Review: George Strait at the Erwin Center

Strait-up pure country from one of music's most enduring showmen

Thursday show packed with hits from start to finish.

By John T. Davis
SPECIAL TO THE AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Friday, January 11, 2008

After all these years, reviewing a George Strait show is like trying to review a sunrise. The broad elements are always the same (Sun comes up in the east? Check. Rooster crowing? Solid.). Strait is still giving essentially the same performance he crafted for audiences at Gruene Hall and the Broken Spoke 30-odd years ago, even though the particulars may vary somewhat. But, like watching a particularly lovely dawn, the experience does not stale with repetition.

Watching him kick off his 2008 tour at the Frank Erwin Center on Thursday, it's hard to believe he will turn 56 this year (with the bald spot to prove it hidden under his Resistol cowboy hat) and has been playing the big rooms for roughly half his life. The face was a little craggier above the crisp Western dress shirt and pressed Wranglers, but his twangy baritone resonated as confidently as ever in the far reaches of the sold-out arena.

Overcoming awkward staging (the square stage at the center of the room forced Strait to circle like a ring card girl at a prizefight — why not a revolving stage?), the singer seemed to draw the entire crowd into his personal orbit.

Strait and his crackerjack Ace In the Hole Band kicked off with "She'll Leave You With A Smile," followed in brisk sequence by a seemingly inexhaustible supply of chart-topping hits including "The Fireman" (from 1985, a song older than much of his audience), "Check Yes or No," "I Just Want To Dance With You," "I Can Still Make Cheyenne" (still one of country music's most elegant brush-off songs), "Amarillo By Morning," "The Chair," "Heartland" and a host of others.

He also included a mini-set from his latest album, "It Just Comes Natural," including a loping rendition of Austinite Bruce Robison's "Wrapped." Interestingly, the title track, with a chorus that combined tension and release, recalled nothing so much as one of Bruce Springsteen's more meditative offerings, while the playful "Give It Away" and "A Better Rain" are both worthy additions to the Strait canon.

He exited, appropriately, to the echoing refrain of "The Cowboy Rides Away," 29 songs and two hours after setting foot onstage. Heading for, you might say, the next sunrise.