George Strait Rides Away with Terrific Final Arkansas Show

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.