The King.
On this date in 1997, George Strait was topping the country albums chart with his 17th studio album, Carrying Your Love with Me. It also peaked at the top of the all-genre U.S. Billboard 200 Album chart upon release.
The project produced four singles on the Billboard country charts, including the iconic album title track, “One Night at a Time,” “Round About Way” and “Today My World Slipped Away.” The first three went #1, while “Today My World Slipped Away,” which is a cover of a Vern Gosdin song, peaked at #3.
Carrying Your Love with Me has since been certified 3X Platinum by the RIAA, which means it has moved over three million copies over the last 27 years. Additionally, in 1998, it was nominated for Best Country Album at the Grammy Awards, though that award ultimately went to Johnny Cash for Unchained.
And while it produced four huge hits for The King, I feel like this one sometimes gets lost in his vast catalog of great music that includes 60 #1 singles, there are some amazing songs on the album that are well-worth revisiting today.
Pretty crazy that 27 years later, he’s continuing to do it bigger than ever and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon… long live the King.
“Carrying Your Love with Me”
“One Night at a Time”
“Today My World Slipped Away”
George Strait Playing “Amarillo By Morning” With Over 110,000 Fans Singing Along At Kyle Field Is A Beautiful Sight To Behold
Absolutely beautiful.
On Saturday night, George Strait held court at Texas A&M University’s Kyle Field, in College Station, Texas, and to say it was quite the crowd would be the understatement of the century.
With support from fellow Texas natives Parker McCollum and Catie Offerman, George filled that college football stadium with 110,905 people… just the largest ticketed crowd in United States history. The King’s crowd bests the previously held record by The Grateful Dead, who hosted 107,019 Deadheads in 1977 at Raceway Park in New Jersey.
The crowd also broke the Kyle Field attendance record (a 2014 game against Ole Miss), and Strait also holds the record for largest indoor ticketed concert attendance in North America with 104,793 fans at AT&T Stadium for The Cowboy Rides Away Tour in June 2014.
King sh*t, if you will.
And of course, the videos and footage of the historic evening have been flooding in, and one in particular is absolutely epic, which was shared on X (Twitter) by a fan at the concert and features 110,000 fans at Kyle Field singing along to one of his signature songs, “Amarillo By Morning.”
The song was released in 1982, becoming a hit from his Strait from the Heart record after it peaked at #4 on the Billboard U.S. Hot Country Songs, and has obviously remained a timeless country standard ever since.
His cool, effortless delivery, very little stage production and heartfelt delivery is just part of what makes him one of the greatest to ever do it, and I could watch this all day long. There’s something to be said about a country icon, and a cowboy, setting a record like he did on Saturday and it was certainly a show his fellow Texans will never forget.
You have to see it for yourself:
What a moment in Texas A&M lore: George Strait sings “Amarillo By Morning” before more than 110,000 fans in Kyle Field on Saturday night, June 15, 2024. pic.twitter.com/FEfi59H7UD
— Brent Zwerneman (@BrentZwerneman) June 16, 2024
Just listen to that crowd roar ahead of his encore…
📍Kyle Field
George Strait returns to the stage for an encore performance pic.twitter.com/vd4yPxSeP7— Meredith Seaver (@MeredithSeaver) June 16, 2024
Additionally, Strait is gearing up to release his 31st studio album called Cowboys and Dreamers this September, and it will also include a duet with Chris Stapleton called “Honky Tonk Hall Of Fame,” and features writers like longtime collaborators Dean Dillon, Monty Criswell and even George’s son, Bubba Strait.
George dedicated the album to his longtime manager Erv Woolsey, longtime fiddle player Gene Elders and longtime road manager Tom Foote, all of whom passed away this year and were close friends of his:
“I’m dedicating this record to my longtime manager and friend Erv Woolsey and my longtime fiddle player and friend Gene Elders (a player on four of these tracks), who we lost on the same day, March 20, 2024, as well as my longtime friend and road manager Tom Foote, who we lost on April 29, 2024.
I will never forget all of the good times we had together. May they rest in peace with our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The Texas icon released the lead single “MIA Down in MIA” as well as another titled “The Little Things” this past Friday
Cowboys and Dreamers features a 13-song tracklist, and is due out everywhere on September 6th. Mark your calendars… we’re in for some GREAT stuff, per the usual from The King.
Cowboys And Dreamers Tracklist:
1. Three Drinks Behind (Benjamin Gaither, Jeff Silvey and Kim Williams)
2. Cowboys And Dreamers (Jessie Jo Dillon, Keith Gattis and Bubba Strait)
3. To The Moon (Marty Brown and Steve Clark)
4. MIA Down in MIA (Adam Craig and Dean Dillon)
5. Wish I Could Say (Keith Gattis)
6. Calling From The Car (Bobby Braddock)
7. People Get Hurt Sometimes (Jim Lauderdale, Kendell Marvel and Jimmy Ritchey)
8. Honky Tonk Hall Of Fame ft. Chris Stapleton (Chris Stapleton, Jameson Clark and Timothy James)
9. The Little Things (George Strait, Monty Criswell and Bubba Strait)
10. The Book (George Strait, Dean Dillon, Jessie Jo Dillon and Bubba Strait)
11. Rent (Guy Clark and Keith Gattis)
12. Waymore’s Blues (Curtis Buck and Waylon Jennings)
13. The Journey Of Your Life (Ronnie Bowman and Troy Jones)
