 Out of all the new country singers to emerge in the early '80s,
George Strait stayed the closest to traditional country. Drawing from both
the honky tonk and Western swing
traditions,
George Strait didn't refashion the genres; instead, he revitalized them for a new
decade. In the process, he became one of the most popular and influential
singers of the decade, sparking a wave of neo-traditionalist singers from
Randy Travis and
Dwight Yoakam to
Clint Black,
Garth Brooks, and
Alan Jackson.
George Strait was born and raised in Texas, the son of a junior high school teacher
who also owned and operated a ranch that had been in the Strait family for
nearly hundred years. When
George Strait was a child, his mother left the family, taking her daughter but
leaving behind her sons with the father. During his childhood, he would spend
his weekdays in town and his weekends on the ranch.
George Strait began playing music as a teenager, joining a rock & roll garage band.
After his high-school graduation in the late '60s,
George Strait enrolled in college but soon dropped out and eloped with his high
school sweetheart, Norma. In 1971,
George Strait enlisted in the Army; two years later, he was stationed Hawaii. While
in Hawaii, he began playing country music, initially with an Army-sponsored
country band called Rambling Country. They played several dates off the base
under the name Santee.
George Strait left the Army in 1975, returning to Texas with the intent of
completing his education. He enrolled in Southwest Texas State University at San
Marcos, where he studied agriculture. While he was studying, he formed his own
country band,
Ace in the Hole.
Ace in the Hole made a few records for the independent Dallas-based label D
in the late '70s, but they never went anywhere. Toward the end of the decade,
George Strait attempted to carve out a niche in Nashville, but he failed since he
lacked any strong connections. In 1979, he became friends with Erv Woolsey, a
Texas club owner who had formerly worked for MCA Records. Woolsey had several
MCA executives come down to Texas to hear
George Strait. His performance convinced the company to sign him in 1980.
"Unwound,"
George Strait's first single, was released in the spring of 1981 and climbed into
the Top Ten. The follow-up, "Down and Out," stalled at 16, but "If You're
Thinking You Want a Stranger (There's One Coming Home)" reached number three in
early 1982. The song sparked a remarkable string of Top Ten hits that ran well
into the '90s. During that time he had an astonishing 31 number one singles,
beginning with 1982's "Fool Hearted Memory."
Throughout the '80s, he dominated the country singles charts, and his albums
consistently went platinum or gold.
George Strait rarely abandoned hardcore honky tonk and Western swing -- toward the
beginning of the '90s, his sound became a little slicker, but it was only a
relative change.
George Strait was also one of the few '80s superstars to survive the generational
shift of the early '90s that began with the phenomenal success of
Brooks. In 1992, he made his first movie, Pure Country, which featured him
in the lead role.
George Strait released a four-disc box set career retrospective, Strait out of the
Box, in 1995. By the spring of 1996, it had become one of the five
biggest-selling box sets in popular music history. Blue Clear Sky, his 1996
album, debuted on the country charts at number one and the pop charts at number
seven. In 1997, he released Carrying Your Love with Me, following it with One
Step at a Time in 1998. Always Never the Same appeared a year later, as did the
seasonal effort Merry Christmas Wherever You Are. The simply titled George
Strait, featuring the hit single "Go On," hit the shelves in late 2000.
Did
George Strait slow down? Nay. 2001 saw the release of The Road Less Traveled, which
qualified as an experimental album of sorts for the veteran performer. While it
didn't stray very far from his new traditionalist country sound, Road did
include a foray into vocal processing that was about as country as a pair of
Stiletto-healed cowboy boots. But the experimentation was welcome, for it
revealed that
George Strait was still hungry, even after millions upon millions of records sold.
George Strait issued two projects in 2003. For the Last Time: Live from the
Astrodome chronicled his headlining set at the last Houston Livestock and Rodeo
ever held in the big Texas dome, while Honkytonkville was a fiery set of hard
country, lauded by critics for its mixture of the old
George Strait with his modern, superstar self. Somewhere Down in Texas followed in
2005. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
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