Kris and post-Kris, because he changed everything.”

Guitarist, singer, and West Chester University professor, Doug Morris, will lead us into the life and music of this Paragon of People’s Music.