Legacy Recordings has been releasing comprehensive album collections for some of their artists for the past several years with this year's Elvis Presley collection being the latest.  The label has just announced another of these box sets, this time devoted to a star of the country genre: Kris Kristofferson.  The Complete Monument and Columbia Album Collection is due to be released on June 10 and the 16-disc set features 11 studio albums and three concerts (two unreleased) plus two more discs of bonus tracks.

After leaving the Army, Kris Kristofferson moved to Nashville in the mid-1960s.  Working in a variety of jobs, he eventually met Johnny Cash who recorded the aspiring songwriter's "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down."  More songwriting credits would come with his compositions being recorded by artists such as Ray Stevens, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roger Miller and Faron Young.  He signed to Epic Records as a performing artist and released a single, but it did not chart.  Monument Records, run by Fred Foster - who also managed Kristofferson's songwriting publisher - signed him in 1970 to a recording contract.  Kristofferson's debut LP, Kristofferson, would be released later that year.  It would not achieve any chart success until it was re-released under the title Me and Bobby McGee in 1971.  That was, of course, the Kristofferson song that went to the top of the charts in Kristofferson's onetime girlfriend Janis Joplin's version off the posthumous Pearl.

Kristofferson remained an in-demand songwriter throughout the 1970s even as he continued to record albums for Monument.  Although his songwriting success usually outweighed his recording success, he did have a No.1 Country hit in 1973 with "Why Me" off of the Jesus Was a Capricorn album.  Kristofferson also began to act in movies, beginning a long film career with 1971's The Last Movie.  He would win a Golden Globe for his role alongside Barbra Streisand in 1976's A Star is Born.  Kristofferson continued to record for Monument with his last original album for the label, To the Bone, being released in 1981.  He would collaborate with Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson for the successful Highwayman album in 1985 and signed with Mercury Records, where he would release two albums, one in 1986 and one in 1990.  He has recorded five more studio albums and two live albums for various labels since that time.  The prolific singer-songwriter has another studio album, Cedar Creek Sessions, due to hit stores one week after this box set on June 17.

The box set will feature a book containing three essays from Fred Foster, musician/producer Don Was and journalist Mikal Gilmore.  Information as the remastering credits has not been released yet.  Please note that there a couple of albums from this time which have not been included, likely due to different reasons.  Kristofferson recorded three duet albums with his then-wife Rita Coolidge in the 1970s.  The middle one, 1974's Breakaway, was on Monument and is included.  The other two were on A&M (Coolidge's label): 1973's Full Moon and 1978's Natural Act, and are not included as they would be outside of the box's complete Monument albums purview.  Kristofferson also appeared on the 1982's The Winning Hand (a Monument compilation featuring tracks from Kristofferson, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Brenda Lee) and 1984's soundtrack to the film Songwriter on Columbia with Willie Nelson.  While the albums are not included in full, it does appear that Kristofferson's tracks are included on the bonus discs.  However, it does not appear that anything has been included from the 1976 soundtrack to A Star Is Born which was also on Columbia and featured Kristofferson and Barbra Streisand.

We've got the full tracklisting below together with Legacy's press release.  If you'd like to check out this big chunk of Kris Kristofferson's career, we've also got preorder links.

NEW YORK - Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, will celebrate the 80th birthday of American music legend Kris Kristofferson with the release of The Complete Monument & Columbia Album Collection, a 16CD deluxe box set, on Friday, June 10.

The most comprehensive Kris Kristofferson musical library ever assembled, The Complete Monument & Columbia Album Collection brings together 11 essential studio albums, recorded by the artist from 1970 through 1981, individually packaged in a facsimile sleeve reproducing the original album artwork. In addition, the boxed set includes five bonus discs of unreleased and hard-to-find live and studio material drawn from Kristofferson's extraordinary golden era with the Monument and Columbia Records labels. Bonus material includes three highly-collectible concert recordings (two of them previously unreleased) from 1970-1972 and two full discs of rarities featuring non-LP singles, studio outtakes, rare appearances, previously unavailable demos and more.

The Complete Monument & Columbia Album Collection box set includes a deluxe booklet featuring essays and liner notes penned especially for this anthology: 1) an introduction to Kristofferson written by Fred Foster, the visionary founder of Monument Records who signed Kris as a songwriter to Combine Music and a recording artist for Monument, who released his debut album in 1970; 2) an aesthetic appreciation of the artist--"Kris Kristofferson True American Hero""--by famed musician/producer Don Was; and 3) a revelatory and insightful portrait of Kris Kristofferson and his music from acclaimed American writer and journalist Mikal Gilmore.

