Kris Kristofferson – Here Comes That Rainbow Again

“Here Comes That Rainbow Again” is a song written by Kris Kristofferson that was first issued as a single in 1981 and later included on his 1982 album project The Winning Hand. The composition is a compact narrative piece from Kristofferson’s later period of songwriting and is notable for drawing on literary imagery rather than conventional country tropes. The original single was released in the early 1980s as part of a sequence of new recordings that accompanied a phase of retrospective and collaborative releases in Kristofferson’s catalog.

Kris Kristofferson wrote the song with a clear literary reference point: he has said that the scene that inspired the lyric comes from John Steinbeck’s depiction of a roadside lunch counter in “The Grapes of Wrath.” The song translates that visual and social tableau into a brief, character-focused vignette, turning a small everyday scene into the basis for a short moral and emotional observation. The approach aligns with Kristofferson’s long-standing habit of mining novels, movies and real-life encounters for sharply drawn moments that suggest larger social realities.

In form and content, “Here Comes That Rainbow Again” offers a scene more than a conventional plot: it sketches a roadside café setting, incidental characters and a quietly observed moment that implies loss or passing rather than resolving a dramatic action. The lyricism is spare and conversational, permitting the listener to supply context; this economy of detail and emphasis on suggestion over explanation is typical of Kristofferson’s narrative songs from this era. Musically the original recording is restrained, arranged to keep the focus on voice and story.

Although Kristofferson released the song as a single in 1981, it did not become a major hit on mainstream singles charts and did not reach the upper regions of the Billboard country singles listings. The track found a broader life not through high chart placement for Kristofferson himself but through subsequent cover versions and inclusion on compilation releases. Kristofferson also kept the song in his performing repertoire, and it has appeared on later live and greatest-hits compilations.

The composition attracted several notable covers: instrumentalist and singer-guitarist Leo Kottke recorded a version for his 1983 album, and Johnny Cash recorded the song for his 1985 album, bringing the piece to a different audience through his distinctive vocal interpretation. More recently, the song has appeared in tribute and compilation contexts, with contemporary artists including it in tribute concerts and all-star collections that highlighted Kristofferson’s songwriting across decades. Those reinterpretations helped sustain the song’s recognition beyond its initial single release.

Readers and listeners often remark on how “Here Comes That Rainbow Again” exemplifies Kristofferson’s capacity to translate literary or cinematic images into song without over-explaining the source material. The song’s primary strength is in its ability to conjure a mood and a small human tableau in a few lines, leaving moral inference to the listener. This restrained, image-driven method made the song appealing to interpreters who could adapt its spare narrative to various vocal and instrumental arrangements.

Today the song is regarded as part of Kristofferson’s broader late-period songwriting output: not one of his commercially dominant singles, but a representative example of his interest in short, literary vignettes and in songs that travel through other performers’ recordings. Its presence on collaborative and compilation albums, together with respected covers by other artists, secures “Here Comes That Rainbow Again” a steady place in accounts of Kristofferson’s work as a writer who often bridged literary sensibility and country-folk songwriting.