As he plays to the biggest indoor concert crowd in the United States, George Strait is performing at his very best.

George Strait was the unvarnished, unflinching country music icon for a considerable amount of time. George Strait has been around longer and has been more consistent in generating songs endorsed by the Country Music Association, even though Garth Brooks has more total sales. The 1981 release of Unwound was Strait’s breakthrough single on country radio. For more than three decades, he refused to turn around. People sometimes say that Strait saved country radio from the late 1970s pop country because of how influential his hat-act country was.

You may be wondering, “What is Hat-act country?” There you have it: that’s the music that plays on US country stations. It’s like a stripped-down version of Bob Wills’s in-your-pocket Western Swing or Merle Haggard’s (Strait’s) own brand of wild, idealistic country music. Joining me on this country slot of The Music Man is the legendary Honky Tonk Sinatra, Mr. George Strait, performing a duet with crossover sensation Sheryl Crow of his 1993 top-ten country single When Did You Stop Loving Me.