Today is a good day to appreciate George Strait—it’s his birthday (May 18th, 1952) and he’s still actively performing. Here are 7 solid reasons people feel thankful for that:

When BlackHawk burst onto the country scene in the mid-’90s, fans couldn’t get enough. Their harmonies were so smooth that radio programmers compared them to country’s answer to classic rock supergroups. Songs like “Goodbye Says It All” and “Every Once in a While” became instant heartbreak anthems, turning the trio into arena-packing stars almost overnight. […]

In the early ’90s, Nashville executives didn’t know what to make of The Mavericks. They weren’t polished cowboys. They didn’t sound like anybody else on country radio. And frontman Raul Malo looked more like a rockabilly outlaw than a standard country heartthrob. Somehow, against every prediction in Music City, the band exploded into one of […]

Nashville insiders still whisper about the night Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn nearly walked away from each other before they became the hottest duo in country music. In the late ’80s, both men were struggling solo artists with more unpaid bar tabs than hit records. Friends say the pair couldn’t have been more different. Brooks […]