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Help Me Make It Through The Night: Steve Hofmeyr Sings Kris Kristofferson (English) |
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Monday, 03 November 2008 00:00 |
 Steve Hofmeyr’s stunning ode to Kris Kristofferson released on CD & DVD
Steve Hofmeyr has never hidden his high regard for the songwriters and performers who have influenced his creative work – and his latest release pays tribute to the artistic genius of Kris Kristofferson.
Titled ‘Help Me Make It Through The Night: Steve Hofmeyr Sings Kris Kristofferson’, the DVD was filmed live at Emperor’s Palace in Gauteng and is a landmark recording from the highly accomplished and enduringly popular South African artist.
For Hofmeyr, taking on a body of work from one of America’s most iconic creative talents was easy – he’s long been a fan of Kristofferson and knew that his songs would resonate with his fans.
Says Hofmeyr, “Kris Kristofferson had a few huge hits in South Africa – songs like ‘Why me Lord’ - that were so significant that once one names them, everybody brings the two together.”
Crafting a show around the enigmatic Kristofferson wasn’t an easy task, Hofmeyr reveals. “Like with my Neil Diamond project, the hardest part was not choosing the hit songs – those were there. It was building text from non-existing biographical material. Both are reluctant pop stars and have little to say outside their songwriting. “
Part of creating a show that captured the spirit of Kristofferson’s work and Hofmeyr’s own approach to it came through a meticulous attention to detail.
“Kris delivers a very mellow listening experience – aside from ‘Jesus was a Carpenter’ there are hardly any up-tempo songs. But I spent a lot of time and resources making eye-candy with backdrops and video projections. My wife was instrumental here. We have included the amazing backdrops as a separate ID track on the DVD.”
Getting into the heart of Kris Kristofferson was something this enormously talented professional found quite natural. “When I concentrate, I can do a pretty close Diamond. When I stop concentrating, I’m Kris. We share a frequency - intellectually and emotionally. It does help that I am an incurable fan of both, immaterial to cool factor fascism and country music’s fall from grace in South Africa. I kept to the original minimalist sound as close as possible. That takes some doing with a metal band!”
Throughout ‘Help Me Make It Through The Night: Steve Hofmeyr Sings Kris Kristofferson’, Hofmeyr’s band provides just the right framework for his vocal performance, adding to the impact of the recording.
For Hofmeyr, the release of the CD & DVD is part of his belief in the power of paying tribute to the world’s best artists. “Having recorded 180 of my original songs on 19 CDs, I have no qualms enjoying this.” Coming next is 2009 Neil Diamond tour – ‘Beautiful Noise Reunion 2009’ – that will see Hofmeyr recording 20 Diamond songs that didn’t make it into the first round – including ‘Cherry Cherry’, ‘Play Me’, ‘Morningside’, ‘Brooklyn Roads’, ‘Crunchy Granola Suite’ and more.
For this hard-working artist, there’s no stopping in sight – even when life throws challenges his way.
“After my Toeka projects, ‘Help Me Make It Through The Night’ is my pet-love project. I did the entire two weeks in between two massive operations, and was still carrying a colostomy bag during that recording. Today I’m completely recovered, but the discomfort helped with interpretation considerably.”
‘Help Me Make It Through The Night: Steve Hofmeyr Sings Kris Kristofferson’ is released on 20 October on CD and the DVD release follows at the end of October.
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