George Strait

George Strait (born May 18, 1952, Poteet, Texas, U.S.) is an American country music singer, guitarist, and “new traditionalist,” known for reviving interest in the western swing and honky-tonk music of the 1930s and ’40s through his straightforward musical style and his unassuming right-off-the-ranch stage persona. He was among the most popular concert and recording artists in the 1980s and ’90s, and his shows continued to pack stadiums to their capacity well into the 21st century.

Strait was raised in the small town of Pearsall in southern Texas, where his father worked as a junior-high-school math teacher while also operating a ranch, about 40 miles (64 km) to the southwest, that had been in the Strait family for almost a century. During his youth Strait spent many weekends with his brother riding horses, roping cattle, and otherwise absorbing the lifestyle and values of the rural West. Country music, however, was not an element of the culture that he readily embraced. He was more interested in hammering out the latest rock tunes, with guitar skills that he knew were limited, with his high-school garage band.

After attending Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State University–San Marcos) for a year, Strait married his high-school sweetheart and enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1971. While stationed in Hawaii, he refined his guitar and vocal technique and developed an affinity for the country music of Hank Williams, George Jones, Merle Haggard, and, especially, Bob Wills, the champion of western swing. In 1973, while still in the military, he joined his first country music band, at his army post.

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Strait left the army in 1975, resumed his studies at Southwest Texas State University, and graduated with a degree in agriculture in 1979. While at the university he joined the country band Stoney Ridge (later renamed Ace in the Hole), which played regularly in the clubs near campus. Strait tried repeatedly to promote his music in Nashville, but the industry executives balked, doubting the appeal of his traditional style in a market then dominated by a slicker image and a pop-country sound. In 1981, however, MCA Records relented and signed him to a one-song contract; if the song proved a success, the company would offer a longer-term agreement. Strait’s response, “Unwound” (1981), reached number six on Billboard magazine’s Hot Country Songs chart, landed him an extended contract with MCA, and ultimately launched his career as a professional musician.

During the next decade Strait released more than a dozen albums, each of which sold more than a million copies. Close on the heels of his honky-tonk debut album, Strait Country (1981), he issued Strait from the Heart (1982), which contained his first number one country music hit, “Fool Hearted Memory.” In 1992 Strait played the role of a country music superstar in the film Pure Country, which further fueled his popularity. He remained phenomenally productive and in 2006 was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. His 2008 release, Troubadour, won a Grammy Award for best country album. In 2009 he made a foray into songwriting, writing three of the tracks on Twang with his son, George (“Bubba”) Strait, Jr. By 2010 the senior Strait had recorded nearly 50 songs that reached the top spot on Billboard’s Country Songs chart.

Throughout his career Strait rarely swerved from his old-style sound and his rancher’s image, sartorially marked by a western button-down shirt, blue jeans, and a cowboy hat and boots. Moreover, as the ongoing host of the George Strait Team Roping Classic—an annual event that he, his father, and his brother had established in the early 1980s—he never abandoned his passion for the saddle. Although he remained a strong performer, Strait announced in September 2012 that his 2013–14 Cowboy Rides Away tour—the start of which coincided roughly with the May 2013 release of his album Love Is Everything—would be his last. In late 2013, between legs of the tour, Strait earned the Country Music Association’s award for entertainer of the year for the third time in his career (following wins in 1989–90). Strait issued his 29th studio album, Cold Beer Conversation, in 2015, and he began a residency in Las Vegas the following year.