Born June 22, 1936 in Brownsville, Texas, Kristoffer ("Kris") Kristofferson has been an active force in the entertainment industry for the past half century. An influential singer/songwriter who changed the contours of American country music with the lyrical insight and penetrating honesty of his songs, a US Army veteran (who served from 1960-1965, achieving the rank of Captain) and former Oxford University Rhodes Scholar who won a Golden Globes Best Actor Award (for his starring role opposite Barbra Streisand in the 1976 movie smash "A Star Is Born"), Kris Kristofferson is both a multi-faceted artist and a bonafide American icon.

A musician whose sound bridges the worlds of country, folk, rock and gospel, Kristofferson is one of the sonic architects of the American outlaw country movement. Having written and recorded such hit songs as "Me and Bobby McGee," "For the Good Times," "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down," "Help Me Make It Through the Night" and many others, Kris Kristofferson is among the most influential and admired musicians in the world, with a body of work that spans the late 20th and early 21st centuries. In 1985, he united with fellow outlaw country artists Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings to form The Highwaymen, the world's first country music "supergroup." He was induced into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2004.

Kristofferson wrote his first songs while studying at Merton College at Oxford University, hoping the craft of songwriting would further his goal of becoming a novelist. While in England, he cut his first records as "Kris Carson" for the Top Rank Records label. This early foray into the music industry proved unsuccessful. Graduating Oxford with a master's degree in English literature in 1960, Kristofferson eventually relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, where he began to ply his trade as a songwriter while working as a series of other jobs including helicopter pilot, oil rig operator (in Louisiana) and janitor at Columbia Recording Studios.

By 1967, Kristofferson had signed with Epic Records, who released an unsuccessful single, "Golden Idol"/"Killing Time". Meanwhile, Kris Kristofferson-penned songs were hitting the charts, performed by other artists including Roy Drusky ("Jody and the Kid"); Billy Walker & the Tennessee Walkers ("From the Bottle to the Bottom"); Ray Stevens ("Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down"); Jerry Lee Lewis ("Once More with Feeling"); Faron Young ("Your Time's Comin'"); and Roger Miller ("Me and Bobby McGee", "Best of all Possible Worlds", and "Darby's Castle"). Kris started to achieve attention as a performer in his own right, especially after being introduced on-stage at the Newport Folk Festival by Johnny Cash.

Signed as a recording artist to Monument Records by the prescient Fred Foster, Kristofferson saw his eponymous debut album released in 1970. The album, Kristofferson, included newly written originals as well as some of Kris's most familiar hits for other artists; re-released as Me & Bobby McGee a year later, the collection put Kris Kristofferson front and center in the worlds of popular and country music. Ray Price's recording of "For the Good Times" helped the composition win the Academy of Country Music's Song of the Year in 1970 while Johnny Cash's version of "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" secured the Song of the Year award that same year from the Country Music Association. Kris Kristofferson's double win for Song of the Year in 1970 marked the only time a single individual has ever achieved the same award--from Country Music's two competing professional guilds--in the same year for two different songs.

In 1971, Janis Joplin's definitive recording of "Me and Bobby McGee" became a #1 hit and remains a radio perennial to this day. While a string of Kristofferson songs became hits for other artists--Ray Price ("I'd Rather Be Sorry"); Joe Simon ("Help Me Make It Through the Night"); Bobby Bare ("Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends"); O.C. Smith ("Help Me Make It Through the Night"); Jerry Lee Lewis ("Me and Bobby McGee"); Patti Page ("I'd Rather Be Sorry"); Peggy Little ("I've Got to Have You") and Kenny Rogers ("Me and Bobby McGee"), Kristofferson solidified his position as a recordings artist with the release of The Silver Tongued Devil and I in 1971. He swept the Grammys in 1971 with several nominations, winning Country Song of the Year for "Help Me Make It Through the Night."

You can pre-order this landmark - make that Monumental! - set at the links below!

