This is the kind of entry that may take me days to get it down. Days to decompress and think about all I saw and transmit it to you, but let me start by saying, “I love George Strait.” There is no bigger or better country star today. If you want the short version of tonight’s opening show of the 2008 George Strait Tour, it was fantastic. No glitches, no unnecessary glitter or glam, just solid performances by the very best singer in country music. What a great band. I especially enjoyed the encore when they played Folsom Prison Blues and the band was featured a little more. But that was the end of the show . . . let’s start back and almost the beginning.
I say almost, because why waste time tonight on opening acts? I’ll write about them another time. George came out looking fabulous in a, surprise!, a starched white shirt and Wrangler jeans, with a big rodeo belt buckle and handsome pair of boots and a brown hat.
My camera wasn’t really made for giant arenas (and neither were most of the other 8,000 cameras there), but I had to have proof (as did the other 8,000 camera owners) that I was there and saw George Strait. Look at the bottom and you see one of those other cameras doing the same thing I was.
I took notes about the show and the songs and already my notes are cold and I’m doubting what I wrote down. Let’s just say (until I write Part 2) that they started with an instrumental and George came out to an ovation that left no doubt that George Strait is beloved.
The stage was diamond shaped and George went to the north microphone and did two songs and then worked his way around the stage about 7 times I would say, since I count 30 songs in my list. Two hours of solid George Strait hits. Well, solid hits and a few new tunes, too.
The biggest new tune to get the most immediate response was “There Stands the Glass,” the old Webb Pierce song. I absolutely adore George Strait for dusting off a great song. What a terrific dance hall number. I bet he used to do that one at Gruene Hall and Cheatham Street. The other two new songs (that I think are really new) were “I Ain’t Her Cowboy Anymore” and “A Better Rain.” Both were very “George Strait-y” (a new adjective).
Highlights? I loved Joe Manuel’s Spanish guitar and Gene Elder’s fiddle on “Seashores of Old Mexico.” “Amarillo By Morning,” of course, makes me very happy, but “The Chair” made me even happier since George was on our side of the Frank Erwin Center and he was singing it straight to ME with that cute crooked grin. “Texas” brought a huge ovation (especially at the line about “Cowboys in the Superbowl”).
He started the night with “She’ll Leave You With a Smile” and worked his way up and down his list of hits, going back to “The Fireman” as his second song and ending the night with “Unwound” before the encore. He got a great response to “Wrapped,” the Bruce Robison song that I picked to be a number one! I’m so glad George and Bruce proved me right. The big encore was “High Tone Woman,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” and “The Cowboys Rides Away.” And he did.
That’s my “good buddy” John Michael Whitby on the left in the red shirt (yes, it looks pink, but it was red) with the guitar. John Michael played some rhythm guitar, B-3 organ, and keyboards. (I say “good buddy” because John Michael had “good buddies” coming out of the woodwork when this show was announced.)
My pictures from the night are hardly worth putting up, but this is one that you won’t be seeing anywhere else. George Strait and Gene Elders are play on top of my husband’s head!!
More about the folks sitting around us (celebrities!!) and the opening act and who else attended the show tomorrow.
