George Strait "El Rey"
Review by Matthew Fortuna
George Strait has made a country living off of living country-he has given his fans everything that is down home, Southern and countrified for nearly 30 years. With his latest album, Strait has expanded his influence over the farms of the South, the swamps of Louisiana and the grasslands of Texas… all the way past the Rio Grande.
With “El Rey,” Strait is not only appealing to a different fan base, he’s speaking a different language! The legendary country crooner offers the second song from his 2009 album “Twang” as a break from the norm. The follow-up to “Living for the Night,” “El Rey” is a Spanish standard borrowed from legendary Mexican ranchera singer-songwriter Jose Alfredo Jimenez.
Is George Strait Going Spanish?
In “El Rey” Strait weaves in and out of Spanish couplets seamlessly. He appears to have mastered the language with the same quiet confidence that he mastered the twangy dialects of Texas. The song’s title translated to English is “The King,” and though the meaning of the song may be lost to non-Spanish speakers, the music certainly is not.
“El Rey” features the hollow percussion and heavy horns of the Latin American sound, as well as a violin injecting feeling and motion into a song that flows and moves. Strait appears to have a strong grasp on the language, and manages the delivery without misstep. The vocal is Spanish flavored, but features the characteristic sound that fans have come to expect from George Strait.
The first fully Spanish song in Strait’s long career, this song appears as the closer on the singer’s 26th studio album. Even if the meaning of the lyrics escape from the listener, the vocals and melody, the voice and the music, have no trouble escape from the stereo and emanating with meaning and emotion, as does the best of the rest of George Strait.
Buy George Strait "El Rey" on MP3
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US $.99
More on George Strait's Spanish Language Debut
The 9513 praises Strait for taking the risk ; The LA Times says its the biggest surprise for Strait in years
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