George Strait

George Strait is country music’s most dependable star—dude’s 2004 best-of was called 50 Number Ones—but that doesn’t mean the genial Texan is opposed to mixing things up now and then. A longtime patron of Nashville’s top-tier song scribblers, Strait cowrote several tracks on his new album, Twang, something he hasn’t done since 1982.

Of course, you’d be hard-pressed to suss this out absent the liner notes, since nearly 30 years of delivering Music Row material has smoothed out any idiosyncrasies Strait’s writing may once have possessed. Still, you’ve gotta give the guy credit: With a fan base that’d probably pay to hear him sing a list of his music-industry awards, Strait keeps searching for ways to put himself into his music.Twang feels unusually intimate as a result, but the pro-penned stuff isn’t quite as strong as that found on last year’s Troubadour or 2006’s terrific It Just Comes Natural. (Though it didn’t hit the top spot, “How ’Bout Them Cowgirls,” from the latter, deserves a place on the inevitable 50 More Number Ones.) Perhaps Strait was just in the mood for more than comfort food: After all, Twang concludes with an unlikely Spanish-language rendition of “El Rey” by Mexican ranchera great José Alfredo Jiménez. Sometimes a little spice is nice.—Mikael Wood

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