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What can you say about a new George Strait album? Well, if you said anything it's 'consistently good.' As much as I love ol' George, he tends to play it a bit safe. He's like the Olive Garden, you pretty much know what you're in for -- and yet it's very, very good, at least it usually is. With Somewhere Down in Texas, the jury may still be out. So, here we are two years after his last studio album, the solid _Honkytonkville_, and one would expect Strait to still be riding high in the saddle with this obvious shout-out to his beloved Lone Star State. Aiming towards his Red State constituency, Strait kicks off Somewhere ... with an anti-PC song called "If The Whole World Were a Honky Tonk," a place where "the king would be George Jones."Sings Strait: "Wouldn't need no lawyers to decide / Who is wrong and who is right/ No need for big expensive trials / Brother, we'd just step outside."

Now that's humorous. Imagine a world were a redneck bar where fistfights were how justice was served and being politically incorrect was acceptable. Just imagine ...Anyway, that's how Strait starts off the album but it gets pretty mixed from there on out. And while I like his ballads, like 2003's "Tell Me Something Bad About Tulsa," sometimes Strait can lay the schmaltz on a little thick. I guess Strait may simply be mellowing with age and getting a little lazy. With the promising title track, Strait and co-producer Tony Brown rely too much on the orchestration and it proves a little distracting. The lyrics are fine, I love Texas but Strait could've given it a bit of an earthier vibe. In fact, much of songs to be a bit on the overproduced side. Songs like "You'll Be There" or his duet with Lee Ann Womack, "Good News, Bad News."

I've always found Strait to be at his best when he lays down a simple track and sings it with that believability and charm that he's known for. This album has a few examples of that like on the song "Texas" where Strait sings that "there wouldn't be no Alamo / No Cowboys in the Super Bowl / No Lonesome Dove, no yellow rose / If it wasn't for Texas." Here, Strait sounds natural and the instrumentation--fiddle, steel guitar, and other traditional country music instruments - frame what is sure to be a classic for Strait.

Still, those few examples aren't enough to pull Strait out of this rather torpid and dull collection of songs. Where's something along the lines of "Adelida" or "Write This Down," or, dare I say it, "All My Ex's Live in Texas?" It's too bad because Strait has a long record for recording some stellar country songs. Somewhere Down in Texas is just a little off the map for a talent of Strait's caliber.

Andrew West Griffin  08/29/05