Weekend: Strait but never narrow

Strait but never narrow

Featuring traditional and crossover musicians, George Strait's musical caravan brings the country together. Catch them all Saturday in Tampa.

By DAVE SCHEIBER

To size up the state of country, look no further than the George Strait Chevy Truck Country Music Festival.

For starters, the tour has become about as large as a state itself. There are nine acts on this country-palooza of a show that kicks off its fourth year Saturday at Raymond James Stadium, before rolling on to 15 more cities around the United States.

But what marks the all-day event most is the way it mirrors the shifting landscape of the genre.

At one end of the spectrum, there's the pure country of mega-stars Strait and co-headliner Alan Jackson, who teamed up last year to playfully tweak country radio's abandonment of the Nashville veterans with their hit, Murder On Music Row. Right by their side is a Grammy-nominated newcomer with a passion for the old-school style, singer-songwriter-guitar wiz Brad Paisley.

Considering that Strait is the boss of this production, it's hardly a surprise that the tour leans more heavily toward vintage country. That Strait trait is further enhanced by the only band to appear with the 48-year-old Texan all four years: Asleep at the Wheel, the popular preservationists of Texas swing who start the music at 1 p.m.

Yet the show's musical shadings also feature the more rock/pop-injected sounds of Lonestar and the Warren Brothers, and the traditional/contemporary appeal of two of the top young female artists on the scene, Lee Ann Womack and Sara Evans.

Lonestar has already notched one crossover smash with Amazed. Both Womack and Evans have embellished their acclaimed traditional vocals with modernized hits that topped the charts, I Hope You Dance and Born To Fly, respectively. The Warren Brothers -- Tampa siblings Brad and Brett -- have been pushing country convention with their lively antics, and are making a run toward the Top 10 with a driving tune called Move On (currently No. 14).

Taken as a whole, the event is a symbol of country's evolving personality. It reflects the format's effort to redefine itself for a youth-driven market and expand its fan base, while still embracing its roots and trying to retain its older listeners.

That pursuit has taken country down a bumpy dirt road in the past five years, in part because tradition was more or less left in the dust. Following its late-'80s to mid-'90s boom, once-dominant country radio has suffered a 25 percent decline in market share. The Nashville music-making machine has lost some of its luster amid a cavalcade of youth-oriented acts with a country-pop sameness. (Among the notable exceptions: the Dixie Chicks, who vaulted from the '99 Strait fest to major mainstream success.)

But if the musically diverse and artistically engaging acts of the 2001 Strait tour are an indication, country could slowly be finding its stride again. The material reflects the old and the new, often with a relevance and depth that marked the last boom period. Some insiders see many signs pointing to a return to a hot streak.

"Country went through a recession about two or three years ago," says Eric Logan, operations director at WQYK-FM 99.5, the bay area's longtime country station. "I think we've busted out of it. When country acts make the front page of People, and win awards outside of the format, and when you find out the most requested haircut in Los Angeles and in San Francisco is the Faith Hill haircut, it tells you that country is making its move back.

"You couple that with what Faith and Tim (McGraw) are doing with their tour and success, and the fact that Garth Brooks is going to have a new record on Mother's Day, I think country is getting ready to explode once again."

Logan also takes issue with critics who assail country's recent melding of pop stylings.

"One of the things people keep saying is that country is too pop, and what I always tell people first and foremost is that if you think that country is too pop, just listen to the pop stations for a while, and you'll realize that as pop as you think Shania is, she's still country compared to what WFLZ plays."

"One of the things I tell people to remember: back in the mid-1950s, there was a lady who came to Nashville who decided to bring orchestral strings to her music. When she did this, the people who were recording the records said "This is an atrocity. You can't do this, this is what pop music is today.' Well, today, if you play a record by Patsy Cline, people think it's too country."

Michael Kosser, an independent publisher on Music Row and a writer of songs recorded by country greats like George Jones, Charlie Rich and Barbara Mandrell, also notes that country and pop have a long-standing relationship. "Country always assimilates pop forms, and sometimes, pop forms will assimilate country styles," he says. "In the '70s, say with Pure Prairie League, there were pop acts that were more country than even country."

The problem, as Kosser sees it, is that "country has adopted so many middle of the road pop attributes at this point."

"This trend in country has been going on so long that for any writer in town under the age of 30, this is the kind of music they know," he adds.

"Plus, we're into survival here on the Row, and it's all about making hit records. The successful writers, even if they love traditional country, are going to write the kind of songs that are going to get on the radio."

But Kosser is a fan of some of the new stuff. Tops on his list: the Dixie Chicks. He was also in a publishing house on Music Row last week and a CMT video on a lobby screen caught his eye. "I said to the receptionist, "Who's that?' " he says. It was Sara Evans, singing Born To Fly, her high-energy hit that weaves in pedal steel and fiddle among rock drums.

"I said, "Boy, that is really good!' "

Tim McGraw, an alum of the Strait tour from 1998-2000, may have summed it up best in his "rebuttal" to Murder On Music Row. The song is Things Change and McGraw sings: "Some say it's too country. Some say it's too rock 'n' roll. It's just good music if you can feel it in your soul."

George Strait is banking that fans agree.