stephen bruton - rip

I’ve been on a Kris Kristofferson kick lately…well, in truth, I’ve been on a Gordon Lightfoot and Kris Kristofferson kick lately, but for the past couple of days it’s been mostly Kris. In fact, The Essential Kris Kristofferson is playing on my computer, as I write this.

And I just found out today that Stephen Bruton died over the weekend, of throat cancer. He was only sixty years old. Among other things, Bruton toured with and wrote songs with Kris Kristofferson for two decades. Among the songs they co-wrote are The Bigger the Fool, The Harder the Fall and one of my Kristofferson favorites – Border Lord.

Bruton also recorded with T Bone Burnett, Bonnie Raitt, Delbert McClinton, Elvis Costello, Carly Simon, The Wallflowers, Alejandro Escovedo, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Sonny Landreth, Peter Case, Ray Wylie Hubbard and others.

Cancer is really wreaking havoc on our music world these days. This blog has turned in to an obituary column.

Very sad. Rest well, Stephen.


There are those moments and they just never fade
Like the look in her eyes and the way the light played
God moved in that moment and the angels all cried
And they gave you a memory that you’ll have till you die
Now the lesson you learned and you don’t dare forget
What makes you grow old is replacing hope with regret

- Stephen Bruton