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20 Greatest Garth Brooks Songs Of All Time

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Before the awards and accolades and sold-out arenas, Garth Brooks was just a humble performer telling stories through his songs. In the late 1980s, he launched his stuff-of-legends career at Nashville's renowned Bluebird Cafe, an intimate music venue wherein guests sit eye-level with — and very close to — musicians and songwriters, and get to listen in on the behind-the-scenes tales of how their favorite songs came to life. Beyond being a charismatic live performer, Garth Brooks songs have become the stuff of legend.

Over the years, he’s written or co-written some of his most beloved hits such as “Unanswered Prayers,” which he wrote with Pat Alger and Larry Bastian and “The River,” which was penned with singer/songwriter Victoria Shaw.

However, Garth’s also known as a champion of other songwriters and when he hears a great song, he’s eager to record it whether he’s a writer on it or not. “More Than a Memory” was written by country hitmaker Lee Brice, Billy Montana and the late Kyle Jacobs. Songwriter Tony Arata wrote “The Dance,” and Garth recorded it after hearing Tony perform the song at Nashville’s famed Bluebird Cafe .

Currently, Garth Brooks is performing songs in his Las Vegas Residency, Garth Brooks/Plus ONE , at Caesars Palace. Beginning on May 18 and lasting until 2024, fans are promised a " once-in-a-lifetime performance each and every night," according to the venue's website. “When the 2023 shows went on sale, I felt extremely fortunate and blessed . To even think I would get do this for another year makes me happier than I can explain. Thank you for the chance,” Brooks said in a statement.

Still ever so humble despite the fame, Brooks even returns to his roots at the Bluebird Cafe periodically, as he did in early 2023, when he surprised attendees with an unannounced appearance and performance. We may not all be so lucky but we can still enjoy the amazing Garth Brooks songs. Here the incredible stories behind 20 of his most enduring hits.

1. "Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)" (1989)

One of the songs that Garth Brooks brought with him to Nashville in 1987, “Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)” was originally supposed to be about a road-weary musician. “That’s pretty good,” his friend Randy Taylor told him. “But it could be better.”

Taylor suggested that what it needed was a cowboy. So Garth flipped the script and opted to use one of his heroes, ex-rodeo champion Chris LeDoux , as the inspiration for the main character. It was a stroke of genius.

As the first single Garth released, it established him as a country singer with a very unique sort of authenticity, one that evoked the Great Plains and America’s heartland. LeDoux got name-checked directly in the song, a fact that Garth claimed helped give himself some credibility, but it proved mutually beneficial. With Garth’s help, LeDoux signed his own Capitol Records contract. The two later collaborated on 1992’s “Whatcha Gonna Do With a Cowboy.”

2. "If Tomorrow Never Comes" Garth Brooks songs (1989)

Another cut that Garth had come up with before he left Oklahoma for Music City, this one didn’t come to life on the page until he met Kent Blazy , a Nashville songwriter. Garth had tried shopping the idea around to several other songwriters in Nashville, none of whom took an interest in it. But when he had his first meeting with soon-to-be-manager Bob Doyle, Doyle introduced him to Blazy.

“He had the first verse down within 15 seconds. I could tell he just felt it,” Garth recalled in the liner notes to The Hits , a 1994 compilation album. Though the finished product grew into a rumination on a father imagining what life would be like for his daughter once he’s gone, the roots of “If Tomorrow Never Comes” laid in the real-life deaths of two of Garth’s close friends from college, Jim Kelly and Heidi Miller — a onetime roommate of Garth’s — who died in a plane crash and car accident, respectively, in the mid-’80s. As his first love song and slow ballad and his first No. 1, it would hold a pivotal place in his musical development.

3. "The Dance" (1989)

Picking out one singular song as Garth’s defining hit is a near impossible task. However, “The Dance” would probably be your best bet. The singer has even said so himself, telling Playboy in 1994, “I’ll go to my grave with ‘The Dance.’ It’ll probably always be my favorite song.” Ironically, it took some convincing to get him to include it on his self-titled debut. Here, it appeared as the closing track and would ultimately serve as the final single.

Songwriter Tony Arata penned the song. He later wrote Clay Walker’s 1994 No. 1 “Dreaming With My Eyes Open” and Garth’s “The Change,” which reached the top two years after that. Still, when the time came, Garth and producer Allen Reynolds insisted it would be a perfect single. Its overwhelming success set him up for the one-two punch of “Friends in Low Places.” It also earned him his first Song of the Year award from the Academy of Country Music in 1990.

4. "Friends in Low Places" (1990)

Garth’s debut album did its job in establishing the up-and-comer as a singer and songwriter of great emotional depth and nuance. However, with the heft of “The Dance” helping put him over the edge, he needed to show fans his fun, carefree side. “Friends in Low Places” did that, and then some. It’s hard to imagine his catalog, much less one of his live shows, without this woozy, infectious sing-along. It actually got its title from a dinner that co-writer Earl Bud Lee had with a friend.

“Don’t worry,” the pal said when they got the check. “I have friends in low places. I know the cook.” It’s not surprising that its runaway success actually started as a word-of-mouth campaign. Radio disc jockeys latched onto the track before it had even been released as a single; this was thanks to Garth’s mother, Colleen, accidentally leaking it. Soon, listeners were calling into stations demanding to hear it played.

5. "The Thunder Rolls" Garth Brooks songs (1990)

Though inextricably linked with the music video that stirred up so much controversy for its depiction of domestic violence, “The Thunder Rolls” was yet another of Garth’s original compositions from his early days in Nashville. It was initially given to another artist — in this case, no less than outlaw bad girl Tanya Tucker , who recorded it in 1988 for that year’s Strong Enough to Bend .

Tucker, uniquely, asked for an additional verse to be added. Garth and his co-writer, Pat Alger, duly accommodated her request. Yet Tucker ultimately decided against including the song on her album, which came as a relief to Reynolds. “That’s one of the most powerful songs I’ve ever heard!” he insisted. So Garth cut the song himself, minus the extra verse, for No Fences , with Alger joining in on acoustic guitar. After being released as a single in April 1991, the song became Garth’s fifth straight country No. 1.

6. “Unanswered Prayers” (1990)

This beautiful ballad was written by Garth, Pat Alger and Larry Bastian. The lyric tells the story of a man who runs into his old high school flame at a hometown football game and introduces her to his wife. The song was inspired by a real life event.

In the liner notes for his 1993 collection The Hits , Garth shared, “Pat Alger and I worked on this song quite a long time without a hook, without the line. We passed it by Larry Bastian and it was as if it was meant to be. Larry, his wife Myrna and I were taking a walk down 18th Avenue, and he looked at me and said, ‘Oh, that’s simple. This song should be called ‘Unanswered Prayers’ because some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.’ This is probably the truest song I have ever been involved with as a writer. This actually happened to my wife and me when we went back home to Oklahoma. Every time I sing this song, it teaches me the same lesson... happiness isn't getting what you want, it is wanting what you've got.”

7. "Shameless” Garth Brooks songs (1991)

Written by Billy Joel, this song was originally recorded on Joel’s 1989 album Storm Front . Garth recorded it on his third studio album, 1991’s Ropin’ the Wind . The song became his seventh No. 1 hit.

He shares this in The Hits liner notes: “'Shameless' was the longest shot we took with a song. I was talked into becoming a member of a CD club...you know, the 40,000 CD's for a penny deal. With those clubs, they write you with the selection of the month. If you don't write back and cancel, then they send it to you and charge you for it. I was on the road for six months with no one to check the mail and came home to find six compact discs in my mailbox.  Storm Front by Billy Joel was one of them."

He continues, "I hadn't listened to Billy Joel since the late seventies, probably since Glass Houses. I fell in love with the album and fell back in love with Billy Joel's music. One of his songs really captured me, a song called ‘Shameless.’ I kept watching it, and when he did not release it as a single, we contacted his people in the hopes that we could cut it. His people sent us a letter acknowledging that he knew who I was and was very honored that I was cutting it. That was quite a compliment for me then, as it is now.”

8. "The River" (1991)

Besides being a world-class entertainer and all-around good guy, Garth is also a tireless cheerleader for his legions of fans, hoping they pursue their dreams and live their best lives. Never was that clearer than on “The River,” the standout track from his sensationally successful third album, Ropin’ the Wind . Ever intent on finding new imagery in his writing and inventive ways to articulate some of the world’s biggest ideas, the song uses its namesake as a metaphor for the creative process and the pursuit of one’s dreams.

“I live by this song every day and hope it gives courage to people who have ever been in a fight they didn’t know they could finish,” Garth said. He co-wrote it with one of his favorite writing partners, singer-songwriter Victoria Shaw, with whom he later penned the No. 1 “She’s Every Woman.” Trisha Yearwood also covered Shaw’s “Where Your Road Leads” in 1998, with Garth providing backing vocals.

9. “What She’s Doing Now” (1991)

Co-written with Pat Alger, this tender ballad was the third single from Garth’s 1991 album Ropin’ the Wind and it spent four weeks at the top of Billboard’s Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart. Garth wrote this in the liner notes for The Hits : “‘What She's Doing Now’ was an idea I had a long, long time about a man wondering what a woman was doing. And it was very simple. What is she doing now? Is she hanging out the clothes? Is she running a business? Is she a mother? Is she married? Who is she with? When I told the idea to Pat Alger, he looked at me with a smile and said, ‘I wonder if she knows what she's doing now to me?’ When I heard that, the bumps went over my arms and the back of my neck, and I knew that he had something."

He continued, "Crystal Gayle cut this song back in 1989. It came back to us for the  Ropin’ the Wind album. It is a song that has crossed all boundaries and borders around the world. This has made me extremely happy because the greatest gift a writer can ask for is to relate to someone. I can't help but think that this song might relate to a lot of people.”

