Don't Let the Bastards Get You Down: A Tribute to Kris Kristofferson

Purportedly, when he was approached about contributing a song to this 2002 Kris Kristofferson tribute album, Chuck Prophet first wanted to cover the song that Kristofferson sang as circus manager Mace Montana in the 1988 Pee-wee Herman film Big Top Pee-wee. Still, his stoic take on the 1971 single “Loving Her Was Easier” fits Prophet’s baritone tenor like a pair of well-worn Wranglers. But it’s Tom Verlaine of Television fame who sets the tone here. He opens with a beautifully eerie rendering of “The Hawk,” which sounds like a lost gem from the This Mortal Coil series. Mother Hips’ Tim Bluhm and Greg Loiacono sing “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” as if they were gently cooing into the same microphone to get those high-lonesome harmonies braided tightly together. Former X frontman John Doe leans into “Me and Bobby McGee” like it was one of the first songs he learned how to play on guitar, while Tom Heyman’s “Sugarman” resonates with the kind of shadowy boiler-room Americana that fits snug between early Tom Waits and the Greil Marcus–worshiped Basement Tapes.