Kris Kristofferson, The Complete Monument and Columbia Album Collection (Columbia/Legacy Recordings, 2016) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Disc 1 - Kristofferson (Monument, 1970)

1. Blame It On the Stones
   2. To Beat the Devil
   3. Me and Bobby McGee
   4. Best of All Possible Worlds
   5. Help Me Make It Through the Night
   6. The Law Is for Protection of the People
   7. Casey's Last Ride
   8. Just the Other Side of Nowhere
   9. Darby's Castle
   10. For the Good Times
   11. Duvalier's Dream
   12. Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down

Disc 2 - The Silver Tongued Devil and I (Monument, 1971)

1. The Silver Tongued Devil and I
   2. Jody and the Kid
   3. Billy Dee
   4. Good Christian Soldier
   5. Breakdown (A Long Way from Home)
   6. Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)
   7. The Taker
   8. When I Loved Her
   9. The Pilgrim, Chapter 33
   10. Epitaph (Black and Blue)

Disc 3 - Border Lord (Monument 1972)

1. Josie
   2. Burden of Freedom
   3. Stagger Mountain Tragedy
   4. Border Lord
   5. Somebody Nobody Knows
   6. Little Girl Lost
   7. Smokey Put the Sweat On Me
   8. When She's Wrong
   9. Gettin' By, High and Strange
   10. Kiss the World Goodbye

Disc 4 - Jesus Was a Capricorn (Monument, 1972)

1. Jesus Was a Capricorn (Owed to John Prine)
   2. Nobody Wins
   3. It Sure Was (Love) - Kris Kristofferson with Rita Coolidge
   4. Enough for You
   5. Help Me - Kris Kristofferson with Larry Gatlin
   6. Jesse Younger
   7. Give It Time to Be Tender - Kris Kristofferson with Rita Coolidge
   8. Out of Mind, Out of Sight
   9. Sugar Man
   10. Why Me

Disc 5 - Spooky Lady's Sideshow (Monument 1974)

1. Same Old Song
   2. Broken Freedom Song
   3. Shandy (The Perfect Disguise)
   4. Star-Spangled Bummer (Whores Die Hard)
   5. The Lights of Magdala
   6. I May Smoke Too Much
   7. One for the Money
   8. Late Again (Gettin' Over You)
   9. Stairway to the Bottom
   10. Rescue Mission
   11. Smile at Me Again
   12. Rock and Roll Time

Disc 6 - Breakaway (Monument, 1974)

1. Lover Please - Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge
   2. We Must Have Been Out of Our Minds - Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge
   3. Dakota (The Dancing Bear) - Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge
   4. What'cha Gonna Do - Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge
   5. The Things I Might Have Been - Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge
   6. Slow Down - Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge
   7. Rain - Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge
   8. Sweet Susannah - Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge
   9. I've Got to Have You - Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge
   10. I'd Rather Be Sorry - Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge
   11. Crippled Crow - Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge

Disc 7 - Who's To Bless...and Who's To Blame (Monument, 1975)

1. The Year 2000 Minus 25
   2. If It's All the Same to You
   3. Easy, Come On
   4. Stallion
   5. Rocket to Stardom
   6. Stranger
   7. Who's to Bless and Who's to Blame
   8. Don't Cuss the Fiddle
   9. Silver (The Hunger)

Disc 8 - Surreal Thing (Monument, 1976)

1. You Show Me Yours (And I'll Show You Mine)
   2. Killing Time
   3. The Prisoner
   4. Eddie the Eunuch
   5. It's Never Gonna Be the Same Again
   6. I Got a Life of My Own
   7. The Stranger I Love
   8. The Golden Idol
   9. Bad Love Story
   10. If You Don't Like Hank Williams

Disc 9 - Easter Island (Monument/Columbia, 1978)

1. Risky Bizness
   2. How Do You Feel (About Foolin' Around)
   3. Forever In Your Love
   4. The Sabre and the Rose
   5. Spooky Lady's Revenge
   6. Easter Island
   7. The Bigger the Fool (The Harder the Fall)
   8. Lay Me Down (And Love the World Away)
   9. The Fighter
   10. Living Legend

Disc 10 - Shake Hands with the Devil (Monument/Columbia, 1979)

1. Shake Hands With the Devil
   2. Prove It to You One More Time Again
   3. Whiskey, Whiskey
   4. Lucky In Love
   5. Seadream
   6. Killer Barracuda
   7. Come Sundown
   8. Michoacan
   9. Once More with Feeling
   10. Fallen Angel

Disc 11 - To The Bone (Monument/Columbia, 1981)