10. “Rodeo” (1991)

The infectious uptempo number was written by Larry Bastian and has long been a favorite in Garth’s live shows. 'Rodeo' was the first single from Garth’s hugely successful album, Ropin’ the Wind . His love of rodeo has never been a secret and Garth had to say this about the song in his liner notes for The Hits : “If one looks down the list of music's greatest writers of all time, I couldn't imagine the list being complete without the name of Larry Bastian. The song ‘Rodeo’ was originally titled ‘Miss Rodeo.’ It was a female song, where the artist sang about how she could not compete with the sport of rodeo.

He continued, "I tried to get every female I know in the industry to cut this song. When the last told me she just didn't hear it, I began to wonder if that meant I was supposed to do something with it. This song was recorded in 1981 as a demo, and for ten years, it sat silent. We got a hold of it, and the band's version of it just stunned me. This song has always been a favorite live, and I hope as long as I get to play live, this will always be on the list.”

11. “We Shall Be Free” (1992)

Co-written by Garth and Stephanie Davis, this inspiring anthem was the first single from his album The Chase .  In addition to becoming a country hit, the song also crossed over to the Christian charts and it also earned Garth a 1993 GLAAD Media Award.

“'We Shall Be Free' is definitely and easily the most controversial song I have ever done,” Garth said in the liner notes for The Hits . “A song of love, a song of tolerance from someone who claims not to be a prophet but just an ordinary man. I never thought there would be any problems with this song. Sometimes the roads we take do not turn out to be the roads we envisioned them to be. All I can say about ‘We Shall Be Free’ is that I will stand by every line of this song as long as I live. I am very proud of it. And I am very proud of Stephanie Davis, the writer. I hope you enjoy it and see it for what it was meant to be.”

12. "That Summer” (1993)

This chart-topping hit was written by Garth with his first wife Sandy Mahl and longtime friend and collaborator Pat Alger. The lyric tells the story of a teenage boy who goes to work on a lonely widow’s farm and romance blossoms. In his 1996 television special,  The Garth Brooks Story, he shared the story behind the song.

“'That Summer' started out as a single guy and a married woman meeting at a party. The married woman being ignored by whom she was with, and they snuck off together. [Producer] Allen Reynolds told me, ‘Man, I just don't find myself pulling for these characters. It doesn't seem innocently cool.’ I was thinking that he was right. Going home that night in the truck I started singing she has a need to feel the thunder. Sandy started helping me write the chorus and we got the chorus done. Probably one of the neat things that I love about ‘That Summer’ is that I think the song is very sexy.”

13. “Standing Outside the Fire” Garth Brooks songs (1993)

Co-written by Garth and Jenny Yates, this powerful anthem was the third single from Garth’s album In Pieces . It peaked at No. 3 on the chart. The inspirational song boasts the memorable line: “Life is not tried, it is merely survived if you're standing outside the fire.”

In his liner notes from  The Hits , Garth writes, “I was in Los Angeles in 1992, hanging out with a good friend, Jenny Yates. In a conversation I was describing something that I thought was really close, but for me it just stood outside the fire. There was that brilliant moment of silence when we just looked at each other and smiled. Within an hour and half, this song was written. This is another song of inspiration, and Jenny is that way when it comes to inspiration. I don't know if I have ever met a bigger dreamer than Jenny - to the one who saw the vision and made it happen - my hats off to Jenny Yates.”

14. "Ain't Going Down (Til the Sun Comes Up)" (1993)

After the deep introspection of The Chase , his fourth album, Garth was looking to loosen up again when it came time to cut In Pieces . He turned to two of his best friends to help him get there, Blazy and Kim Williams, with whom he’d previously collaborated on the free-wheeling cheatin’ song “Papa Loved Mama” off Ropin’ the Wind .

The three men were relaxing on the front porch of Blazy’s new home in Nashville when they got to talking. “We wanted to write something that was fun, for no other reason than just that: fun,” Garth said. Right there and then, they wrote this story about a girl who stays out past her curfew and winds up getting grounded because of it. “Ain’t Goin’ Down (Til the Sun Comes Up)” was a no-brainer as the album’s lead single. It didn’t disappoint by heading straight for No. 1 in September 1993.

15. “Calling Baton Rouge” (1994)

Written by Dennis Linde, this rousing bluegrass flavored song has been recorded by multiple artists including New Grass Revival, Billie Jo Spears and The Oak Ridge Boys. Garth Brooks recorded it as one of the songs for his 1993 album In Pieces , and it climbed to No. 2 on the US Country charts and hit No. 1 in Canada.

In the liner notes for The Hits , Garth wrote, “I have always been a fan of ‘Baton Rouge.’ I was, still am, and always will be a fan of the members of New Grass Revival, four guys well ahead of their time (even if they came out thirty years from now). ‘Baton Rouge’ was a single for them about the time my first album was released. This song did not even break the top thirty, and I believe it did not get a fair shot."

He continued, "When we recorded it, it seemed only natural to bring in the guys from New Grass Revival – Pat Flynn, Bela Fleck, John Cowan, and Sam Bush, teamed with Jerry Douglas. This was the first time the New Grass Revival had been together since their breakup over a year prior to the recording of this song. It was a very good day and an extremely proud moment, and I think this is reflected in the cut itself."

16. “The Beaches of Cheyenne” (1995)

This is one of the saddest Garth Brooks songs, and arguably the saddest country song, ever written. It tells the story of a couple who have a fight and the woman hurls some pretty harsh words as the man leaves, telling him she doesn’t give a damn if he ever comes back from Cheyenne. And sadly, he never returns.

Competing in a rodeo, he’s killed by a bull that “no man could ride.” She goes crazy when she gets the news and in her grief, she runs out into the ocean. They never find her body, just her footprints in the sand and her diary by the bed chronicling her last words to him.

Garth co-wrote the song with Bryan Kennedy and Dan Roberts. It was the third single from his album Fresh Horses and became his 15th No. 1 hit. On the 1995 TV special,  The Garth Brooks Story , Garth explains the story behind the song. “[It was] supposed to be real funny. Kind of like cowboys on the beach, kind of, swingin' kind of thing. Then it went to a guy on the beach that would come home from a suit and tie job. He never had any cowboy talents, but he always wanted to be one. So, he just comes home, slips off his shoes and goes out and walks on the beach and dreams of Wyoming and stuff. Then out of just a fluke, one time passing through, it came with...every night she walks the beaches of Cheyenne. We looked at each other and said, ‘This ain't gonna be funny, boys.’”

17. "Two Piña Coladas" (1997)

If “Two Piña Coladas” seems to effortlessly evoke warm vibes and visions of relaxing on the beach, that’s no accident. Another more upbeat of the Garth Brooks songs was cut on a particularly cold and dreary day in Nashville by Shawn Camp, Benita Hill, and Sandy Mason, who wanted nothing more than to escape to someplace sunny. Not surprisingly, they figured it would be perfect for Mr. Piña Colada himself, Jimmy Buffet. However, Allen Reynolds had other ideas.

He insisted it would be a good fit for Garth, who had no trouble leaning into the party atmosphere. Garth took the song right to No. 1 when it was released as a single in March 1998. He liked the song so much that he picked up another of Hill’s compositions, “Take the Keys to My Heart,” which helped Hill pay off her credit card debt. It was a boost for Camp as well, who had another chart topper later that year with Brooks & Dunn’s “How Long Gone” and later wrote hits for Blake Shelton, Josh Turner, and George Strait.

18. “In Another’s Eyes” Garth Brooks songs (1997)

Recorded with his wife Trisha Yearwood, this powerful ballad was featured on Trisha’s album Songbook: A Collection of Hits . Garth wrote the song with Bobby Wood and John Peppard and it climbed to No. 1 on the chart.

At the 40th Grammy Awards, Garth and Trisha took home the award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals. Here's a look at the couple, who were married in 2005, performing on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno . (Click through to read more about Garth and Trisha's family )

19. "To Make You Feel My Love" Garth Brooks songs (1998)

This Bob Dylan cover isn’t necessarily the most obvious choice as one of the most well known Garth Brooks songs, and Garth himself agreed — at least at first. Hope Floats director Forest Whittaker and the soundtrack’s producer, Don Was, brought the song to him. They saw it as the anchor track for this romantic drama starring Sandra Bullock and Harry Connick Jr. “I don’t hear this as a Garth Brooks song,” he mused. But when Garth sat down with the lyrics, he began to appreciate its simplicity.

Dylan had released it on his late-period comeback Time Out of Mind , and Garth fave Billy Joel had already covered it. The country star gave one of his all-time great performances as a vocal interpreter, really delving into the emotional space left open by Dylan’s spare lyrics. The song served as the soundtrack opener. It was bookended by another recording of the song by none other than Trisha Yearwood. It has since become a modern standard, made more famous still by the likes of Adele.

20. "More Than a Memory" Garth Brooks songs (2007)

After “To Make You Feel My Love,” the well ran dry on No. 1 hits for Garth, though it would’ve once seemed impossible to believe he’d be anywhere other than the top of the charts. In the nearly 25 years since that song was released, the country king has had just one more No. 1 single to his name, bringing his career total to 19.

That came courtesy of his 2007 cut, “More Than a Memory,” one of four new Garth Brooks songs that were recorded especially for that year’s The Ultimate Hits compilation. It debuted at No. 1, remarkably making it the first song ever to do so on the country chart, and the only one to do it based solely on radio airplay. (The metric would later be changed to include streaming figures.) The tune also marked a breakthrough for one its writers, future country hitmaker Lee Brice.

A version of this article appeared in our partner magazine Garth Brooks , with additional details from writer Deborah Evans Price

In the mood for more country music? Keep reading!

The Top 20 Patriotic Country Songs That’ll Make You Feel Proud to be an American

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Trisha Yearwood and Garth Brooks Are #CoupleGoals — Here’s the Scoop on Their 40-Year Story

Deborah Evans Price believes everyone has a story to tell and, as a journalist, she considers it a privilege to share those stories with the world. Deborah contributes to Billboard, CMA Close Up, Jesus Calling, First for Women , Woman’s World and Country Top 40 with Fitz , among other media outlets. Author of the CMA Awards Vault and Country Faith , Deborah is the 2013 winner of the Country Music Association's Media Achievement Award and the 2022 recipient of the Cindy Walker Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Western Artists. Deborah lives on a hill outside Nashville with her husband, Gary, son Trey and cat Toby.

