George Strait

George Strait is nothing but astonishing with all of his accomplishments to date. Celebrating his 25th anniversary this year as a recording artist, he delivered his newly released album, It Just Comes Natural. Along with his hit songs from this CD, “Give It Away” and “It Just Comes Natural,” he has 13 other wonderful hits on this album. “This album’s got 15 songs, which is more than I’ve ever put on a record before…but I thought they were all so good. There wasn’t one song on here that I would have felt right about leaving off. I really think we came up with one of the best albums I’ve ever done,” says Strait on his new album.

From his 1981 debut single “Unwound,” to now, George Strait has become a family household name where many have fallen in love with his music. He has had at least one single hit in the Top 10 every year since his first debut single! Strait has sold more than 62 million albums. He has 13 multi-platinum, 30 platinum and 33 gold albums. These numbers are amazing as he has had more gold albums than any other artist in country music! Overall, Strait is tied with Frank Sinatra in eighth place for the most gold albums of any artist in any musical genre. Wow!

“I’ve always just done the music that I felt comfortable doing. I don’t think that everything I’ve done has been really hard-core traditional…but they are great songs because they are different,” says Strait. The hit, “Give It Away,” on his new album is definitely counted as one of those songs. It has very unexpected spoken-sung sections and it does not fit the typical mold of country music. Nonetheless, it has topped the charts and fans love the non-conforming music that Strait produces.

George Strait is also very influenced by some of his predecessors such as, Merle and George Jones, and Bob Willis. They have helped his style develop and brought the “fun factor” into his song-writing. But, not only does he look up to people, other country stars look up to George Strait as well! For example, Dierks Bentley recently stated that, “The great thing about George is that he’s been doing this since the early ‘80s and he still seems so energetic and passionate about the music. He can make the biggest arena feel like it’s a honky-tonk by taking that crazy energy to the biggest venue and making it feel as small as possible.”

Strait’s new album, It Just Comes Natural, is light-hearted, but at the same time focuses on the complexities, challenges and joys of relationships between lovers. His songs still contain a consistency, range and power that have defined him for all these years. It is for this reason that he has been given country music’s highest tribute, election to the Country Music Hall of Fame! His thoughts on this amazing feat are, “Being inducted is the highest honor that you can get in this business. To have that happen while I still feel like I’m competitive, while I can still walk up and accept the honor without any help, is just amazing to me. It’s hard to put into words because it’s so big, but you can never expect anything like that.” We at the Frank Erwin Center would like to congratulate George Strait on this enormous honor!

Now, who wouldn’t want to come out and celebrate with George while he performs the music that America has fallen in love with?! Sing and dance along to George Strait’s music on January 10, 2008! It will be a magical night as he sings the music that inducted him into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Hurry and get your tickets today before there isn’t an empty seat in the house!