Twang

Coming off of Troubadour and its trifecta of radio hits (“I Saw God Today,” “Troubadour,” and “River of Love”), Twang is a more personal and modest statement from George Strait. Several songs are attributed to Dean Dillon and Jim Lauderdale, two longtime Strait collaborators, and Texas roots singer Delbert McClinton contributes “Same Kind of Crazy,” a song which (along with the title track and “Hot Grease and Zydeco”) gives the album down-home grit to balance the windswept romance of “Easy As You Go,” “Living for the Night,” and “The Breath You Take.” Nepotism is not usually a good thing, but “Out of Sight Out of Mind,” “Arkansas Dave,” and “He’s Got That Something Special,” all written with Strait’s son Bubba, have the honest, unassuming quality of folk songwriting. To close things Strait turns in a Spanish rendition of “El Rey,” a song by the legendary Mexican performer and writer Jose Alfredo Jimenez. At once the cover version functions as a tribute to Strait’s South Texas roots, a gift to his Spanish language audience, and an affirmation of his own exalted place in the corridors of song.