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Garth Brooks Talks Making New Album, ‘Time Traveler,’ Why He Worried He Would Sound ‘Corny or Bad’

The album is part of a boxed set available only through Bass Pro Shops.

By Melinda Newman

Melinda Newman

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In many ways, Garth Brooks made  Time Traveler — or at least one particular song on his 14 th  studio album — for an audience of one.

Garth Brooks to Headline First Amazon Music Live Concert on Black Friday

Gentle ballad “St Paul/Minneapolis (A True Story)” — a rare solo write by Brooks that shares a wistful, nostalgic feel with Brooks’ standards “Every Now and Then” and “What She’s Doing Now” — is about a random encounter he had in the Twin Cities with a woman for whom he felt an instant connection. “I don’t have a clue who she is. It’s the weirdest thing. It was the easiest thing I’ve ever done. When she started talking, there was something in me that unlocked. In my dream of dreams, I’d love to run into her again and see if that easy feeling was really that or am I just imagining things,” he tells Billboard .

Trending on Billboard

That’s not the only big name that comes up around the Brooks-produced, 10-track  Time Traveler , which is part of  The Limited Series , a seven-disc set available exclusively through Bass Pro Shops starting Tuesday (Nov. 7). The $29.99 set also includes Brooks’ three studio albums since he came out of retirement — 2014’s  Man Against Machine ,  2016’s  Gunslinger  and 2020’s  Fun  — and the previously released three-disc  Triple Live concert set. 

“Rodeo Man,” the album’s rollicking first single, out today, is a duet with Brooks & Dunn’s Ronnie Dunn trading his usual singing partner Kix Brooks for a different Brooks. “He’s one of the greatest voices in country music ever,” Brooks declares of Dunn. 

Dunn was so happy with Brooks’ version, he suggested they duet on it. “He was very sweet to let me in the door. What we did was combine his track with our track,” Brooks says. Big Machine Label Group will promote the song to radio, as it did Brooks’ 2007 Country Airplay  No. 1, “More Than a Memory.” Unlike the rest of the album, it will also be available for streaming on Amazon, Brooks’ exclusive streaming outlet. 

Brooks is joined by Kelly Clarkson , who sings backing vocals on the loping “The Ship and the Bottle,” a bittersweet ballad written by Nicolle Galyon, Chase McGill and Jon Nite that Brett Young included on his 2018 album  Ticket to L.A ., but didn’t release as a single. The song envisions one member of a romantic couple as a bottle and the other as the enclosed ship. The bottle may have to break to allow the ship to be free and pursue her dreams. “The text was simple: ‘Hey, I’ve got a song. It’s not a duet. I would love to hear your voice on it,  but I know you’re slammed,” Brooks says of his outreach to Clarkson. “And three seconds later came back in all capitals: ‘YES.’ With exclamation points. It made an older artist feel very good that this younger artist would want to sing along on one of these records.” 

The other cover on  Time Traveler  is “The Ride,” David Allan Coe’s 1982 swampy classic about a hitchhiker who gets picked up by the ghost of Hank Williams. “The story [of Williams] haunted me my entire life,” says Brooks, who added a verse to flesh out what the characters talked about on their trip from Montgomery to Nashville, though he doesn’t take a songwriting credit on the  tune written by Gary Gentry and J.B. Detterline Jr. “I’m an a–hole in a lot of different ways, but I just can’t be that guy,” he says.

On the rowdy “Neon Neighborhood,” longtime fans of Brooks’ will no doubt recognize a tip of the hat to his raucous “Friends in Low Places,” with a boisterous chorus made up of his band and crew singing along as they did on the 1990 classic. Brooks first enlisted an audience at a show during his current two-year Las Vegas residency at Caesars Palace to sing and then brought the smaller contingent into the studio to make the words clearer.

As Brooks, the top-selling solo artist in the U.S., according to the RIAA, gets ready to open his own bar — naturally titled Friends in Low Places — on Nashville’s Lower Broadway, he hopes the song will find its own audience. “I’m not going to push it,” he adds. “We’ll see what kind of life it gets on its own. But I can tell you I just love the whole groove of it and it just feels so good especially when the band just takes off and plays.” 

Brooks titled the album  Time Traveler  because of the different eras of country music it pays homage to and the styles he’s been rediscovering as he programs The Big 615, one of a suite of seven stations that makes up Brooks’ Sevens Network for global streaming platform TuneIn. “What I love about the Big 615 and curating it is that it forces you to listen to the stuff that you didn’t have the time to listen to before and I think that’s really, really good,” he says.

The album includes “Only Country Music,” the song that kicked off The Big 615 when it launched in June and marks the first time Brooks and Nashville writing powerhouse Ashley Gorley have written together. The two were brought together by the song’s co-writer Matt Rossi. “While we’re writing, I tell [Ashley], ‘Man, before this session, I don’t know if it was jealousy or envy, but I’m like  ‘60 No. 1s! How is that possible?’ But when you write with this kid he is so far ahead of you the whole time. It’s like, ‘Holy cow. How do you do that?’ And then he leaves and probably goes and does it two more times that day. But he totally carried that session. No offense to Matt Rossi. No offense to myself.”

Brooks played Bass Pro’s 50 th   anniversary birthday party last fall, which led to the collaboration. “He talked to me about water conservation,” Brooks says of Morris, a devoted conservationist. “I said it was like the songwriters, how they’re just getting squeezed out and squeezed out” by low streaming rates and the focus on singles instead of albums. “And he said ‘Well, what can we do about that?’ and I said, ‘I’m looking for a partner for my last limited boxset [and] he was sweet enough to step up.”

The first  The Limited Series  came out 25 years ago in 1998, and was followed by a second  The Limited Series  with different content in 2005. The second edition was available exclusively through Walmart. Both series were limited to one million box sets each with one-way buys by the retailers.

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Garth Brooks Announces 14th Studio Album ‘Time Traveler': Here's When It Arrives

Garth Brooks ' first studio album of new material since 2020's  Fun  will come out in mid-November as part of a seven-disc boxed set available exclusively through Bass Pro Shops.

Time Traveler , Brooks' 14 th  studio album, will be housed in a limited series collection that include his three most recent studio sets since he came out of retirement - 2014's  Man Against Machine , 2016's  Gunslinger and  Fun - as well as the three-disc  Triple Live  concert set. 

"There are a lot of different eras on this album, thus the name," Brooks said in a statement. " Country music's core is sincerity. After that, you can dress it up a thousand different ways. I am so lucky to live under the flag of country music."

The Limited Series  will be available in Bass Pro Shops starting Nov. 7. Fans can pre-order The Limited Series now and orders purchased through Bass Pro Shops online store will ship mid-November. Purchase price is $29.95, but fans approved for a Bass Pro Shows Club credit card receive a $20 credit good toward purchase, knocking the price down to $9.95 for the entire bundle. There are 177 Bass Pro Shops in the U.S., including 82 Cabela's.

This is not the first time that Brooks has released new material through a boxed set.  Gunslinger  was initially available only as part of a Target-exclusive 10-CD box set,  The Ultimate Collection . In addition to the new album, the career-spanning box included nine discs of tunes from Brooks' catalog. The title moved 134,000 copies in its first week, according to Brooks' representatives.  Gunslinger  was then released as a standalone album a week later to all physical retailers, as well as available for streaming through Amazon, Brooks' exclusive streaming home.

Fun was released the same day as three-disc live album Triple Live Deluxe , but both were available individually through Amazon, Walmart, Target and Talk Shop Live.

Unlike  Gunslinger and Fun , a representative for Brooks says there are no immediate plans to release   Time Traveler   as an individual offering or make it available for streaming on Amazon. No word on when a first single will be released from the Brooks-produced set, although the country star has been playing a new song, "Pleasure in the Pain," during his two-year Las Vegas residency, which started earlier this year. 

November's  The Limited Series  is the third and final release in Brooks'  The Limited Series  offerings. The first  The Limited Series came out 25 years ago in 1998, and was followed by a second  The Limited Series  with different content in 2005. The second edition was available exclusively through Walmart. 

The Limited Series  will be available two weeks before Brooks plays a show to open his long-awaited Nashville bar, Friends in Low Places Bar & Honky Tonk, on Nov. 24. Fan can win tickets to the concert only via Brooks' The Big 615 station on streaming platform TuneIn. The bar, on Lower Broadway, will open for that night and then will open for good in 2024.  

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Garth Brooks Being Unfair to Fans with “Time Traveler” Release

Trigger Random Notes Garth Brooks --> 111 Comments

Garth Brooks has just announced his 14th studio album called Time Traveler to be released on November 7th. Consisting of 10 songs, the album was produced by Garth Brooks himself. But to purchase and listen to the new album, you’ll have to purchase six other albums that you either might already have or may not particularly want. It’s the latest scheme from the country superstar to drive up his sales numbers. Time Traveler will only be available—at least initially—by purchasing it in a bigger box set exclusively available at Bass Pro Shops. As Garth explains, the Bass Pro release is part of his “Limited Series,” which has released two other box set collections in the past. Overall, Garth has now released eight box sets total. This third limited series also comes with the albums Man Against Machine  (2014),  Gunslinger  (2016), and  Fun  (2020), along with  Triple Live  (2018). Garth says about the new album, “There are a lot of different eras on this album, thus the name. Country music’s core is sincerity, after that, you can dress it up a thousand different ways. I am so lucky to live under the flag of Country Music.” Will Time Traveler be available by itself at some point? Maybe, but Garth is not mentioning anything about this at the moment and wants you to purchase the box set first. Will Time Traveler eventually be available via streaming services? If it is, it would be exclusive to Amazon, since Garth has an exclusive streaming deal with them. But at the moment, there is no guarantees if or when this will happen either. All of this is to funnel fans toward purchasing the $29.95 box set. Perhaps if you don’t have physical copies of any of the box set albums, that is not a bad deal. But if you do, you’re being forced to purchase albums you don’t want or need to get the one that you do. Garth has been doing this for years .

