George Strait: Keeping the Honky Tonk Faith

OF ALL the rituals a country music star must perform, one of the trickiest is the "in-store promotion," in which the artist goes to a record store to meet the fans for an hour or so. The fans line up to get autographs on album covers, photographs, posters, scraps of paper, arms, whatever. They want their picture taken with their hero. Ideally, the star will do more than just act pleased to meet the fans — he will feign some kind of passing familiarity with each one, as if he knows what kind of person would be his fan to begin with. At the same time, he must move them along quickly, because if he's not to the end of the line after his hour is up, he must stick around (which ruins his schedule), or risk disappointing them by leaving before they get their chance.