by Julian Spivey
It seems to be universal among fellow country singers that George Jones was the greatest country singer to ever live. I really don’t know that I believe that, but when listening to a track like the legendary “He Stopped Loving Her Today” it’s almost impossible to argue with. Jones may or may not be the greatest to ever live, but there’s a small (maybe almost insignificant to some) moment in his 1980 career reigniting hit that I believe may be the greatest vocal in music history. It’s the inflection of utter heartache he places on the word ‘her’ in the chorus that makes you realize just how much his song’s character hurt and pined for a love that was lost long ago, but never gone from his heart. Nothing is more poetic than a love that only death can quench, and while the words of Bobby Braddock and Curly Putnam are certainly special, it’s the soaring vocal of Jones that makes the melancholic song (maybe the saddest ever recorded) absolutely timeless.
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The legend Johnny Cash always extolled that Jones was his favorite singer of all-time and crooner Frank Sinatra once remarked that Jones was the “second best white singer in America,” after him, of course. How badass is that? When two performers, who are among the all-time best themselves, put Jones on that high of a pedestal you have to take listen.

Jones was one of the all-time greats because he could seemingly do anything with his voice and capture just the right emotion needed at the exact right moment, just like the previously mentioned sadness in his magnum opus or the rich baritone on beloved lines like “hotter than a two dollar pistol” on “The Corvette Song (The One I Loved Back Then)” or that spine tingling twang he’d throw out so often on classics like “The Race Is On.” If there was an emotion in a lyric that desperately needed to be captured he’d find it and deliver it flawlessly, often times intonating a feeling that was probably never even imagined possible by the songwriter. The phrase “his voice was his instrument” is cliché and oftentimes too quixotic, but with Jones it rings true.

He was not only one of the greatest singers to ever grace any genre of popular music in this country, but also one of music’s greatest characters – something that led to maybe more negatives in his lifetime than positives. There was the pain of lost love and abusive relationships and the troubling and torturing addictions of alcohol and drugs. There were his numerous failings to show up for concerts and arrests and warrants. When he sang about pain and sorrow it was real because many times in his life he had felt it. He lived his songs like so many of the greats often do, for good or bad, and like so many of those today claim to, but rarely (if ever) do. He was a real person with real faults and this just helped to make his music more believable, more lifelike and more real.

George Jones died on Friday, April 26 at the age of 81, but his music and his legacy and those unbelievably fantastic inflections and intonations never will. In a 1985 classic Jones questioned, ‘who’s gonna fill their shoes?’ The answer: no one. Some shoes are just too large to fill.   

by Julian Spivey

George Strait rode into North Little Rock’s Verizon Arena one last time on Friday, April 12 on his The Cowboy Rides Away farewell tour, and when he finally rode away late that night he left with the hearts of everybody in attendance.
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The night was one of reminiscing for King George as he played some of his classics, some of his newer hits and some deep cuts that he probably hadn’t showcased on the road in almost 30 years. It was obvious that he was having a blast all night long feeding off of the passionate and gleeful Verizon crowd, which was sold out for the night.

Strait kicked off the night with the recent “Here for a Good Time,” which appropriately summed up the atmosphere of the night, as both he and the thousands on hand were ready for just that. The King followed with a couple of fan-favorites “Ocean Front Property” and “Check Yes or No,” which rank among the legend’s top 10 in his career and sound just as good and smooth live as they do on their respective records.

Strait, who famously performs in the round so that every patron can spend a few songs at a time with just him, went from corner to corner on the center stage mesmerizing audience members throughout the night with tracks like “Love’s Gonna Make It Alright” and “Drinkin’ Man” off of his most recent album and classics like “The Fireman,” “The Chair” and “Heartland,” all of which proved to gain some of the night’s biggest responses from the packed house.

One of the night’s most unique moments was when Strait opted to take a seat on a corner stool and perform some early tracks that he initially brought to Nashville with him when he first arrived way back in 1978 from songwriters and friends like Dean Dillon, Darryl Staedtler and Frank Dycus. These tracks would eventually make their way onto some of Strait’s first albums like his debut “Strait Country” (1981) and “Strait From The Heart” (1982). Some of these songs like “Blame It On Mexico,” “Her Goodbye Hit Me In The Heart,” “80 Proof Bottle of Tear Stopper” and “Honky Tonk Crazy” had probably not been performed live in almost 30 years. Other early performances from this era like “Marina Del Rey” and “A Fire I Can’t Put Out” proved to be among Strait’s greatest performances of the night and proved why he’s considered to be the country genre’s answer to Frank Sinatra.

Among other surprises of the night was when Strait brought opening act Martina McBride, who had previously awed the Verizon crowd with an hour long set, back to the stage for duet covers of the Johnny and June Carter Cash classic “Jackson” and the George Jones and Tammy Wynette standard “Golden Ring.”       

Strait continued to rattle off great song after great song well into the night like “Give It Away,” after helping to give away a free house to a wounded military member as part of the Wounded Warriors Foundation, as well as “How Bout Them Cowgirls” and “Unwound.”

Among the most emotional moments of the night for me personally were his performances of “I Saw God Today,” which briefly brought tears to my eyes when I saw the tears in his eyes via the giant video screen above the arena, “Troubadour,” which perfectly wraps up his career in one great song, and “Amarillo By Morning,” not just my favorite Strait song, but probably my favorite song in country music’s great history, period.

After his set cooled down with performances of his current single “Give It All We Got Tonight” and an ode to his fans called “I’ll Always Remember You,” Strait walked off the stage to uproarious applause before reappearing for a spectacular three-song encore of “All My Ex’s Live in Texas,” a rip-roaring cover of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” (believe it or not my second favorite country song ever recorded after “Amarillo By Morning”) and obviously and fittingly “The Cowboy Rides Away,” before leaving the stage at Verizon Arena one final time.

George Strait is among the essential country singers not only of our time, but of any time, and having the honor of seeing him twice at Verizon, including on his farewell tour, is one of the greatest moments of my concert going life, and well, my life in general.