The review I'm linking here has mixed feelings about this album. I'll just say I was quite pleasantly surprised. On this album, often with only the sparest of acoustic instrumentation, he sounds like Cash on Unearthed. And for me, that's a good thing, as Martha would say.

Whatever happened to that maverick Nashville songwriter, and why don’t we hear gut-level honesty like that on country radio anymore?

Kris Kristofferson was, after all, one quarter of The Highwaymen; a country Mt. Rushmore, if you will, that included Willie Nelson, as well as the late Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings. Musicians have been known to dabble in acting now and again, it’s true, but Kristofferson immersed himself so fully into the thespian life, he almost completely abandoned his songwriting past—at least until now.

If you're sampling at your favorite site/store, try "Thank You for a Life" for starters. And while you're listening, consider how the visual element in music has been constrained by the shift from LPs to MP3s, and how the video iPod may eventually bring it back in a new and compelling way.

Kris Kristofferson: This Old Road