Garth Brooks first announced the new Bass Pro Shops box set back in August. But at that time, he didn’t even reveal the name of the new album, nor the track list. We still don’t have the detailed track list at this point. On Garth’s first “Limited Series” release in 1998, it included his first six albums, with each album including an additional song. On the second “Limited Series” released in 2005, it included four previously-released albums, as well as The Lost Sessions that included 11 unheard tracks, including the Chris LeDoux tribute single “Good Ride Cowboy.” In that case The Lost Sessions was also issued separately later, but with an expanded 17-song track list. So even if you got The Lost Sessions in the box set, you still needed to buy the album separately to complete the catalog. It is likely Garth Brooks will release Time Traveler separately at some point as well, but who knows when. As some fans are also pointing out, even though the Limited Series box set will be available at Bass Pro on November 7th, if you purchase it online from the retailer, it won’t ship until November 27th to December 4th. Perhaps this is to push people toward going to the physical stores. But with only 200 Bass Pro locations, this is not a possibility for many Garth Brooks fans, especially ones that live in rural areas. Others have been quick to point out that they don’t even have a CD player anymore. Most newer cars do not come with one. At this point, CD would be the only way to listen to Time Traveler . People may have to travel back in time to find a CD player to hear it. According to the RIAA, Garth Brooks is the top selling solo artist of all time in the world, even beating out Elvis. He’s sold 157 million albums in the United States alone. Though Garth’s popularity is unquestionable and his country bonafides are hard to dispute, his marketing and packaging schemes sometimes precede the positive sentiments about his music. This is certainly the case for Time Traveler .

Garth Brooks

111 Comments

“Country music’s core is sincerity” There is nothing sincere about Garth Brooks. Where are the bodies Garth!

Had a feeling Segura would make it in here somewhere

His Opry Induction speech for Jon Pardi was very insincere. He sounded like a salesman up there. Also im pretty sure Pardi doesn’t really know him that well.

Garth can’t force anybody to buy anything. If this new album is not available at a price that’s fair, people won’t buy it.

Especially now, when Garth is more a nostalgia or oldies act than a hot current star, I find the idea that he can force people to repurchase his old albums rather dubious.

I have no idea what the current market will be like for Garth, but we’ll find out, I guess.

I think you’re underestimating him. Anybody that can come back after more than a decade and become the highest grossing artist without any airplay should not be underestimated.

Sounds like the government needs to step in to protect people from being forced to buy Garth’s music

I just chained myself to my chair because my legs started to lift me up to take me to a Bass Pro Shop to buy Gatth’s latest box set. Funny thing is, I wouldn’t even know if there’s a Bass Pro Shop within a thousand miles of me.

Not available at Bass Pro in Canada

As of February 2023, Ollie’s Bargain Outlet has 468 locations in 29 states. If one is patient the box set will show up heavily discounted at an Ollie’s near you. Our local Ollie’s still has a stack of the last box set at $5 each.

I like Garth ok, but don’t like his new stuff well enough to buy it at that price. I’ll get mine when it comes to Ollies and if not it’s cool lol His stuff is not that essential to me. I’ve always thought of him as not as good as most of his 90s peers.

I recently saw “FUN” for sale at Dollar General. I didn’t notice the price, but his fans definitely just need to be patient!

I bought his vinyl box set a few years ago because I wanted his early stuff in a physical format and, as you mentioned, CDs are dead. I have little interest in new music from him. Perhaps if he thought it was worth releasing to legitimate record stores where music lovers hang out instead of to Bass Pro Shops, I’d have more confidence in it… Maybe his next one will be called “Master Baiter.”

You talking about the Legacy set with 7 LPS and cds for $40-50? I have that set too. It was so cheap I don’t know how they didn’t lose money, but it’s a great set.

I would rather have a new vinyl box set with the older albums that weren’t released than a new album from him. Supposedly, he is working on a duets album wirh Trisha Yearwood. With a traditional release (CD & vinyl) by itself, that would be worth getting. These endless box sets…no.

I used to like him. He treats others like dirt. He sometimes says about his own fans videos: They are trouble. He is lucky he has any fans anymore. He even told a weatherman with a new song that they offered to him to keep their day job. He should form his own band, work on his songwriting craft, learn to play his songs well, sign up to numerous music artist song release sites and put his songs on their and promote them well, be his own sales person and maybe he’ll make it. The music business is not just about major labels though. Independent labels can do well. Garth is ok. Clint Black is a better artist than Garth Brooks in my opinion. He always plays his songs himself and never just sings them. Garth Brooks at times just sang his songs without playing a thing. Alan Jackson did the same, Beyonce is not even a traditional or contemporary Country artist. Beyonce is overrated and mostly a hiphop and r&b artist. Not into Alan Jackson or Randy Travis though.

Garth is the male version of the Shania Twain has-been. No insult to Shania.

Garth has some classic country songs that would be beloved here if the site’s favorites sang them.

Shania was nothing but bubblegum pop.

Both are overrated. Shania is too into her body. Garth is funny. He actually calls himself a songwriter and on Studio G one time he said I cannot do a Master Class on Songwriting, but if you want a Master Class on Entertaining,I can do that. Not that good. He is overrated and he claims he songwrites. One time he said the studio musicians were changing his song, yet he let his Music Engineer tell him to not do a thing and let them change his songs, I wouldn’t do that and I would never live in Nashville. It should be called Collaboration City,not Music City. Too much reliance on the studio musicians is stupid and ridiculous. Faith Hill is a better artist than she is. She is not after the male fans as much. He mocks Bob Dylan,yet he actually songwrites. So pitiful of him. He is no James Taylor either. No Gordon Lightfoot or Loretta Lynn period.

$29.95 isn’t bad considering a lot of us bought a lot of CDs for $18. I know a guy that got one of Garth’s classic vinyl sets. That’d be cool. I’m not interested in any of Garth’s recent era work. Like you have written in previous posts, Trigger, Garth’s legacy in the young generation will be significantly less without streaming.

I am 22 and yes I do know some Garth songs but if he’s not on Spotify I’m simply not going to pay extra money for a cd when I have access to every other artist in existence. I know he’s on Amazon but I’m not about to subscribe to something else that is essentially the same thing as Amazon. I do have a few CD’s bc my truck in high school only had an Am/ Fm Cd radio. Don’t have much desire to purchase a cd now

Oh, this is crap. I’d be happy to check out Time Traveler, but I didn’t like Man Against Machine and didn’t hear the later ones….no need for a box set, as a fan. I also laughed at “eras” – channeling Taylor Swift now, Garth?

Gunslinger and FUN are awesome albums! I bet Time Traveler is great. He’s played a few of the songs on his facebook live. They sound like vintage GB.

Never liked his albums after 2014. Man Against Machine is fair. However his song “Whisky to Wine” is his best new song. It is like true Country. His other stuff is more Rock than Country ever.

He has proven over and over again through the years that he is a business man first and artist second. That being said, given the small margins on music today (especially streaming) he knows it’s more lucrative for him to be in the business of memorabilia sales. Which is basically what selling cd box sets is as opposed to selling digital music available to stream or download. He knows he will make more money selling far fewer box sets than he would by putting his music on Amazon to stream. The financial bottom line is clearly his only concern.

I like Garth. I am a fan. I would have preferred him not to release this way but the album will be released at some stage on its own. Just need to be patient.

We want Allen Reynolds and Mark Miller back at the helm.

I don’t have so much an issue with the CD player aspect of this. My laptop I bought in 2020 still has one. You can buy an external USB CD player for your laptop. There are some vinyl players that have CD players together. They have some with cassette and 8 track players in them too. I think this Limited Series is a decent price, but it leaves a lot to be desired and left to imagination. I wish there was more new music, and I want to know if the Triple Live here is the same as the one in the Live Anthology book. Why isn’t it the Deluxe version? That Triple Live Deluxe Version had more tracks. If the Triple Live in this was actual audio from those Bass Pro Shops shows, it would make those live tracks – new tracks. I figure it’s the same as album I already have with different pictures in the book for those Bass Pro Shops shows. That annoys me. I have all the latest albums. I don’t want those again unless you add tracks to the albums like he did for the 1st Limited Series in 1998. I expect this new album to be released in February separate like The Lost Sessions was, and it was expanded to 17 tracks from the original 11 in that 2nd Limited Series Box Set from 2005. That 2nd box set did have a cool DVD added to it. If I’m getting this right, I’m paying $30 to buy a new album that will likely be re-released with new tracks in February. There’s barely any new material just new packaging that says “Limited”. I think I’m gonna sit out on this one. I want newer stuff or give me different versions of older stuff that hasn’t been heard in that format. I’m sure there’s a blu-ray or DVD of one of these shows from Yankee Stadium or Notre Dame. You could stick that in this Limited Series. $30 for $10-$15 of “new” material is not enough for me. I had a reason for buying the 1st Limited Series back in 2001. I hadn’t had those albums in CD format. The 2nd Limited Series in 2005, there was more to it. You could justify buying it. This 3rd Limited Series is almost as bad as that Target Box Set. I wisely didn’t buy that Target one; it was light on new material too. His latest Live Live Box Set – I’m not getting that one. Do better, Garth. You’re better than this. There’s that silly segment on ESPN where they say, “Come ON, Man!” – This release deserves a “Come ON, Man!”

Maybe the bodies are (very, very allegedly) buried in the latest box set, or in one of the many Bass Pro Shops.

They are under the Memphis pyramid.

What is the Memphis Pyramid? I am not saying they do not exist. I just never heard of it.

