The New Album: George Strait

When George Strait first visited Nashville, he was told his music was behind the times. Looking back, it’s clear he was a sign of the times, a bellwether who pointed the way to greater popularity and prosperity for country music.

At the beginning of the 1980s, the prevailing attitude among those running the country music industry was that Strait’s blend of western swing, traditional honky-tonk, and romantic ballads was old-fashioned and out of style. By the end of the decade, however, Nashville was singing a different tune, and Strait now stands tallest among the handful of artists who changed the sound and the look of country music.

In the decade following the release of ‘Strait Country’, the Texan’s 1981 debut album, he racked up over 25 number-one songs, many platinum album and gold albums. His concert sales have topped $10 million annually since the late 1980s. He is cited as a primary influence by nearly every successful Nashville newcomer.

Strait was born May 18, 1952, the second of three children. His father was a junior-high math teacher and part-time rancher in Pearsall, Texas, a tiny settlement in the South Texas brush country located about 60 miles south of San Antonio. In his youth, Strait learned to ride horses and rope steers. His initial musical experience was singing "Louie, Louie" and other rudimentary rock songs with a garage band made up of high-school buddies. Shortly after graduation, he eloped to Mexico with his high-school sweetheart. Now, more than 28 years later, he and wife Norma still reside in South Texas with their son, George, Jr., born in 1981.

Strait joined the Army in 1971 and taught himself to play guitar a year later. In time, Strait’s duties during his last year in the service consisted of performing country music on military bases.

Upon returning home, he enrolled in Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos. On campus, he pinned a note to a bulletin board advertising himself as a singer in search of a country band. He got a call from a group calling themselves Ace in the Hole. With Strait as lead singer, the band began performing nightly in honky-tonks within a 200-mile radius of San Marcos.

In 1979, Strait received a bachelor’s degree in agriculture and stared managing the family ranch, which by that time had grown to include more that 1,000 head of cattle. Despite the hard work of running the ranch, Strait continued to sing at night. The band’s popularity grew, and Strait’s voice became more confident and flexible with his nightly performances of traditional Texas dance hall music, which included healthy doses of songs made famous by Bob Wills, Hank Thompson, Johnny Bush, Lefty Frizzell, Merle Haggard, and George Jones.

In the late 1970s, Strait recorded a few songs for D Records, a Houston-based company owned by Pappy Dailey, who had given George Jones his first break more than two decades earlier. Strait’s first single, "Ace in the Hole," received enough attention to give him the courage to travel to Nashville. He made the trek three times without getting a response.

In 1979, Strait figured he had given his dream a shot, and it was time to be more practical. He applied for several jobs, nearly accepting a position with a firm in Uvalde, Texas, designing cattle facilities. But Norma persuaded him to give music one more year.

Among his other supporters was Erv Woolsey, a former music industry executive who managed a San Marcos nightclub, the Prairie Rose, where the Ace in the Hole band often performed. In 1979, after Woolsey had returned to the music business as a promotion executive for MCA Records, he helped Strait arrange a Nashville recording session with producer Blake Mevis. The songs recorded during that session earned Strait a recording contract with MCA Records less than six months after he had turned down the job in Uvalde.

The first hit from Strait’s debut album, ‘Strait Country’, was a stripped-down, dynamic Texas two-step titled "Unwound." It became the singer’s first Top 10 hit, confounding those who thought radio wouldn’t accept such a raw, traditional country style.

Strait has endured for more than 25 years and has set several standards. In 1987, the Texan’s ‘Ocean Front Property’ disc became the first in country music history to debut at number one on Billboard’s country album chart. In 1990, Strait’s hit, "Love Without End, Amen," became the first song since 1977 to remain in the number-one position on the country charts for five consecutive weeks. His 1991 hit, "Famous Last Words of a Fool," was the next song to repeat that feat.

Amid the success, he’s also faced tragedy. His daughter, Jennifer, was killed at age 13 in an auto accident in 1986. At that point, Strait withdrew from interviews for more than a year, and now only reluctantly agrees to appear on television or talk to the press.

As for his music, Strait says: "I can’t really see it changing very much. It’s not that I set out to create a certain style or to change country music. It’s just that I record the songs I like, and I do them in a way that feels right to me. It’s worked out pretty well so far, so I guess I’ll keep doing it that way."

Check out the official George Strait Web site at: www.georgestrait.com

Join the George Strait Fan Club at: P. O. Box 2119, Hendersonville, TN 37075

See George Strait at the George Strait Country Music Festival coming to a city near you. Check out the George Strait web site for more information and tour schedule.

Glenda S. Paradee backstage with George Strait