Another winning set from country music’s Mr. Consistency

“Consistent” would be an insult to an artist of Strait’s caliber if it were used euphemistically to mean “mediocre,” but in Strait’s case, it means consistently good. Very good. Few have waxed as listenable an album catalog as Strait, filled out with hit singles and deep album tracks, and punctuated by exceptional entries like 1989’s Beyond the Blue Neon and 2003’s Honkytonkville. His unerring ear for material and the enthusiasm he’s brought to recording on a nearly annual basis since 1981 (this is his twenty-eighth album in twenty-eight years!) is simply breathtaking. Even more impressive is that Strait’s kept true to his own artistic vision as trends came and went, yet his work has never become repetitious or perfunctory. His latest album extends the streak with a thoughtful collection of new songs whose introspective themes play well to Strait’s growing stature as an elder statesman, and whose light productions closely fit his easy musical style.

Strait’s comfort in his own skin is both inspirational and infectious. The album’s title track finds the singer laboring against the changes of middle-age, but realizing the fires that fueled his youth still burn within him today. A singer of lesser talent or personal experience couldn’t hope to convey the nostalgia, melancholy, grit, resignation and pride woven together in the lyric. At the same time, Strait can distill simple moments of discovery, such as found in “I Saw God Today,” into deep faith, and he finds meaningful discovery from a theme that could have been nothing more than treacle. Strait knows his way around pain, too, sad and broken for “If Heartaches Were Horses” and solemn for the three desperate scenes of “Give Me More Time.”

Even the album’s most straight-forward songs, like the waltzing love song “It Was Me,” the two-stepping “Brothers of the Highway,” and the breezy “River of Love” draw you in with warmth and joyousness. Producer Tony Brown shows just how effective Nashville A-list players can be, weaving their expert playing into organic arrangements that avoid the modern clichés demanded by commercial radio. The results sound like Nashville without sounding like Nashville-begging-for-airplay – just check out quality of the guitar, steel and piano on the honky-tonk “Make Her Fall in Love With Me Song” or the fiddle and Western Swing of “West Texas Town.” There’s a subtle evolution heard throughout this album as George Strait takes stock, and it gives an encouraging sense of just how gracefully he’ll age as an artist. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]

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