Brooks’ business sense is definitely interesting.

On one hand, I absolutely understand his strict approach with streaming and why he prefers doubling down on physical product, box set gimmicks aside.

On the other hand, Brooks has long struck me as someone who cares a LOT about remaining relevant, and him bundling his three most recent studio albums with “Time Traveler” magnifies this. And while he certainly remains most relevant as a live ticket, he’s become quite irrelevant as a recording artist. His most recent release, “Gunslinger”, didn’t even crack the Top 40 of the Billboard 200, and that was released BEFORE Billboard changed their chart methodology to disallow bundle sales. Coupled with doubling down on CDs which are basically fossilized at this point…………..it fascinates me to see someone like Brooks who pays a lot of mind to remaining relevant take a business approach that hinders that as a recording artist.

CDs still exist. Billboard is stupid for going that route. Them pushing everything digital is stupid.

I used to be a huge Garth fan until he started pulling this garbage 15-20 years ago. I’m amazed at how the diehards will still buy multiple copies of something they already have. A sucker born every minute, right?

I thought Man Against Machine was a pretty good album but Fun was pure trash.

Neither one was good. Whisky to Wine on his Triple Live Vinyl Record is his best song lately. Everything else now he does is garbage. His last best album was Fresh Horses. In Pieces was ok. The Chase not bad,although We Shall Be Free was never a song of his I liked. The Thunder Rolls is not good. “Standing Outside the Fire” is ok,yet his songs “The Night I Called The Old Man Out” and “Ain’t Going Down ‘Til The Sun Comes Up” promotes evil in families in my opinion. Fights between parents and children can be avoided, celebrities are usually overrated and stupid. Rodeo is ok and yet negative. “The Red Strokes” is terrible and I liked his songs “New Way to Fly,” “Victim of The Game,” “Wild Horses” and “Wolves way more than it ever. “The Cowboy Song” honestly is better than all the other songs on his In Pieces album. “More Than a Memory” is terrible. I kinda related to it when it was released, yet now I find it ok. The music video of it is negative. “It’s Your Song” and “Wild As The Wild are not bad songs,yet “Tearin’ It Up (And Burning It Down” is trash. “The Dance” is ok and “Friends In Low Places” is stupid.

I’m sure there are some rubes who’ll do it. There wouldn’t be bro country without this cretin.

bass pro shops is my favorite record store.

It is not clear if this is vinyl or CD. If CDs, c’mon — CDs are a joke. Vinyl in niche and vinyl outsells CDs. No one has CD players anymore (cue the 5 people who actually do) — I own thousands of CDs and even I don’t have a player. But you either put the record out to streaming services, or you did not actually release a record. Just a bizarre and misguided cash grab. If I recorded a record and put it on a shelf in a closet, I have not actually released it. Releasing something on CD is the equivalent of just putting the record in a closet. Another well-played Garthism.

There is no mention about vinyl with this. This is CD only at the moment.

I wonder if they will offer a download code with the purchaxse?

Highly doubt it. This is all about controlling his intellectual property.

I want to know if Brooks Jefferson on Spotify is Garth with unmastered vocals. Every Garth song I’ve had to learn was by listening to Brooks Jefferson on Spotify

Same goes for “Dylan Miller” on Spotify.

Hey I still listen to cds and buy new ones to listen to in my truck. You want to unload some of your cd collection let me know maybe we can work out a deal I’m sure out of as many as you’ve got you’ll have something I’d like to have

I have many CD players. Still he is overrated. He treats his fans wrong. Clint Black will even acknowledge his true fans. He takes time out of his day when he does a chat on Twitter. However Garth Brooks will never do that because he would be humble if he did. He is overrated and egotistical at best. And condescending and a mistreater at worst.

I can’t help but think that Garth’s decision to effectively sit on the sidelines for the streaming revolution we’ve been experiencing will really diminish how he’ll be viewed historically.

For the entire “90s Country” nostalgia cycle his music’s been missing from everywhere but Amazon.. So, for more than an entire generation now, he basically doesn’t exist.

When someone too young to remember Garth all over Country radio in the 90s clicks on a “90s Country” playlist on Spotify, they’ll see Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn, Patty Loveless, etc.. And maybe I’m overthinking it, but for someone not inclined to dig a little deeper on their own, that playlist basically serves as an historical record of a musical era…and Garth won’t be part of it.

Tough to tell what’s worse, forcing fans to purchase this box set or the album artwork itself..

The promo pics he has been using for several years have certainly time traveled from 20 years ago to present day……just stop Garth.

it’s a shame Itś only for the money and is fans in europe ? not for sale we already missed his antholigy 2 and now this

I haven’t liked Garth Brooks for many years. He turned me off when doing and interview after being on the scene for a couple of years saying “Country music wouldn’t be what it is today without me”. Total bullshit!!!!! Many other big names molded country music: Hank Williams, the Carter Family, George Jones, Ernest Tubb, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, Bob Wills…I could go on and on. And to gouge his fans and make them buy albums they already have and most likely don’t want to get his new album is totally RIDICULOUS!!!!! We’ve been through Garths retirements then the following year he’d be back again….another ridiculous event. When he did that I thought if you’re going to retire…..just GO AWAY!!!!!!! I hope and pray people don’t fall for this money-making scheme and don’t buy into his new album. In my opinion, Garth Brooks killed quite a few entertainer’s careers back when he came on the scene cause as record execs were saying….your not selling like Garth…and that was a sad time in country music. Performers with much more experience were left by the wayside. One example was Tanya Tucker. She made loads of money for Capitol Records. She had an album coming out and so did Garth. Garths album got all the promotion while Tanya’s got none. She questioned Capitol big wigs and they said to her she wasn’t getting the promotion cause she wasn’t selling as much as Garth. So Tanya in turn said well if you don’t promote my album I will be leaving the Capitol label. And that’s what happened…they said bye bye Tanya. A singer who started when she was 13 and had many hits was overlooked and dropped by her label. Shame on the labels that follow the almighty dollar…cause there have been quite a few albums that have been produced and didn’t chart but they were amazing works of art in the country music world. This process has to change…cause you don’t know where said artists career is going. They may just sell as much as Garth did.

I don’t doubt almost everything you said about “Garth Vader” is true. Almost.

Before Garth, country music wasn’t exclusively, or even mostly, about business and branding (save for Dolly, of course, who did turn her thing into a Brand long before anyone knew who Garth was, while at the same time having the artistry to back it up on a universal level). But ever since Garth’s 1989 emergence, nearly every big-time country act that has followed in his wake has followed his particular business model, which includes arena/stadium spectacles, and yes, Branding.

So I have to say this with a lot of irony that Garth is in fact right: Country music wouldn’t be what it is today without him. And that’s not necessarily such a great thing…to put it quite mildly (IMHO).

You sound ignorant. His retirement lasted for over a decade. He didn’t retire and come back “the next year.”

Hi Teddy. You are right I am wrong about what I said about numerous retirements…and I am sorry I made the mistake I did. I did look up and found Garth retired from music on 10/26/2000. He played a 4 year residency at the Wynn casino hotel in Las Vegas in 2009. But can I ask this??? When you retire…you retire you don’t come back. Did he do it cause he was broke? I don’t know. Did he do it cause of his ego and he thought people missed him. I don’t know about that either. In my opinion I like more humble artists like Vince Gill, Alan Jackson, Dolly Parton or George Strait. To me they are humble and true country artists. Again I’m sorry if this post upsets you it’s just my opinion. Thanks for setting me straight.

Sincerely, Troy “The Traditionalist”

He retired to go focus on raising his kids after he and Sandy split, decided to focus on being dad for a while, and had the right to do so with his career where it was at that point. He made it clear he would come back once the kids were out on their own, and he held to that. Yes, he did a handful of one off and charity concerts, brought the kids along cause they’d never really seen him perform live (keep in mind how young they were during his prime tour days), and then once they were old enough he went and signed the deal with the Wynn, that allowed him to both perform and finish his commitment to his girls, but 98% he stayed true to being dad. Only once they were up and out, he came back out full force, touring, albums etc.

That is not good. She was done wrong. He is overrated.

What on earth does he have against streaming sites?

He shopped around and didn’t find one that wanted to agree to his terms. His one big ask was they would require people to buy the full album, no choice to purchase individual tracks. Why? So then all the people who worked on the album get paid. When people are allowed to pick the songs, and normally pick only the popular ones, then it’s only those few people who wrote/played on those specific songs who get royalties. He’s never liked that. Amazon gave him the reigns to control his own music and release it his way. He also liked that Amazon is a marketplace so it would guarantee streaming, downloading, and physical media all in one place.

My favorite college hangout was Willie’s on Washington, back in the days Steve Rice would have the Greek girls dancing on tabletop every Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning. They said Garth was a regular performer there 15 years or 20 years before that. I think would have bood him at that point. Amazing he spent his college years in Stillwater and left with no musical soul.

Big fan of his music but not Garth. After attending his most recent concert in Dallas I came to the conclusion that I would never spend another $ on Garth. Between him strutting around the stage pausing, what seemed like between every song waiting for applause and then carving out 30 minutes of his show for Trisha, I vowed never again. I should say I think Trisha is great, but if I wanted to see her showcased I would buy a ticket to one of her concerts.

You can always buy it, rip it to mp3 on a laptop and flip it a couple dollars cheaper on eBay or marketplace.

No one is putting a gun to anyone’s head to purchase this

Man Against Machine and Gunslinger were brutal compared to Brooks’ best stuff. I never even bothered listening to Fun. This is just another way, like Trigger said, to pad Brooks’ inflated sales numbers. It’s all about Garth’s ego. Take away the multiple sets that sell for next to nothing, and Brooks’ numbers would be much lower. This is pathetic.

“Self-produced” coming from someone with Garth’s post-90’s legacy just screams that it will be mediocre. Seems like Garth didn’t want to deal with the creative input of A-list producers. Garth is more of a product than he is a solo artistic juggernaut.

