The Road Less Traveled is the twenty-first studio album by American country music artist George Strait released by MCA Nashville on November 6, 2001. Certified platinum for sales of one million copies, the album produced the hits "Run", "She'll Leave You with a Smile" and "Living and Living Well", the latter two of which were number 1 hits on the Billboard country charts. "Stars on the Water" and "The Real Thing" also charted at numbers 50 and 60 from unsolicited airplay.

Content Four of this album's songs are covers: "Stars on the Water" was originally cut by Rodney Crowell on his 1981 album Rodney Crowell; "The Real Thing" by Chip Taylor (as "(I Want) The Real Thing") on his 1973 album Chip Taylor's Last Chance; "Good Time Charley's" by Del Reeves on his 1969 album Down at Good Time Charlie's (as "Good Time Charlie's"); and "My Life's Been Grand" by Merle Haggard on his 1986 album Out Among the Stars. Strait's rendition of "Stars on the Water" features heavy application of Auto-Tune to Strait's vocal track. According to Strait, this was the decision of longtime producer Tony Brown; Strait was initially critical of the technique, but stated that he liked the sound once Brown reduced the amount used.

The song "She'll Leave You with a Smile" is not to be confused with another song with the same name which Strait previously recorded on his 1997 album, Carrying Your Love with Me.

Track listing

Personnel As listed in liner notes.

Musicians George Strait – lead vocals Steve Nathan – keyboards Steve Conn – accordion Steve Gibson – electric guitar Chris Leuzinger – electric guitar Brent Mason – electric guitar Randy Scruggs – acoustic guitars Paul Franklin – steel guitar Stuart Duncan – fiddle, mandolin Michael Rhodes – bass guitar Eddie Bayers – drums The Nashville String Machine – strings Steve Dorff – string arrangements and conductor Wes Hightower – backing vocals Liana Manis – backing vocals

Production Tony Brown – producer George Strait — producer Chuck Ainlay – recording, mixing David Bryant – recording assistant, overdub recording assistant Jeff Socher – mix assistant Justin Niebank – overdub recording Russ Martin – additional overdub recording Tony Green – overdub recording assistant Eric Conn – digital editing Carlos Grier – digital editing Denny Purcell – mastering Georgetown Masters (Nashville, Tennessee) – editing and mastering location Jessie Noble – project coordinator Erv Woolsey – management

Design Tony Baker – photography Virginia Team – art direction, additional photography Chris Ferrara – design

Charts

Weekly charts Chart (2001) Peak position

Year-end charts Chart (2001) Position Canadian Country Albums (Nielsen SoundScan) 37 US Top Country Albums (Billboard) 61 Chart (2002) PositionCanadian Country Albums (Nielsen SoundScan) 47 US Billboard 200 131 US Top Country Albums (Billboard) 12 Chart (2003) Position US Top Country Albums (Billboard) 35

Certifications

References