Join us on Thursday, May 24th at 7pm to hear this week’s Live In Texas album George Strait: The Cowboy Rides Away.
Track Listing
- Check Yes or No
- The Love Bug
- Fool Hearted Memory
- Arkansas Dave
- Cowboys Like Us
- That’s What Breaking Hearts Do
- Marina Del Rey
- Here for a Good Time
- I Can Still Make Cheyenne
- Jackson
- A Showman’s Life
- Murder on Music Row
- The Chair
- Give It All We Got Tonight
- Run
- I’ll Always Remeber You
- Ocean Front Property
- Troubador
- All My Ex’s Live in Texas
- The Cowboy Rides Away
AllMusic Review by Thomas Erlewine
After three decades of hits, George Strait announced in 2012 he planned to retire after a final tour. Strait didn’t plan to abandon music — he went on record claiming that he still hoped to cut his traditional record a year — but big arena shows were starting to wear on him, so he launched The Cowboy Rides Away tour, allowing all of his fans one final chance to see him in their hometown. The 2014 live album commemorating that farewell tour captures the final show on the tour, a stop in Arlington, Texas on June 7, 2014 where a host of stars stopped by to celebrate Strait’s career. Some of the invited guests are only marginally associated with Strait — Sheryl Crow, in the middle of her country reinvention, feels a tad out of place even if she amiably smiles through “Here for a Good Time” — but there are plenty of old friends (Vince Gill, Alan Jackson), family (Bubba Strait), and new guns carrying the torch (Jason Aldean, Eric Church). The 20-song set list means there are many hits that didn’t make the cut, but never once do they cross your mind as the concert unfolds: this is all relaxed, easy, and effortlessly entertaining, a reminder of all Strait’s great gifts and evidence of why he’ll be missed.
