Carrying Your Love with Me (CD - 1997)

Personnel: George Strait (vocals); Biff Watson (acoustic guitar); Steve Gibson, Brent Mason (acoustic & electric guitars); Paul Franklin (steel guitar); Stuart Duncan (fiddle, mandolin); Matt Rollings (piano); Steve Nathan (Hammond B-3); Glenn Worf (bass); Eddie Bayers (drums); Curtis Young, Liana Manis (background vocals); Nashville String Machine.

All tracks have been digitally mastered using HDCD technology.

CARRYING YOUR LOVE WITH ME was nominated for a 1998 Grammy Award for Best Country Album. "Carrying Your Love With Me" was nominated for a 1998 Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance.

Personnel: Brent Mason (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, gut-string guitar); Steve Gibson (acoustic guitar, electric guitar); Biff Watson (acoustic guitar); Paul Franklin (steel guitar); Stuart Duncan (mandolin, fiddle); Matt Rollings (piano); Eddie Bayers (drums); Curtis Young, Liana Manis (background vocals).

Audio Mixer: Chuck Ainlay.

Recording information: Emerald Sound Studios.

Photographer: Mike Rutherford.

Unknown Contributor Role: Nashville String Machine.

Arrangers: Michael Omartian; Bergen White.

Blue Clear Sky was a defining moment in George Strait's career, illustrating that he could still deliver a masterpiece in the latter half of his career. Its follow-up, Carrying Your Love With Me, isn't quite as strong, yet it still has a number of very nice moments, making it a worthwhile endeavor for fans, even if it lacks its predecessor's resonance. ~ Thom Owens

CARRYING YOUR LOVE WITH ME is a collection of love songs of unusual sweetness and devotion. Even when he's saying goodbye, or warning a friend of an ex-girlfriend's wily ways, George Strait does it with a fond memory. "I've Got A Funny Feeling" may be the first cheating song in history in which the singer, after discovering his baby's cheating ways, decides that it's all his own fault and that he's just going to have to become a better person and a better lover if he wants her back. And because Strait's baritone drawl is an instrument of such warmth and magnetism, you've got to figure she's going to end up coming back anyway.

CARRYING YOUR LOVE WITH ME follows up Strait's 1996 blockbuster BLUE CLEAR SKY, and maintains the same balance of soft, devotional ballads and playful come-ons with yelping fiddles and crying steel guitars. It includes a cover of Vern Gosdin's divorce ballad "Today My World Slipped Away." More telling is the swinging honky-tonk number "Won't You Come Home (And Talk To A Stranger)," in which his wife catches up to him and his drinking buddies at the bar and plays the same puppy-dog game he does. She doesn't chew him out and she doesn't whine. She just coos, "Come home, baby." And you know he will. minimize