1. Magdalene
   2. Star-Crossed
   3. Blessing In Disguise
   4. The Devil to Pay
   5. Daddy's Song
   6. Snakebit
   7. Nobody Loves Anybody Anymore
   8. Maybe You Heard
   9. The Last Time
   10. I'll Take Any Chance I Can with You

Disc 12 - Live at the Big Sur Folk Festival (recorded 1970 - previously unreleased)

1. If You Don't Like Hank Williams
   2. The Law Is for Protection of the People
   3. Band Introduction
   4. The Pilgrim, Chapter 33
   5. Duvalier's Dream
   6. Help Me Make It Through the Night
   7. Shake Hands With the Devil
   8. To Beat the Devil
   9. Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)
   10. Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down
   11. Me & Bobby McGee

Disc 13 - The WPLJ-FM Broadcast (recorded 1972 - previously unreleased)

1. Duvalier's Dream
   2. When I Loved Her
   3. Jesus Was a Capricorn (Owed to John Prine)
   4. Same Old Song
   5. Band Introductions
   6. Smile at Me Again
   7. Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)
   8. Casey's Last Ride
   9. Billy Dee
   10. The Law Is for the Protection of the People
   11. Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down
   12. Help Me Make It Through the Night

Disc 14 - Live at the Philharmonic (recorded in 1972 - previously released in 1992)

1. Late John Garfield Blues
   2. Jesus Was a Capricorn
   3. Nobody Wins
   4. Jesse Younger
   5. Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)
   6. Late Again (Gettin' Over You)
   7. Out of Mind, Out of Sight
   8. Sugar Man
   9. Billy Dee
   10. The Law Is for the Protection of the People
   11. For the Good Times
   12. Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down
   13. Okie from Muskogee
   14. Border Lord
   15. Ain't It Funny How Time Slips Away - Willie Nelson
   16. Night Life - Willie Nelson
   17. Me and Paul - Willie Nelson
   18. Mountain Dew - Willie Nelson
   19. The Pilgrim, Chapter 33
   20. Rainbow Road
   21. It Sure Was (Love) - Kris Kristofferson with Rita Coolidge
   22. Help Me - Kris Kristofferson with Larry Gatlin
   23. Me and Bobby McGee - Kris Kristofferson with Rita Coolidge
   24. Whiskey, Whiskey - Kris Kristofferson with Rita Coolidge

Disc 15 - Extras (non-LP singles, appearances and previously released outtakes)

1. Golden Idol
   2. Killing Time
   3. Hello In There - Kris Kristofferson With Joan Baez
   4. The Junkie and the Juicehead, Minus Me
   5. Shadows of Her Mind
   6. The Lady's Not for Sale
   7. From the Bottle to the Bottom
   8. The Bandits of Beverly Hills
   9. Here Comes That Rainbow Again
   10. The Bigger the Fool, The Harder the Fall - Kris Kristofferson & Brenda Lee
   11. Help Me Make It Through the Night - Kris Kristofferson & Brenda Lee
   12. Born to Love Me - Kris Kristofferson & Brenda Lee
   13. Put It Off Until Tomorrow - Dolly Parton & Kris Kristofferson
   14. Ping Pong - Dolly Parton & Kris Kristofferson
   15. Casey's Last Ride - Kris Kristofferson with Willie Nelson
   16. To Make a Long Story Short, She's Gone - Willie Nelson & Kris Kristofferson
   17. How Do You Feel About Foolin' Around - Kris Kristofferson with Willie Nelson
   18. Eye of the Storm - Kris Kristofferson with Willie Nelson
   19. Crossing the Border
   20. Down to Her Socks
   21. Under the Gun
   22. The Final Attraction
   23. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight

Disc 16 - Demos (all previously unreleased)

1. Gypsy Rose and I Don't Give a Curse
   2. I Believe That I Believe
   3. Born to Die Alone
   4. The Hurricane and the Helicopter
   5. Bread for the Body (And Food for the Soul)
   6. I Can Be Had
   7. The Table, The Glass, The Wine
   8. A Stitch in the Hand
   9. File It Under Sick and Wrong
   10. Where She Stops Nobody Knows
   11. Lonesome Way of Dying
   12. Good for Nothing Blues
   13. Fallen Woman
   14. No One's Gonna Miss Me
   15. Hitting Close to Home
   16. Nobody Owns My Soul