This album combines two sure-fire winners: Dean Dillon's formittable songwriting and Mr. Strait, country music's purest voice. Most of the songs on the album can even be appreciated by folks who generally don't care for country. If you fall into this catagory, you'll do well to check out Blame It On Mexico, I Get Along With You, Friday Night Fever, and If You're Thinking You Want A Stranger. These songs could almost be catagorized as soft rock/easy listening. However, songs such as Down And Out, She's Playing Hell.., and Unwound round out the album with their more conventional beer-drinkin' honky tonk sound. Also, the production quality is crisp, clear and tight. For under seven bucks, you'll own the best country album ever recorded.

If you had never heard of George Strait and had first taken a look at the album cover of the 29-year-old, you would have no idea how big this guy would become. George started off his career with a set of songs that would form the framework of his "faithful to tradition" style.

From the get-go, Unwound grabs you and two-steps you across the dancehall floor with its driving bass and drum beat. It also has a nice take on a common, cliched phrase. If You're Thinking also predated Kenny Rogers' similarly-themed present hit Buy Me A Rose, with a nifty fiddle throughout. Down And Out, which the record company released as a single against George's wishes, is still pretty good.

As for the other songs, one of Strait fans' all-time favorite non-singles, Blame It On Mexico, stands out. It contains a nice, slight Tex Mex flavor, and an ideal chorus for singing along. Everytime You Throw and Firday Night Fever are also strong tunes, even though Everytime's theme has been done to death and Fever gets a little dated with the mention of the Dallas TV show.

The most entertaining lyrics are on She's Playing Hell. The gems include not being to church "once in a row", "hearing that rod and reel singing" with the church bells, breaking "at least eleven" Commandments, and "rolling them sevens" in your Sunday suit. Such utterances always foster a smile.

Honky Tonk Down Stairs might be the only weak song, with meaningless content and an only passable melody.

One warning for listeners used to today's modernized country sound: These songs do seem a little rough around the edges, and lack the rich production value of today's hits. For some people, including me, that's a strength and what true country is all about.

I first heard this album in 1981 and still listen to it all the time. It is without a doubt one of George's best!

The beginning is right here on this album. The earliest work he ever did with MCA records. Since the this album was first only offered on a LP record in 1981 and cassette you do not get that first class sound you get with cds that are made today. Really when you hear this the recording is really outdated but that does not stop the classics on the album and basically all of the great songs his first classic Unwound, Down and Out and If you want a stranger are reasons to buy it right there but then you have the non singles which are the reasons to own it like Blame it on Mexico, Friday Night Fever,Everytime you throw dirt on her,and I get along with you and basically all of the others, with the exception of Honky tonk downstairs which isn't to bad but gets better later on in the song but the song starts out slow but overall a classic.

This is when he really had it down pat, prior to the new country explosion and the tearing down of country music...here was George playing real, honest-to-goodness country music. Sounds great.