Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind (CD - 1984)

Personnel: George Strait (vocals); Randy Scruggs (acoustic guitar); Reggie Young, Larry Byrom (electric guitar); Weldon Myrick, Hank Devito (steel guitar); Johnny Gimble (fiddle, mandolin); John Hobbs (keyboards); David Hungate (bass); Eddie Bayers (drums); Curtis Young (background vocals).

Recorded at Sound Stage Studio, Nashville, Tennessee.

DOES FORT WORTH EVER CROSS YOUR MIND was voted CMA Album of the Year in 1985.

Personnel: George Strait (vocals, guitar); Randy Scruggs (acoustic guitar); Larry Byrom, Reggie Young (electric guitar); Hank DeVito, Weldon Myrick (steel guitar); Johnny Gimble (mandolin, fiddle); John Hobbs (keyboards); Eddie Bayers (drums); Curtis Young (background vocals).

Recording information: Sound Stage Studio, Nashville, TN.

Photographer: Jim Shea.

Two years after his breakthrough album, Strait From the Heart, George Strait was riding the charts again with perhaps his finest recorded moment. Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind, both the album and the song, were, along with Dwight Yoakam's Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc., the only real traditional country records on the radio in 1984. And Strait is not a "new traditionalist." He came out of Texas a country singer, and album after album he proved that he was a traditional country singer. The title cut, written by Sanger and Darlene Shafer is one of four they placed on the album, and another, "Honky Tonk Saturday Night," charted as the disc's second single. Jimmy Bowen staggered the tunes here to reflect all of Strait's considerable strengths -- there are hot and jumpy Western swing numbers such as "Any Old Time" and ballads like "You're Dancin' This Dance All Wrong," along with honky tonk weepers such as "I Should Have Watched That First Step." But there are a few barroom ravers as well as the swinging honky tonk of "Love Comes From the Other Side of Town" and the smoking closer "The Fireman." This is the tightest selection of tracks, perfectly sequenced and gorgeously sung by an earthy country singer who was at the very top of his powers. Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind is an enduring classic two decades later and is timeless in its appeal. ~ Thom Jurek

After his somewhat belated commercial breakthrough STRAIT FROM THE HEART, George Strait bobbled things a bit with a rushed, uneven follow-up, RIGHT OR WRONG. However, 1984's DOES FORT WORTH EVER CROSS YOUR MIND? not only righted Strait's commercial prospects, it was a massive success that won the 1985 Album of the Year award from the Country Music Association and cemented Strait's tenure as one of the most successful male country singers of all time. Hailed at the time as one of the signposts of the "new traditionalist" movement in country, DOES FORT WORTH EVER CROSS YOUR MIND? now sounds like a return to the days of fellow Texans like Ray Price, whose signature mix of honky-tonk shuffles and weepy ballads seems to be the primary inspiration of Strait and producer Jimmy Bowen. The album alternates between those two styles; following the tearful lost-love lament "I Should Have Watched That First Step" with the sly roadhouse jumper "Love Comes From The Other Side of Town" shows the full range of Strait's enormous gifts. minimize