By no means thoughts BC and AD. By way of nation music historical past, it’s extra like BG and AG: Earlier than and After George. Tough as it’s to think about a time when he was new on the scene, we’re turning the clock again to 1981, when George Strait arrived along with his debut album, Strait Nation.
Ace within the gap
After rising up on a cattle ranch and being steeped in nation music as a youth, George Harvey Strait received married younger in 1971 and joined the US Military the identical yr. Throughout his subsequent, delayed faculty years of the later 70s, the nation wannabe paid his dues on the levels of his dwelling state of Texas, notably with the Ace In The Gap Band.
Strait launched three unsuccessful unbiased singles between 1976 and 1979, however, as so usually, all roads led to Nashville. In the event that they appeared at first to be cul de sacs – or, at finest, detours into different jobs to pay the hire – he lastly landed a tentative, one-song take care of MCA early in 1981.
That track was “Unwound,” written by Frank Dycus and Strait’s fellow-unknown Dean Dillon. They might by no means have dreamed what they had been beginning. Launched on April 23, the track’s old-school really feel, with outstanding fiddle and pedal metal, started to draw programmers who had been knee-deep within the crossover “urban cowboy” kinds of the day. Right here was a brand new artist, albeit one approaching his twenty ninth birthday, who would reasonably replace the sound of heroes akin to Merle Haggard and Johnny Paycheck than faux to be a Tennessee popster.
Dycus and Dillon had, certainly, written “Unwound” for Paycheck, however as has continuously been reported, the longtime star was in jail on the key second. Of all of the fateful incidents in nation historical past, the writers had been inspired to provide it to an nameless hopeful. The track wound up at No.6, Strait landed a full contract and Dillon went on to be a prolific contributor to George’s huge index of hits. The pair proceed to work collectively to at the present time: six of the songs on 2019’s chart-topping Honky Tonk Time Machine are Dean co-writes, all with the star and his son George, Jr, in any other case often known as “Bubba.”
‘Putting his own warmth and shadings into lyrics’
By early July 1981, Billboard was raving concerning the newcomer with the debut hit. Its Nashville Scene column wrote: “MCA may have itself a potential new superstar in George Strait, judging from his recent Fan Fair and Radisson Hotel appearances in Nashville.” The story went on to rave: “He has a way of putting his own warmth and shadings into lyrics, and there are no traces of Texas dust or slang in the way he wraps his voice around a song.”
Strait’s second-ever single, “Down And Out,” one other from the Dillon-Dycus songbook, arrived in late August, every week earlier than the discharge of his debut album, Strait Nation. Whereas it didn’t attraction fairly as many playlists or followers as its predecessor, the equally amiable “Down And Out” made No.16 and spent 17 weeks on the Billboard nation chart, just one fewer than “Unwound.” A 3rd launch, “If You’re Thinking You Want A Stranger (There’s One Coming Home),” stored George on the radio within the new yr of 1982, and was the largest hit of the lot, rising to No.3 in a 22-week span.
Launched on September 4, 1981, Strait Nation entered the nation charts on October 3 and constructed its gross sales steadily, as its singles transformed ever extra listeners to the artist’s old-but-new sound. Although it by no means went larger than No.26, and didn’t make the all-genre countdown in any respect, Strait Nation spent 57 weeks on the nation charts.
The album was nonetheless contained in the Prime 40 when George’s second set, Strait From The Coronary heart, arrived in July 1982. The primary file continued to promote, too, turning gold in 1988 and platinum in 1999.
Strait Nation absolutely delivered on the promise of that Billboard overview, which concluded: “George Strait represents the new breed of modern-day (forget urban) cowboy: authentic, intelligent, good-humoured, handsome and skilled at more artistic ventures than roping cattle.”
Store for George Strait’s music on vinyl or CD now.
