Another crucial re-release in the American Milestones series, Kris Kristofferson's 1970 debut would be heavy-handed in shaping the face of outlaw country, especially before it became too self-aware over the next decade.

Let's talk about the hits first: Help Me Make it Through the Night, for example, the Ray Price hit For the Good Times, or the superior original version of Me and Bobby McGee, hijacked by Janis Joplin, making it her most famous song. Kristofferson wails a much more subtle cry in his take and it seems even sadder because of his emotional restraint.

Then there are protest songs, like The Law is for the Protection of the People: "walk the line and never mind the cost," in which he compares hippy-busting cops to Roman soldiers taking care of Jesus in the last hours on the hill.

And Best of all Possible Worlds shows Kristofferson's Rhodes Scholar linguistic background. We join him in a cell the morning after bumping into the wrong arm of the law. "Well, woke up next morning feeling like my head was gone, and like my thick old tongue was licking something sick and wrong." Simple words, all fitting together like a perfect jigsaw puzzle, especially when rolling off that thick old tongue.

And don't forget about Sunday Morning Comin' Down, which Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and pretty much everyone else from that era had a stab at. It's a beautiful song, one which shows the general aimlessness of being a helpless-feeling young turk in Nixon's America. Very easy on the ears, indeed. The just-now-released bonus tracks are great, too.

There is an echoey hollowness to this album which dates it some. Kristofferson was a hippy troubadour who spent time in university, the army and, penultimately to his career singing, mopping floors in Nashville waiting for his break, like so many others. It finally came to him after he piloted a helicopter onto Johnny Cash's estate, demo tape in hand.

This is a man not afraid to try, to say what he felt, and it earned him the respect of singers, fans and critics alike. Beyond all others, this album shows just why that is.

Track Listing 1. Blame It On The Stones
  2. To Beat The Devil
  3. Me And Bobby McGee
  4. Best Of All Possible Worlds, The
  5. Help Me Make It Through The Night
  6. Law Is For The Protection Of The People, The
  7. Casey's Last Ride
  8. Just The Other Side Of Nowhere
  9. Darby's Castle
  10. For The Good Times
  11. Duvalier's Dream
  12. Sunday Morning Comin' Down
  13. Junkie And The Juicehead Minus Me, The - (previously unreleased)
  14. Shadows Of Her Mind - (previously unreleased)
  15. Lady's Not For Sale, The - (previously unreleased)
  16. Come Sundown - (previously unreleased)