Or, alternately, you could download the new album for free, and Garth would get nothing. Not that I’m endorsing such a thing.

Are we supposed to believe that’s Garth on the cover?

I’m a huge Garth fan from New Zealand. The boxset will be available in Bass Pro stores (but not all of them) from November 7th, if you order it online from basspro, you get it November 24th.

Garth has confirmed that the new album itself will be available from Amazon at a later date.

Bass pro initially stated there will be 14 songs on the album in the boxset, (there is only ten)

Im hoping that the album itself from Amazon will include 14 songs.

Im not a collector, so I will just wait for the new album, but I kinda agree with some of Trigger’s points.

Can’t wait for the duet with Dylan mulaney

Well, I looked at the contents of the boxed set, and realize while I do have “Triple Live” downloaded, I don’t have physical copies of any of those, or downloads of the others. This box set might be worth it for me – That many CDs for under 30 bucks is a good deal.

But I can’t imagine there are a whole lot of people like me. Most Garth fans I know have EVERYTHING – including multiple copies of every album that came with every boxed set, book, or whatever other special deal GB had to force people to buy the same albums over and over (one reason I don’t have the others – I figured if I waited long enough, he’d have them in a boxed set; the last GB boxed set I bought was the Wal-Mart one that was several CDs of covers of Classic Rock, Country, R&B and the like).

Minor quibble here but the box set version of The Lost Sessions was 11 tracks, the individual release was 17 tracks

Yes this was revised. The issue is that it’s almost impossible to verify details on some of these Garth releases because the info hasn’t migrated to the internet because the music hasn’t either.

It was probably inevitable that a Garth Brooks would emerge about the time he did, and sell millions of records. America was changing, and there were less isolated country people, and with technology changing, it was likely that country would show James Taylor folk and southern rock influences. That said, I am deeply unimpressed that he seems obsessed with his numbers, and not his art. I don´t know if it´s fair to accuse Garth Brooks of ruining country music, but to say he is a greater artist than, say, the Beatles or Elvis, just doesn´t make musical sense, even if he has sold more than both.

Is there a way to install a CD player into a fancy new car?

Haha, this makes me want to walk into a Tesla shop and say I need one with a cd player and AM radio

At least Garth has matured and shifted to making his fans feel like assholes rather than just saying it outright.

How does RIAA certification work for box sets? If he sells a million of these box sets, does each album in the box set get certified platinum? I feel like these box sets are a ploy to get more gold/platinum album certifications.

That’s exactly how it works.

1 million sales of a 6 cd box set = 1 million in sales for each album.

That’s correct .

This has more old man get of my lawn vibes. CD box set? Ain’t 1997 Garth. Let me go print some directions to Bass Pro off Mapquest.

Garth Brooks is one of the most commercially successful and popular acts of all time, with an estimated 170 million records sold. 170 MILLION. The guy has enough money that you’d think he wouldn’t feel the need to pull shenanigans like requiring fans to buy every album (multiple times, in many instances) to make himself commercially viable. Clearly, Garth ain’t about the music and never has been.

I heard him say 20+ years ago on a talk show, when explaining why he wasn’t working so hard just to make more money, that he already had more money than his grandchildren could ever spend. If so, why does he continue to wring every nickel he can from his fans?

He doesn’t need to win, he just likes to play the game. You can’t have that much drive and then just stop driving one day.

I’d listen to Allison Krauss any day to Garth Brooks. She’s won 27 Grammy’s…..how many has Garth won? Only 2. And how could you go wrong with Dolly Parton saying Allison Krauss is what angels sound like when they sing. Invest your money in a performer like her. Real…..genuine and not out to rape you for extra money. This I just my opinion.

Garth never sang the kind of pandering music the Grammys like.

@CK– Huh? I’d say that pandering to p.c. orthodoxy and box-checking has been a significant sub-specialty of Garth’s over the years. And if it’s not in the actual lyrics to a song, he’d do it in the video or in interviews when talking about the songs.

Garth’s style was too “commercial” for the Grammys.

Hey Country Knight….I just checked cause I wasn’t sure. Garth Brook won 2 grammys so I guess he was considered / nominated other times too. I think winning a Grammy is a great accolade cause it comes from the fans and them buying the actual albums. I’ve always loved Alison Krauss even before the 27 grammy awards. She’s an amazing vocalist and an awesome fiddler. Like Dolly Parton always said if you want to know what angels sound like singing….listen to Alison Krauss.

Great music outlet. When I go there, I hope I can pick up a couple of Slim Whitman discs, too.

Wouldn’t be SCM without a “Garth making money” article.

No one is forced to buy this set. I won’t be buying it. Garth wants the record for most albums sold. Simple as that.

Guess what, every site darling here wishes he or she could sell and market like Garth. Music is a business and the man kept control of his musical rights.

He is only hurting his legacy by refusing to join streaming sites. That is the gist of an interesting article.

Oh, another “this site” comment for CountryKnight, as if you’re not part of “this site” too.

For the record, I have directly criticized Tyler Childers for this very same practice of taking advantage of fans too, and in multiple dedicated articles, despite him being a “site darling” (in your words).

Wrong is wrong. Of course nobody is being forced to do anything. But people are fans of these artists, and they want to listen to their music. You’re taking advantage of them by packaging it in this manner.

It is too easy sometimes.

Part of the community? Not as long as my comments remain in moderation. My status is now of a part-time contributor and that is OK. But let’s not pretend otherwise.

Garth fans know how Garth rolls. Like I said, I think it is more interesting how Garth is losing any chance of a legacy by refusing to embrace streaming. At least, for his earliest material.

…being in a position that you don’t have to care anymore, whether the things you do actually matter financially to yourself is a great situation to be in. who wouldn’t love to look down on maslow’s pyramid from way above with a big smile? however, using it to milk others shamelessly is plain and simple utter decadence. putting it politely. can’t wait for the guide explaining and recommending, which of his box sets are the real deals by trisha yearwood, coming with a choice of box sets of her cook books or own albums. then again, perhaps still more enjoyable stuf than the mcgraw’s guide how to become really really extra thin or something from the aldeans on identity or small town living.

i really fail to understand why it matters to anyone what an artist chooses to do. if you don’t like it, don’t buy the box set, don’t buy tickets to see him, don’t speak his name. if you want to hear his music that bad, then shut up and buy it. why is an entire SCM post devoted to belly aching about what he does or doesn’t do? more and more on this site, it’s just on and on complaining about an artist’s choice…in what they do, what they say, where they go. you don’t like his marketing schemes but you are only feeding the beast by giving him publicity. stick to album reviews of lesser known artists if you want to be taken seriously.

It is the job of the press to advocate for consumers and to be adversarial toward the industry and artists if we feel it is in the public interest. Many Garth Brooks fans feel like this is a smarmy thing to do. Rolling Stone, Whiskey Riff, and other outlets reported this same story, and in a similar manner. Of course nobody is being forced to buy this box set, but it is not fair to Garth’s fans to expect them to buy albums they already have to get the one they want. I have criticized other artist for similar marketing and packaging schemes, namely Tyler Childers.

I understand that some Garth Brooks fans may not care about this issue. When it comes to his music, I have always been more of a Garth apologist than anything. But when he held people’s pre-order money for two years with “Fun,” and now this, someone needs to speak up for the consumer. That’s the job of the press.

“someone needs to speak up for the consumer.” i get what you’re saying, and that phrase is fine if you’re talking about getting screwed by AT&T or buying a lemon car or a rotten watermelon and not getting a refund. but we’re talking about creativity in the entertainment industry. entertainment is a luxury, not a staple. if any “consumer” is so dumb that they don’t realize what is going on, and need the press to clear it up for them, and end up with “oh my lord, Garth has been doing WHAT to me?” then they truly deserve to listen to his music and be suckered into whatever marketing scheme Garth comes up with. like any capitalist, garth is doing what he needs to do for garth. pick ANY other music artist and i guarantee they wish they could have the exposure and COMPLETE control over their brand the way he does. he’s had so many boxed sets, who doesn’t know what he’s doing!?! i just thing that articles like this on SCM are a waste of time and the space would be better used.

Look, I want to review the new Garth Brooks album upon release. It’s likely to be country with some good songs, but I’m not going to drive 40 miles to the nearest Bass Pro Shop and pony up 30 bucks since I’ve already had to buy two of the CDs in this box set to review them in the past because I couldn’t listen to them anywhere else. I also think Garth Brooks needs to understand how this is going to hurt his ability to reach new fans and have his music find the audience he wants. I think it’s important that we give our feedback as listeners.

No matter how many articles I write in a week, there is only going to be a finite amount of reviews for independent artists because this depends on lots of listening time and the availability of quality albums to review. Writing an article like this doesn’t impinge on this whatsoever.

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I recently heard a podcast where the hosts explained this might be Garth’s way of holding that #1 Selling Solo Artist (in the USA) over Elvis. They said Elvis and Garth have swapped that position multiple times in the past 20 years and Garth releasing these huge box sets of old albums keeps him ahead. Maybe that’s oversimplifying it (it was podcast on Elvis’s influence on Country Music), but I found it interesting.

Kinda what was said above, but isnt Garth releasing these as a box set to continue to have the top spot for all time sales? If he sells a million albums, he gets credit for 6 million on total sales? Isnt that why he has continued to sell the box set format to drive all time sales? Let’s not forget what he went to college for: advertising/marketing. Just another ploy to get more sales for all time rank.

You might say what Garth Brooks is doing, is downright Shameless. (•_•) ( •_•)>⌐■-■ (⌐■_■) Yeaaaah!

I get your point here, but I have to disagree. Garth is one of the few holdouts refusing to put his music on streaming services – which is 100% his right. Not to mention that these services pay almost nothing to artists. So yeah, he still sells CD’s. Good for him. He knows what his music is worth and doesn’t want to hand it over to Spotify.

