Straight Talk on George Strait

I was surprised by your review of the George Strait record, “Living It Up.” You gave this record a two-star rating! Needless to say, you did not listen to this record or simply don’t care much for country music--after all we’re talking about a record that was certified gold before it even hit the stores.

You described this record as one that “provides a fairly pleasant outing.” Well, it’s a “nice outing” like “Love Without End Amen,” which stayed at No. 1 on the Billboard charts for four weeks straight! You refer to his records as “nice” and “neat.” Well, considering that all of them have reached gold status, and several of them platinum, I’d say his records are very good, if not excellent. So his records don’t “fuss with extremes of human emotions”? I wonder then why he has 22 No. 1 hits?

His fans hope that he will “never veer far from the Strait and narrow,” as you suggest. He has become a country music superstar with his style and his love of real country music and his numerous awards, broken attendance records prove it. You say, “Strait shows no signs of breaking with the past.” Why should he? He’s the best, and critics around the country praise him for sticking to what he believes.

SANDRA MARTINEZ

San Marino

A spokeswoman for Strait’s record label said 12 of the singer’s albums have been certified gold (500,000 copies sold) and three have achieved platinum status (1 million copies). According to Billboard, Strait has tallied 19 No. 1 country singles.