Kris Kristofferson and
Rita Coolidge inaugurated their musical partnership in 1973 (also the year of their marriage) with
Full Moon, which topped the country charts, and they quickly followed with 1974's Breakaway, another album with healthy sales. By the time of their third and final duo LP,
Natural Act, a little more than four years later, much had changed. At the time of their earlier efforts,
Kristofferson was the dominant force in the partnership, coming off his gold records of the early '70s, his movie stardom, and his songwriting renown, while
Coolidge was a developing artist who benefited from the exposure the albums brought her. By the start of 1979, the positions were reversed.
Coolidge's 1977 album
Anytime...Anywhere had generated two gold singles and gone platinum, and its follow-up, 1978's
Love Me Again, had gone gold.
Kristofferson's albums, on the other hand, struggled to get into the Top 100 bestsellers of the pop chart. Still,
Natural Act, like its predecessors, came off as a busman's holiday for
Kristofferson and his band with
Coolidge along for the ride. The song list was dominated by contributions from
Kristofferson cronies like
Billy Swan and
Donnie Fritts, and he himself brought in three songs, as usual two of them old items from his catalog. "Loving You Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)" was an old hit of his that he used to dedicate to
Coolidge; now they performed it together. "Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends," which had been a hit for
Ray Price, and the previously unrecorded "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" seemed to hint at the couple's dissatisfaction with each other; they were divorced within a year of the album's release. ~ William Ruhlmann