Now, it’s been a while since I’ve bought a CD, but I buy vinyl on occasion and $29.95 is a typical price for a *single album.* Garth is charging that for… what is it, six albums? In other words, you’re getting the new release at a new release price and everything else is basically gravy. It’s actually kind of a bargain.

It’s interesting marketing. Given that his heyday was also the heyday of the CD, it’s likely that most of his fans have a CD player around somewhere. Will it pay off? Who knows, but it’s interesting. He’s trying to get people to buy physical albums again. I think a lot of artists wish their fans would do that.

Everyone’s so upset that he does this..forcing fans to buy things they don’t need to get what they want. Big deal. Ever consider that every “fan” that signs up for Spotify is forcing artists to give you what you want without giving the artists what they need? Nice to see some balance. Also, think about the songwriters. I’m sure they enjoy the repeated sales. This isn’t greed or arrogance. This is someone taking care of those who helped him along the way, while also making some money. There are worse things to worry about than Garth selling another box set.

Gutted to learn today, that the new album wont be released as a standalone album, or for streaming on amazon in the future, according to Billboard music magazine.

This is why people use certain sites to download their music from and not pay.

Garth is the only artist in the world, where you have to jump thru hoops to buy his music.

Huge fan, but this just sucks.

Garth Brooks fans are so lucky to be treated unfairly. I once went on a literal bible belt road trip to see Lee Ann Womack at a Mississippi casino. Heck, I once saw Lee Ann hours after a 72 hour hold let up.

Is he still exclusive to Amazon Music for his streaming? I’m sure he did it “for the fans” and not some huge lump sum from Amazon. What a jackass.

That’s Garth Brooks unironically modeling Zoolander’s “Blue Steel” on the cover of his new record.

What a living, breathing, walking douchebag.

Garth, needs to take a lesson from the people who run, Prince’s estate, they have just re released Prince’s Diamond and Pearls with 33 previously unreleased tracks, two hours of never before seen, concert footage and its available on all formats! This is the type of thing he should be doing.

This seems more like a marketing deal with Bass Pro than a real album release. Probably took some leftover tracks from the vault and polished them up. Even the Amazon exclusive deal seems like a marketing ploy for them. Because you have to think that even Garth knows by now that purchasing CDs, or even paying for music downloads has gone the way of the Album, Cassette, and 8-Track. Sure there are some holdovers. I was a late adopter to streaming myself. But that’s the where the vast majority of music customers are now.

I’m guessing Garth has already been paid for this “album” by Bass Pro. Apple made a similar marketing move with U2 a few years back. Won’t be surprised to see this box set on shelfs near the checkout lane soon. It seems kinda like cheapening of his own catalog to me though. But hey, make that easy money Garth.

What in Sam Hill does Garth Brooks have to do with country music, much less saving it?

I’ll wait for this album to be available as a stand alone. Unfortunately, I have his last 3 albums. The first 2 digitally and the last one both digitally and cd (don’t know why I bothered to get it on cd). I can see why he probably didn’t release it through Amazon considering they had issues with his last album being on preorder for more than 2 years and random single releases in between. Me thinks he is doing this in order the give the new album a chance to at least move some copies considering FUN. Had disappointing sales numbers.

Young people will never hear Garth Brooks. So dumb. I understand that Spotify isn’t good for artists and I wish there was a better system, but you can’t even play any of his songs in a car or at a party. Dumb.

I am a huge Garth fan. I’ve seen him a few times in concert and own every all boxsets but this one isn’t available to me because I live in Canada. Not liking this slap to his fanbase. I understand streaming pays, basically, nothing but there are many fans of his that would buy this new album if it was available to them. I would. But he hasn’t given me the option to purchase it. So I guess I sit this one out.

At the end of the day, the album is pretty awesome. There are ten songs, and I think this is the most country I have heard Garth since No Fences. (not that he didn’t have traditional stuff along the way). Only the song Neon Neighborhood rubs me the wrong way in terms of its sound. His take on the awesome song “The Ride” is also questionable – of all the songs to make less traditional, making this one less traditional just seems wrong. But it’s still a powerful take on the song.

Overall, I could easily see this album becoming my third favorite Garth album, right behind Garth Brooks and No Fences. I am very pleasantly surprised.

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I Bought The New Seven-CD Garth Brooks Box Set From Bass Pro Shops (A True Story)

Earlier this month, a Grammy-winning superstar took a bold left turn. Nobody saw it coming, and many were confounded by the move. But this person successfully challenged convention and upended previous notions of his work. And in the end, one could not help but admire his flouting of commercial expectations. Because he was, as always, his own idiosyncratic self.

I am referring, of course, to Garth Brooks and the packaging of his latest studio album, Time Traveler, inside of a seven-CD box set sold exclusively at Bass Pro Shops locations.

Perhaps you are unaware that the best-selling solo artist in American pop music history has made his new record available at only 177 stores (including 82 combination Bass Pro Shops/Cabela’s) known for selling hunting and fishing gear. If that is the case, I will refer you to this Billboard interview published the day before the box set (titled The Limited Series ) was released on November 7. Last year, Garth played the chain retailer’s 50th anniversary party and he struck up a friendship with CEO Johnny Morris. “He talked to me about water conservation,” the singer-songwriter explained. Garth naturally drew a parallel between the fight to preserve fresh water and the plight of veteran country stars who are resistant to streaming music platform s. “And he said ‘Well, what can we do about that?’ and I said, ‘I’m looking for a partner for my last limited box set’ [and] he was sweet enough to step up.”

And that was that. A perfectly logical and practical collaboration concerning the 17th studio LP by a man who has sold more than 170 million records worldwide was forged.

I think I heard about the “Garth Brooks + Bass Pro Shops” union when it was announced, but I quickly forgot about it. It mostly registered as another one of those stupid music industry “synergy” stories that frequently come across my timeline, in which a world-famous musician teams up with a highly successful corporate brand to once again prove that Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping was barely a satire. I paid “Garth Brooks is selling his new album at Bass Pro Shops” as much mind as this month’s story about Snoop Dogg “giving up smoke” in order to promote a new partnership with a smokeless fire pit company . This is just the way of the world. Rocks are hard. Water is wet. Popular music in 2023 is embarrassing and undignified.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Garth Brooks (@garthbrooks)

The Assignment

Flash forward to one week before Thanksgiving. My editor sends me an article over Slack expressing wonderment over how Time Traveler has virtually no digital footprint. The music is scarcely available on YouTube, it says. Very few people are tweeting about it. Notices from professional critics are negligible. Not even the author of the article appeared to have actually heard Time Traveler. It was almost as if the new Garth Brooks album (for the aggressively online, at least) did not exist.

“Maybe I should review this?” I Slacked back.

My editor was pleased. It was the very response he had Jedi mind-tricked me into giving him. But as I pondered the particulars of the situation, I began to feel as though I had a responsibility to review this album. First of all, while I am not a Garth Brooks super fan, I have dabbled amiably in his work. Like anyone who has stepped foot inside of a small-town Middle American bar since 1990, I have heard and enjoyed “Friends In Low Places.” And if I were ever called upon to be a talking head in a Garth Brooks documentary, I could bluff my way through a discussion about No Fences. Second, I am a vocal fan of the CD format . I am surrounded by stacks of the things in my office, and they number in the thousands. Meanwhile many of my colleagues in the media don’t even have the hardware to play a CD. Which is probably why the author of that article my editor sent me wrote about Time Traveler like it was printed in Sanskrit and buried at the bottom of the Dead Sea.

And then there is the matter of geography. The vast majority of music critics reside in either New York City or Los Angeles, and neither metropolis is located anywhere near a Bass Pro Shops location. Whereas I live in a western suburb of Minneapolis, a town where Garth at his peak once performed nine consecutive sold-out arena shows. (There is even a song set in Minneapolis on his new album. More on that later.) I swiftly discovered via Google Maps that there was a combination Bass Pro Shops/Cabela’s a mere 20-minute drive from my house. I picked up the phone and dialed the store to confirm that the box set was in stock. A man with the voice of a basset hound answered. The box set was in stock! My access to the bottom of the Dead Sea was secured.

For the first time in my life, living in the Midwest was a professional advantage. My mind reeled at this shocking reversal of fortune — this was like the latest Christopher Nolan film screening exclusively at my neighborhood Kwik Trip store. I felt compelled to seize the moment.

The Purchase

A few days after my call to the basset hound-voiced man, I pulled up to my local Bass Pro Shops/Cabela’s. If you have never been to this place, picture the biggest log cabin you have ever seen. A log cabin the size of a football field. The kind of log cabin that Taylor Sheridan probably owns. That’s what it looks like on the outside. On the inside, modern country music plays over the P.A. An arsenal of guns and ammo is available at discount prices. The selection of flannel shirts is voluminous and impressive. And the staff is hyper-proficient and extremely Caucasian. It’s like Red State: The Store.

For the record, selling an album strictly at a sporting goods outlet is not the craziest business decision Garth Brooks has ever made. Not even close to the craziest, really. The first, obviously, was the whole Chris Gaines thing. The second was his decision in 2014 to launch his own digital music service, GhostTunes, to compete with iTunes. After he inevitably shuttered the service three years later, Amazon became Garth’s only online retailer. Look up “Friends In Low Places” on Spotify or Apple Music and ( aside from a live bootleg recorded in Germany in 1995 ) you’ll come up empty.

Upon entering the store, I was met by Robert, who had the business-casual look of a store manager. I asked him where I could find the Garth Brooks box set, and he motioned to his right. Any fears I had that The Limited Series might sell out a few days before Black Friday were instantly put to rest. Here was a display with eight shelves of Garth, each with three rows stacked nine long-boxes high. As I walked over to the plastic-covered wall of music I could see Garth’s picture on every one — he was wearing a white button-down over a salmon-colored v-neck shirt, along with the de rigueur cowboy hat, shades, blue jeans, and significant belt buckle. The logo for Bass Pro Shops loomed prominently behind him. The Limited Series title was emblazoned on faux-prestigious fake gold plating.

