George Strait Concerts Setlist

George Harvey Strait Sr. is an American country singer and songwriter. He was born on May 18, 1952 in Poteet, Texas. Strait grew up on his math teacher father’s cattle ranch in rural Texas. His parents divorced and his mother moved away with his sister. While in high school, he joined a garage band which played music in the style of The Beatles. However, through some local live performers, he soon found a new favorite genre for himself, country.

After high school, he ran away with his girlfriend, whom he later married. He also joined the US Army. He served between 1971 and 1975, eventually reaching the rank of Corporal. While there, he also played in a country band under the name “Santee”. After his honorable discharge, he earned a degree in agriculture from Southwest Texas State University.

While in college, he played in a band called “Ace in the Hole Band” as a lead vocalist. The earliest versions of a George Strait concert took place as part of that band in small bars around Texas. At some point, they even opened for famed Western swing singer Bob Willis’s band "The Texas Playboys". During this time, Strait befriended a bar owner who previously had worked in the country music industry. Impressed by Strait’s skills, they managed to get some major label reps to come out and listen to him through his connections - however, none of them decided to sign him. Strait also had a trip to Nashville in search of a music contract in vain.

In 1981, Strait was already working a regular job as a cattle pen designer. However, miraculously, his last-ditch effort encouraged by her wife worked out. After contacting MCA Records, they decided to hire him to produce a single song. That song was called "Unwound", which became a success, giving Strait the opportunity to record a whole studio album!

His debut album came out in September 1981, with the title “Strait Country”. That too got to be somewhat of a hit, peaking at the #26 spot on Billboard’s country music chart. Strait’s early work in the 1980’s was very influential in starting the so-called “neotraditional country movement”, which later gave rise to other artists such as Ricky Skaggs and Keith Whitley.

Since then, the prolific Strait has put out 28 more studio albums, thus he has 29 (!) in total. The best selling one among them is “Pure Country” from September 1992, which ended up selling 6 million copies in the US. Meanwhile, the latest new George Strait album came out in November 2016, with the title “Strait Out of the Box: Part 2”.

George Strait’s biggest hits to date are “Check Yes or No” (1995), “Carrying Your Love with Me” (1997), and “Troubadour” (2008). Nicknamed “The King of Country”, Strait has the record of the most singles topping Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart. 60 of his songs made it to the top of the list. In June 2014, the George Strait concert at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas broke the record for the largest crowd for an indoor concert with 105,000 people in attendance.