Pure country: the two words sum up the life and 24-year career of one of country's biggest living legends, George Strait. This essence of down-home goodness is captured beautifully on his 30th and latest CD, "For the Last Time: Live from the Astrodome."
Recorded March 3, 2002 in front of a record crowd of 68,266 at the Astrodome's final Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, the album contains eight of his record 50 country number one hits, along with other old fan favorites and recent efforts.
From "Amarillo By Morning" to "Check Yes or No" to "Living and Living Well," there may be no truly new songs on the album, but it is a perfect compilation of classic and contemporary Strait. The album is one that country music aficionados can listen to over and over, and because of its unique flavor those who aren't country's number one fans can enjoy too.
The best part of the album, though, is the little difference between the singing styles of the old and new Strait. Strait seems to choose quality songs written by quality writers. But his soft voice also alternates between smooth and twang, making Strait a master at conveying the emotions of his songs.
He does this regardless of whether crooning of love and love lost in songs such as "Write This Down," "Love Without End Amen," or "She'll Leave You With a Smile." Through his songs, Strait often acts as a storyteller -- singing of a man meeting a woman in bar ("The Chair") or the story of the long-lasting love between a man and a woman ("Check Yes or No").
But some of his best work comes across in his famous rodeo songs. In "Amarillo By Morning," he sings of a man whose love for the rodeo has stayed with him throughout life's hardships and is all he has left. In "I Can Still Make Cheyenne," he tells of a man whose wife can no longer take the lonely and worried life of being married to a rodeo man.When she tells him this as he's on his way home, the only response he has is, "I'm sorry its come down to this/ There's so much about you that I'm going to miss/ But it's alright baby/ If I hurry I can still make Cheyenne."
On his latest release, "Living and Living Well" Strait stays away from today's pop style while singing of a man who thought his life was perfect until he met his wife and found out just what he'd been missing. "Something's always missing till you share it with someone else/ There's a difference in living/ I thought I was living/ There's a difference in living and living well."
Standing at only 5-foot-10 and 160 pounds, Strait is one of the few remaining true giants in the Nashville country music scene. As the genre declines into a mix of mainstream pop and rock beats with country lyrics, Strait laments this fact with a piercing song, originally done with fellow living legend Alan Jackson, "Murder On Music Row." In this song he sings of how "somebody killed country music, they cut out its heart and soul" and "the almighty dollar and the lust for worldwide fame slowly killed tradition, and for that someone should hang."
He further criticizes in the controversial song, "For the steel guitars no longer cry and fiddles no longer play ... Old Hank, he wouldn't have a chance on today's radio ... They thought no one would miss it, once it was dead and gone ... They said no one would buy them old drinking and cheating songs."
Luckily Strait is still on the radio and still occasionally singing of the old drinking and cheating songs.
"Take Me Back to Tulsa," a song in particular, though not about drinking or cheating, but about not wanting to get married, harkens back to the days of Hank with a western swing.Most importantly, though, his band, The Ace In the Hole Band, still play a masterful steel guitar and fiddle.
But of the longevity and greatness of George Strait, perhaps former President George Bush put it best when the night the album was recorded he said, "Everyone at this rodeo loves him, everyone in Texas loves him, and everyone across this country loves his music.And I can tell you, he's just as great a guy in person as he is up here on this stage"
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