Garth Brooks Band

Troyal Garth Brooks (born February 7, 1962) is an American country singer and songwriter. His integration of rock and roll elements into the country genre has earned him immense popularity in the United States. Brooks has had great success in the country single and album charts, with multi-platinum recordings and record-breaking live performances, while also crossing over into the mainstream pop arena.

According to the RIAA, he is the best-selling solo albums artist in the United States with 148 million domestic units sold, ahead of Elvis Presley, and is second only to The Beatles in total album sales overall. He is also one of the world's best-selling artists of all time, having sold more than 160 million records.

mostly sparked by a discussion with @cshadows2887 decided to make a thread for the best damn country artist around. In Pieces has been good background music today

 

"Callin' Baton Rouge" = possibly the best mainstream country song of all time.

And "Standing Outside the Fire" isn't far behind.

 

STOKED to see there's a Garth thread in here. Just got my tickets for July 21 at the forum. He was the first show I ever saw back in '93/'94 maybe (also at the forum.) I wasn't 10 years old yet but it was SO LOUD I was fucking crying. I remember him putting on one hell of a show, though. The drummer was in this cage thing Garth kept running up onto.

 

My favorite song as a kid was "The Thunder Rolls".

"Rodeo" is pretty high up there too.

Really every song on the 90s greatest hits release is great

 

"Rodeo" is such a great little tribute to George Strait.

"Standing Outside The Fire" and "Friends In Low Places" are some of the catchiest popcountry songs.

"Cowboys Song" always breaks my heart and I have no clue why. I've heard before that Garth puts his favorite song as the closer to his albums so thats cool.

"The Dance" is an absolute masterpiece.

 

"That Summer" is very very weird

 

yeah the story of that song is a little odd, BUT that damn chorus is so catchy.

the only Garth Brooks song ive ever covered was Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old). I did it for my family one thanksgiving while we were cooking outside with my guitar and harmonica and it was a blast. My grandma said I cussed too much but aside from that everyone liked it lol

 

Play her the extra verse in "friends.."

 

Don't listen too close to "Maggie May"...

 

"Papa Loved Mama" is also a reeeeally dark song behind the catchy melodies

 

The thing that he (or his writers?) really nailed is getting big dramatic images in the usual high-concept country story songs. The dad with murder in his eyes when he finds out his wife is cheating is old hat. Driving his truck into the motel room like a hillbilly fucking Terminator is unforgettable.

 

Fantastic.

 

right. or "Cowboy Song", country songs about cowboys have always been around, but Garth and his writers decided to twist being a Cowboy into an addiction almost, like its not glamorous and people die doing that.

 

also the ending of "The Thunder Rolls" where its implied the woman is going to kill her husband without a moment of hesitation.

 

Even in ones where there isn't a story twist, just the imagery of "the thunder rolls, and the lightning strikes" or "I pass a wheat field and watch it dancing in the wind" is really distinct and indelible. You form a mental picture with the songs in a way few other country artists can match.

 

This thread is giving me life. Every country music fan I know never mentions him. He's like a conundrum a little bit for me. I'm huge into pop rock and pop punk and punk rock, but Garth is my left field. Those songs growing up were instrumental to my writing style. But even country radio when I rarely tune in seems to never mention or play him. What am I missing?

 

He committed the cardinal sin of trying to cross over to pop too early. The Chris Gaines project just torpedoed him.

 

Yep. He's made a comeback of sorts and country "old heads" will sing Garths praises to the moon and back, but country radio and many of its listeners are more interested in the bro country going on now. Hell Jason Aldean has covered Garth Brooks live. He is a bit of a condundrum he seems to get lost in the shuffle yet he's considered so influential. The Chris Gaines stuff was just such a failure that people can't forget it.

 

The live version of "The Thunder Rolls" is still one of my favorite live tracks.

 

He was huge up until retirement though. I remember he had a televised concert at MSG and it was a big deal. I was surprised to learn that people in New York liked country music. Lol

He also has extremely strict licensing of his music. It's not streaming anywhere, you can't even find it on YouTube, and for the last decade he's been doing exclusive releases (first through Walmart, now Target with this compilation box set he has out)

 

Even that 90s greatest hits was sold through McDonald's.

 

Didn't he wage a war against Wherehouse Music back in the day for selling his CDs used?

edit: YUP
"Arguing that the used-CD market deprives labels and artists alike of earnings, Brooks has said he would not release his next album to any chain or store that sells used CDs."

 

It looks like that was a separate 10 track compilation called The Garth Brooks Collection. The one my parents had that I listened to over and over was The Hits.

Here's an interesting note:
The Hits was released on December 13, 1994 and is now out of print. This was due to Brooks' views for whole record sales, instead of albums of singles. He insisted it only be available for a limited time, but not before it sold well over ten million copies (which at that time became his first album to achieve Diamond Series)

 

And wow, the McDonald's exclusive one sold 3 million copies in 3 weeks... at McDonald's. Who would expect that to be a successful release?

The Garth Brooks Collection - Wikipedia

 

"Triple platinum Mac is delicious" - Garth Brooks