Big Al and King George… does it get any better?
A few years back, some of country music’s finest came together to honor their colleagues during the 2017 ACM Honors night. Eric Church, Reba, and Willie Nelson were just some of the names to be recognized, and Ol’ George was presented with the Cliffie Stone Icon Award.
Among those performers paying tribute to George, the great Alan Jackson.
Performing a couple of ’80s country masterpieces, Alan tipped the cap to George with a performance of “Marina del Rey,” followed by a rousing cover of “The Fireman.”
Enjoy.
George Strait And Alan Jackson Call Out Pop Country With “Murder On Music Row”
Taking it back to the CMA Awards 1999.
Alan Jackson and George Strait took the stage that year and took a much-needed shot at mainstream Nashville with a performance of their duet, “Murder On Music Row.”
Originally written by Larry Cordle and Larry Shell, it was a lament of the death of traditional country music.
“For the steel guitars no longer cry
And the fiddles barely play
But drums and rock ‘n’ roll guitars
Are mixed up in your face
Ol’ Hank wouldn’t have a chance
On today’s radio
Since they committed murder
Down on music row.”
You gotta love it.
And we have to take this opportunity to share, because Lord knows the CMAs would never let a singer perform a song like this on stage nowadays.
Because unfortunately… it’s gotten a whole lot worse ever since.