Amarillo by Morning

Amarillo by Morning

This song is a perfect definition of a classic golden-age country song. Written by Terry Stafford and Paul Fraser, and first recorded by Stafford in 1973^[1], the song charted a handful of times before really landing a hit recording with George Strait’s version in 1983. From the song’s structure to its subject and delivery, “Amarillo by Morning” is just straight-up (no pun intended) good country music.

The verse–pre-chorus–chorus structure is repeated twice, then a third time modulated up a step. That modulation is wonderful, and is something that I feel is lacking in a lot of more contemporary songwriting, as if it went out of style. Another structural note about this song: I really like how the verses flow back into just one basic progression for the breaks before the verses.

The song is an easy strummer in D until the modulation, though, where it throws you a G#m and a B7, which, while still basic chords, aren’t ones that I play every day, so I had to gently remind my hands that they knew how to hit those changes. But after a couple of run-throughs, I had it. Vocally this wasn’t a challenging song for me. While my performance wasn’t anywhere near as good as Mr. Strait’s, it’s a comfortable song for my range, so I didn’t have to work too hard for it. Maybe I should have, though…