MUSIC HISTORY
Country music superstar George Strait, former San Marcos resident and Texas State graduate, will receive a lifetime achievement award from the Kennedy Center, U.S.
President Donald Trump announced at a press conference on Aug. 13.
Strait was the first of five honorees to be announced by Trump, who became the chair of the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees in February. “He is believed by millions of people to just be as good as you can get…they call him ‘The King of Country Music.”
According to a Kennedy Center news release, “The Kennedy Center Honors recognizes and celebrates individuals whose unique artistic contributions have shaped our world. Recipients have each had an impact on the rich tapestry of American life and culture through the performing arts.”
Other country musicians to be honored by the Kennedy Center include Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Garth Brooks, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash and Roy Acuff.
Local Hero
Texas State President Kelly Damphousse said he “felt an immense sense of pride” when he learned of the Kennedy Center announcement. “At TXST, he’s always been a member of the Bobcat family. This is a well-deserved honor— not only for George, but for our university and for the state of Texas—and we celebrate his recognition.”
George Strait graduated from TXST in 1979 with a Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture.
Bill Malone, former Texas State professor and featured on-camera expert in Ken Burns’ “Country Music” documentary, wrote about Strait’s legacy in his book “Country Music USA,” considered “the definitive history of American country music” by The Los Angeles Times.
“Strait was a genuine cowboy who grew up on a ranch near Pearsall, Texas,” Malone said in Country Music USA. “Although surrounded by country music during his youth, Strait did not sing publicly until his stint with the army in Hawaii in the late 1970s. Later, while pursuing a degree in agriculture and ranch management at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, Strait organized his Ace in the Hole Band and began playing at a honky-tonk there on the edge of town, Kent Finlay’s Cheatham Street Warehouse.”
He continued, “Located within a few feet of the railroad track, singers literally had to halt their act during the periodic passage of trains by the Warehouse. Combating this kind of noise and diversion, Strait could have asked for no better preparation for a honky-tonk career.”
Diana Finlay Hendricks, manager and coowner of Cheatham Street Warehouse from 1977-2001 with her husband Kent, recalled the early Strait shows in one of her columns as features editor for the San Marcos Daily Record in 1991 before Strait came back to play in Austin.
“Local fans who remember listening to him on those special ‘ladies free’ Wednesday nights at a local music hall in San Marcos better get in line early for a chance at tickets to the Erwin Center show. ... George still feels the most remarkable of his accomplishments is that they have come without having to compromise the Texas-flavor style he introduced to radio.”
Told you so
“So many of us would like to say, ‘We told you so,’ about George Strait’s success,” Hendricks told the Daily Record on this week, “but Kent Finlay was the first to say that the sky was the limit for George.
“Hundreds of SWT students came through our doors to see Ace in the Hole back in those years. And everyone gets to own a part of those early days. San Marcos, Texas State University and Cheatham Street Warehouse were all fortunate to be here when it all started. And we are all proud to have gotten to be a small part of his story. So yes, today, Kent can be joined by thousands of others in saying, “I Told You So!”
Among many other national awards in the past four decades, President George W. Bush presented Strait with the National Medal of Arts in 2003, the highest award given the U.S. government to artists. Strait received this honor “by reason of his outstanding contributions to the excellence, growth, support and availability of the arts in the United States,” according to a White House press release.
The Kennedy Center presentation will take place in Washington on December 7 and broadcast on CBS.
George Strait won his first Country Music Association award for Male Vocalist of the Year in 1985. Kent was quick to post two signs at the front door of the old building where it all began. Photo by Anita Miller -San Marcos Daily Record (1985)
