Kris Kristofferson duet with Lily Meola will feature on the young singer/songwriter’s debut album, according to Rolling Stone.
So what do we know about Lily Meola, u0026amp; what is her connection to Kris Kristofferson?
Hawaiian born – Kris’ bought property in Hawaii in 1970, u0026amp; has lived there for many years. Willie Nelson lives there too.
Willie Nelson – Willie u0026amp; Kris are known to be good friends of long-standing, u0026amp; have a history of performing together, supporting each other u0026amp; collaborating on many projects from Farm Aid, the Highwaymen, u0026amp; although they have totally separate careers, they are often seen together at award ceremonies u0026amp; events. Willie’s album, Willie Nelson Sings Kristofferson has Willie singing 9 of Kris’ songs (He sang a few of these beautifully at a gig I attended a few years back in Manchester, England)
Farm Aid – Kris, along with many other world-class artists, is a long time supporter of Willie’s Farm Aid event. The event raises money to support family farms. Lily Meola has performed at the last 3 Farm Aid events u0026amp; was one of the female singers on Willie’s, To All The Girls on his Duets LP. Here is some footage of the young singer at Farm Aid last year, then performing one of her own compositions at the event this year.
Lily Meola has toured u0026amp; performed with Willie, u0026amp; sang with Kris u0026amp; Jamey Johnson, according to Rolling Stone. I have not yet found an independent source to confirm her performing with Kris, but have no reason to doubt it. She is certainly in the right circles!
Jamey Johnson has performed with Merle Haggard who Kris is currently touring with. See youtube for them singing Long Black Veil.
Tom Lelli reported back in January this year that he was working on a project overdubbing Kris Kristofferson onto some previously unreleased material from the Highwaymen recordings at Alaa Recording. (link below, where Kris is referred to as a “A nice guy and a true class act.”) They also worked with Lily Meola a month earlier, in December 2014 (citation below). I wonder if the duet was recorded during an overlap of these sessions?
So Kris u0026amp; Willie are linked, u0026amp; Lily Meola is Willie’s protegé. Both legends are working on their legacies. The next generation of singer/songwriters are coming up fast. I saw this myself when Kris performed with Glaswegian Roddy Hart on a few of his UK tours, u0026amp; said that Home, sounded like something he himself had written, but that’s another story……
I am looking forward to hearing this Kristofferson 2015 Duet with Lily Meola, it will be interesting to see how they deal with this iconic song. Janis Joplin, Rita Coolidge, Joan Baez u0026amp; Sheryl Crow are certainly tough acts to follow, but perhaps Lily Meola will add her own stamp to this legendary masterpiece.
Update:
This has now been released u0026amp; is now available
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/willie-nelson-protegee-lily-meola-readies-debut-album-20151026
http://stillisstillmoving.com/willienelson/tag/kris-kristofferson/
http://www.aalarecording.com/post-comments/2015/1/25/kris-kristofferson-session.html
http://www.aalarecording.com/post-comments/2014/12/13/lily-meola-unplugged-and-live-recording-sessions.html
Image used under creative commons https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ attributed to Carolyn Coles via flickr, licensed for reused. No changes made. Brendan Canning Farm Aid
