CMT Blog: Archive

Congratulations to Kris Kristofferson on his newly bestowed BMI Icon award for monumental achievements in songwriting. I assembled a playlist below to exemplify just how deep his catalog runs in country music. His most famous lyric may be "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose," which sets the bar extremely high, although I also love these phrases: "Take the ribbon from your hair/shake it loose and let it fall." "The Sunday smell of someone frying chicken." "Don't look so sad./I know it's over." In addition, I included his own version of "To Beat the Devil" (from his 1970 debut album) because its vivid descriptions make me feel like I was kicking around Nashville's bars in the late 1960s, too -- what I wouldn't give to see what the city was like back then.

"Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends," Ronnie Milsap
"For the Good Times," Ray Price
"Why Me Lord," George Jones
"Help Me Make It Through the Night," Sammi Smith
"To Beat the Devil," Kris Kristofferson
"Sunday Morning Coming Down," Johnny Cash
"Me and Bobbie McGee," Janis Joplin
"Darby's Castle," the Country Gentlemen
"A Moment of Forever," K.T. Oslin
"The Legend," Willie Nelson
"The Best of All Possible Worlds," the Little Willies
"Here Comes That Rainbow Again," the Highwaymen
"The Taker," Waylon Jennings
"Loving Him Was Easier," Rosanne Cash
"Come Sundown," Rodney Crowell
"Just the Other Side of Nowhere," John Prine and Mac Wiseman
"Casey's Last Ride," Emmylou Harris
"Nobody Wins," Brenda Lee
"One Day at a Time," Merle Haggard

Photo credit: BMI