Fighting memory loss, Kris Kristofferson rolls into town
The last time I spoke to Kris Kristofferson, in 2012, I asked how he was doing and he made a sound like a saloon bar door creaking open. “Pretty good, pretty good,” he chuckled. “Pretty old.” Back then he was a puppyish 76. He’ll be pushing 83 when he performs three shows in Scotland next week. The title of one recent album, Feeling Mortal, is more apposite than ever.
Musical genius or a wasted talent? In search of the real John Martyn
John Martyn played many roles in his three score years. Curly-haired troubadour, spaced-out innovator, thug, fisherman, wizard, wastrel, lover and fighter. When Linda Thompson first met him in the mid-Sixties, all those lives still lay before him. He was merely Iain McGeachy, teenage paper boy, pounding the Merrylee beat in his school uniform.
