George Strait will release his 30th studio album, titled Honky Tonk Time Machine, on March 29th. Its arrival ends an uncommonly long gap in output for the famously consistent Country Music Hall of Fame member, whose previous full-length album Cold Beer Conversation came out in 2015.
To coincide with the album announcement, Strait has released the new song God and Country Music, penned by Luke Laird, Barry Dean and Lori McKenna and featuring an appearance by Straits grandson Harvey. Describing the titular subjects as equally sacred (and reliable) concerns, Strait sings, Its a dance between the sin and salvation/Come hell and high water, theres still two things worth saving.
Elsewhere on the album, which features an image of Austins famed dance hall Broken Spoke on the cover, Strait writes several numbers including the tequila ode Codigo with his most frequent collaborators, son Bubba and Dean Dillon. Additionally, he turns in a cover of Johnny Paychecks classic weeper Old Violin as well as a recorded version of the meta-duet Sing One with Willie, which he recently debuted at the all-star Willie Nelson tribute in Nashville.
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Having officially retired from touring in 2014, Strait has mostly kept to his word and played only his standing gig at Las Vegas T-Mobile Arena, which will see its 21st and 22nd sold-out engagements this weekend. But the last year has witnessed Strait branching out more than any since his retirement, playing the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans and making stops in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Austin in his native Texas. In 2019, hell go even farther, with a March 30th showfeaturing Chris Stapleton planned at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, a June 8th stop at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, a pair of Las Vegas shows in August and a second pair of shows at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas on November 22nd and 23rd.
George Strait Honky Tonk Time Machine track listing:
- Every Little Honky Tonk Bar (George Strait, Bubba Strait and Dean Dillon)
- Two More Wishes (Jim Lauderdale and Odie Blackmon)
- Some Nights (Bubba Strait, Brice Long and Phillip White)
- God and Country Music (with Harvey Strait) (Luke Laird, Barry Dean and Lori McKenna)
- Blue Water (George Strait, Bubba Strait and Dean Dillon)
- Sometimes Love (George Strait, Bubba Strait and Dean Dillon)
- Cdigo (George Strait, Bubba Strait and Dean Dillon)
- Old Violin (Johnny Paycheck)
- Take Me Away (George Strait, Bubba Strait and Dean Dillon)
- The Weight of the Badge (George Strait, Bubba Strait and Dean Dillon)
- Honky Tonk Time Machine (Bubba Strait, Brice Long and Bart Butler)
- What Goes Up (George Strait, Bubba Strait and Jeff Hyde)
- Sing One with Willie (featuring Willie Nelson) (George Strait, Willie Nelson, Bubba Strait and Buddy Cannon)
