Overview
Could an album title be more appropriate for George Strait than It Just Comes Natural? This modern-day honky-tonk pioneer has been making it sound that way since his 1981 manifesto, Strait Country. Working with longtime producer Tony Brown again, Strait marshals some of his most emotionally resonant vocals ever in service to a collection of outstanding songs about breaking up, riding away, making up, and living and loving -- familiar turf for Strait, to be sure, but here explored with an edge, a purpose that recalls his early intensity when the future was at stake. The elite group of writers he culls material from include his Texas compadres Guy Clark (a jaunty western swing treatment of "Texas Cookin' "), Bruce Robison (a foot-stomping confessional about obsessive love titled "Wrapped"), and Lee Roy Parnell (a fierce, rocking workout on "One Foot In Front of the Other"), as well as the venerable Bill Anderson, Bobby Braddock, and Dean Dillon, among others. "He Must Have Really Hurt You Bad" takes Strait into territory he rules, as he croons a bartender's winsome lament for a suddenly single woman who's seeking love in all the wrong places. "I Ain't Her Cowboy Anymore," keyed by a lonely, twanging guitar, a mournful fiddle line and a wash of discreetly crying strings, is a companion piece to Strait's classic "This Is Where the Cowboy Rides Away." With a great band that includes Matt Rollings and Steve Nathan switching around on organ and piano and redoubtable fiddler Stuart Duncan playing with great empathy for mood and texture, Strait is moved to performances that rival and in some cases even exceed his most memorable of the past quarter century -- a natural man, in his element.
