George Strait concert review
Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, US
Sat, 05 Aug 2023

GEORGE STRAIT / CHRIS STAPLETON / LITTLE BIG TOWN
"All-American Road Show"
August 5, 2023
Raymond James Stadium
Tampa, Florida

It was a scorching hot, 97 degree late afternoon in August, in Tampa, Florida, when the country music event of the summer arrived at Raymond James Stadium. George Strait, Chris Stapleton, and Little Big Town were concluding their six-date cross-country tour. In Milwaukee, three weeks earlier, the tour had just set a new mark for attendance at American Family Field (46,641), breaking Paul McCartney’s record set in 2013. In May, at the Buckeye Country SuperFest at Ohio Stadium, they eclipsed the attendance record with 63,891. It was definitely a hot ticket, in more ways than one.

We had seen both Little Big Town and George Strait previously and looked forward to Chris Stapleton with great anticipation.

Little Big Town opened early, at 5:45 pm. With our upper deck still basking in the sun like Archimedes mirror, we hesitantly left the shade of the concession area and took our seat high in section 338. The stadium was barely half-full, with many people tailgating in the parking lot. Still, the foursome performed with great enthusiasm, like a high school pep band before the big game. They knew what their role was, and they did it dutifully. Not many acts have a first-rate opener like Little Big Town.

Then there was a brief soundcheck; unmistakable baritone blasts from an electric guitar, followed by deep thuds from the drum kit. The crowd was building and cheering, knowing that the current ACM Entertainer of the Year was next. The skies were turning gray with high clouds as the sun was finally retreating behind the stadium.

Chris Stapleton brought on the night with a ninety-minute set of smoldering southern blues, reminiscent of early SRV. Often playing in “drop-D tuning” and with 13 gauge guitar strings, Stapleton achieved an intense heavy tone that blended with his raspy voice to create a smoky mood throughout his performance. His band, including world-class slide-player Paul Franklin (from the Time Jumpers), followed his powerful lead. Stapleton’s wife, Morgane, stood by his side as partner and vocalist.

Stapleton honed his singular style over many years in Nashville. He dropped out of Vanderbilt University School of Engineering in 2002 and began writing songs for Kenny Chesney, Josh Turner, Luke Bryan, and George Strait. He played in two other bands over a dozen years, before releasing his breakthrough solo album Traveller in 2015. He has amassed eight Grammys, fourteen CMA awards, and ten ACM awards, including songwriter of the decade. His seventeen-song performance was straight-forward, with no flashy effects, but was rich in tone, deeply emotive, and spanned the gamut between traditional country and southern rock … precisely what his fans hoped for.

I was fascinated by the crowd demographic. There was a significant number of people in attendance who came to see Stapleton, and who knew virtually nothing about George Strait. Our friends were among them.

Here is a guy known as the “King of Country Music,” yet he seems to fly under the radar, unlike so many popular names in the country music business. How do you define George Strait? The dude has 60 number one country singles, more than any other artist. He has 33 platinum albums, more than anybody except Elvis and the Beatles. He has sold nearly 80 million albums. He has won both CMA and ACM Country Entertainer of the Year a record three times. The unindoctrinated hear all this with a shroud of incredulity and disbelief. Tam and I agreed that the best way to sufficiently explain it was to simply say … “he is the real deal.”

At 9:15 pm, George Strait casually strolled out to his usual introduction, wearing his usual starched jeans, flashed his usual affable smile, tipped his hat in his usual manner ... and the crowd went wild. His eleven-member Ace-In-The-Hole Band (looking like an old Dutch masters painting - barely a sole under seventy), played a Texas swing intro as smooth and as crisp as George's white-checked shirt, and they would lay down a virtuosic soundtrack for the rest of the evening. Strait’s setlist was chosen from a long repertoire of hits, a few old deep tracks, and covers of country classics ranging from Haggard to Cash.

It was like enjoying a glass of fine wine.

Having seen Strait twice, I can say that I’ve never seen a performer with more personal magnetism and stage presence. He exuded a charisma and personal grace that literally charmed his audience, even when it filled an entire stadium. The audience response in return was palpable. The only way to experience it was to be there, and I’m glad I was.