“Would you like me to take your picture?” Robert asked, gesturing toward the life-sized photo of Garth standing next to the plastic-covered wall of music.

“No,” I replied, with a slightly defensive edge. Replaying the exchange later in my mind, I realized that my reflexive reaction to Robert’s question was based on the assumption that he was making fun of me for buying a seven-disc Garth Brooks box set. And I surmised that this response surely stemmed from years of conditioning from judgmental clerks in record stores. But this was not a normal record store — or a record store at all. As far as music goes, Cabela’s only sells seven-disc Garth Brooks box sets. Robert was not making fun of me. He was being sincere. I wonder how many people he had previously photographed with that life-sized Garth photo.

As Robert guided me to the cash register, he explained in a low conspiratorial tone that while the box set retails for $29.99, I could have it for $19.99 if I signed up for a Cabela’s Club credit card. But that’s not all: When you sign up for a Cabela’s Club credit card, you are gifted 20 free dollars to go toward your first purchase. Which meant that I could have this box set … for absolutely nothing . Plus, they were also going to throw in a Cabela’s hat and stainless steel multi-tool (with sheath!), free of charge.

Suddenly, I could see why Bass Pro Shops wanted in on the Garth Brooks business. It wasn’t because Johnny Morris envisioned a vital link between water conservation and the restoration of compact discs. The man was hawking credit cards. And it was a good racket.

The pitch shouldn’t have worked on me. I made my editor promise ahead of time that I could expense my purchase. I didn’t need to hand over my driver’s license and Social Security number to get this box set for free. But Robert’s kind but firm demeanor immediately overwhelmed me. My mind flashed to my previous Garth Brooks assignment , when I covered the first concert of his post-retirement comeback nine years ago at an arena outside of Chicago. I interviewed a nice middle-aged couple about why they liked Garth Brooks, and they didn’t say he was a great songwriter or that he was an incredible singer or that he was a charismatic and sexy performer. They didn’t say that because Garth Brooks is not any of those things. He is rightly perceived as the most average superstar in modern popular music history.

Here’s what they did say: “He’s a reasonably priced ticket.” And that summed up his appeal as well as the 3,000-word thinkpiece I proceeded to write. People buy into Garth Brooks because he’s always a good deal. And good deals are hard to resist, even when the product being offered is something you don’t need or particularly want. But Garth’s prices are reasonable. He has the best customer service. And he’s very convenient. He’s like Bass Pro Shops/Cabela’s, only with less wood siding.

The “good deal” aspect of Garth Brooks goes hand-in-hand with his other defining attribute: His obsession with statistics. Media outsiders flummoxed by the idea of the most popular country singer of the last 30 years selling his latest album in this manner fail to understand that he’s a world-class stats padder. He’s like an athlete who excels in garbage time. Call him the James Harden of country music.

The previous Limited Series box sets, released with Walmart in 1998 and 2005, resold Garth’s catalogue at a low price point. Fans purchased cheap CDs, and Garth pumped up his RIAA figures. This latest (and allegedly final) box set places Time Traveler with his other post-retirement releases: 2014’s Man Against Machine, 2016’s Gunslinger, 2018’s Triple Live and 2020’s Fun . (If you’re a fan who kept up with those albums — and feel obliged to complete your collection with Time Traveler — the box set is less of a good deal.) The Triple Live record is the most egregiously padded of the bunch, with three CDs that run a scant 35 minutes each. It could have conceivably been called Double Live (or Double Live II, since Garth already has a live album called Double Live ), but for stats purposes that would mean only counting it as two units per item sold as opposed to three.

I wonder if Garth is only interested in his statistics at this point when it comes to recorded music. There has been a decided “post-album” vibe to his recent media spots. For instance, when he appeared last week on CBS Sunday Morning looking like a beefier remix of late-period Eminem, the focus was on his new Nashville night spot, the Friends In Low Places Bar & Honky Tonk, and the resumption of his Las Vegas residency. Time Traveler was mentioned exactly zero times, even though it came out just 12 days prior.

Which is a shame, because Time Traveler is a lot better than a Garth Brooks album released exclusively to Bass Pro Shops in 2023 has any right to be. Now, as this record has a minimal digital footprint, I could write anything about Time Traveler without fear of being called out or contradicted. I could say that it includes a bluegrass cover of Skrillex’s “Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites.” I could claim that Garth has finally embraced the ska revival. I could insist that his experimentation with a sexy Pepé Le Pew-style French accent represents a bold artistic reinvention. But I won’t do that. Because I have a responsibility to review this record.

And here is my review: The title is a literal description of the album. If not for a cameo by Kelly Clarkson, it could have come out in 1994. The inclusion of 2002’s American Idol winner is the only (slight) nod to modernity on Time Traveler, which otherwise is rife with broadly strummed guitars and weeping fiddles and unapologetic sentimentality. Garth pays tribute to the old-fashioned country music that he played “the whole way home the day my brother died.” He jams with Ronnie Dunn of Brooks & Dunn and covers a David Allan Coe song about a hitchhiker who is picked up by the reanimated corpse of Hank Williams, Sr. In “St. Paul/Minneapolis (A True Story),” he writes about meeting a woman in the Twin Cities, forging an instant connection, and harboring lifelong (platonic) love for her. It is, like all of Garth’s best songs, shamelessly corny and highly affecting because it is shamelessly corny.

Garth, who once unironically referred to himself in a 1994 Playboy interview as “America’s guy,” made his bones by marketing himself to an audience that the rest of the pop world assumed would disappear if you simply ignored them. In the 1990s, that meant citizens of flyover country who were turned off by the anger and rebellion of grunge and gangsta rap. In the ’20s, apparently, it means Luddites who like music but pride themselves on being aggressively not online. This puts Garth increasingly out of step with mainstream country listeners, who in 2023 are now streaming songs at unprecedented levels after years of lagging behind the constituencies for rock and rap. But like Andre 3000 with his flute album, Garth Brooks has the capital (financial, cultural, etc.) to not care about the pop-music trends that concern lesser stars. What does he care about? Perpetuating a system in which he once excelled, even if it means marginalizing himself as a display item perched between blaze-orange jackets and fuzzy wool hats.

Garth Brooks not only is committed to selling his new music on CD, but he put Time Traveler out on a Tuesday, just like they did back when Ropin’ The Wind was outselling Nirvana and Michael Jackson by leaps and bounds 32 years ago. No artist thrived in the ’90s like Garth did. He thrived so much that he commenced a 13-year retirement in 2001 to avoid a post-’90s existence. In a way, he’s still putting off that reality. Why wouldn’t he? If you were Garth Brooks, you would also pretend that the ’90s never ended.

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Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood welcome Nashville to the 'Oasis' at grand opening for 'Friends In Low Places'

The multi-level, 54, 175 square foot mega honky-tonk and event venue opens with garth brooks and trisha yearwood offering comments at press event..

Garth Brooks' Friends In Low Places honky-tonk opened in downtown Nashville's Lower Broadway.

The event heralds how both Brooks and his wife, Trisha Yearwood, have discovered how to merge the aesthetics and culture of Nashville and country music of yesteryear into a guiding symbol for Music City's commercial and social evolution.

And yes, via a menu built in a space that literally could be called Yearwood's own "Southern Kitchen," Brooks — as he so often states — is proven correct: Chicken tenders do solve everything.

Friends In Low Places plans to be open seven days a week, from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. CT Monday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. The honky-tonk's food menu will be available 11 a.m. - 9 p.m. CT.

'Two years of love and sweat'

At present, roughly a dozen country star name-driven locations between Broadway's intersections with 1st and 5th Avenue celebrate how massive country music's decade of cross-pollination with popular culture allowed the genre to become.

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However, unlike those spaces, Brooks is as much a name and face festooned throughout Friends and Low Places' multiple levels as he is a physical presence shaking hands and giving tours as a co-owner and investor in 411 Broadway.

At a Thursday morning press conference, Brooks offered that "two years of love and sweat" went into the various processes regarding the purchase, renovation and opening of the 54,715-square-foot venue.

"The money and hours I put into redeveloping [411 Broadway] will be reflected when [Friends In Low Places] is still here, 20 years later, and it still represents how I personally gave my best shot — beyond just giving my name — to this building. I will always be that person who wants, anytime a fan [interacts with me or my brand] to know that I am them and they are me. Being one and the same with my fans and the patrons of this space."

He added an emphatic metaphor.

"This bar is a Garth concert. It isn't Garth karaoke."

Brooks and Yearwood offered that their new Amazon Prime docuseries, "Friends in Low Places," best highlighted how uniquely deep their "passion and dedication" extended into the venue's development.

However, one walk around the beach-themed "Oasis" rooftop denotes how well the duo created a destination space for a guy who sang that "painting the town" with "two pina coladas" causes "smiles that [go on] for miles."

Yearwood's 'simple, yet sustainable' influences

Before mentioning the venue and its specifications, he highlighted the Nashville-based architects, bricklayers, builders, carpenters, contractors and welders responsible for completing work in the space and the venue's employees.

"Their artistry and good-heartedness is phenomenal," Brooks stated.

"A knowledge and respect for country music's history and culture [runs throughout Friends In Low Places]."

That knowledge and respect include Grand Ole Opry member Yearwood, whose touches are most notable in the bar's hand-crafted first and second-floor menu and the Yearwood-designed back half of the third-floor private event and VIP area.

Yes, while the front of the "Sevens" level feels like a den and living room designed by Brooks, the back half, including an aesthetically pleasing and yes, fully operational kitchen, literally takes the cake in every way.

Brooks said he often argued with his wife about "what went where" as they executed the venue's overall design.

"Ms. Yearwood has been right 99 percent of the time," he stated, with nary a joking note in his voice.

She's also right about the menu, which draws as much from the success of her "Trisha's Southern Kitchen" Food Network program, multiple best-selling cookbooks and a touch of Nashville-traditional flair — including the "Meat and Three," comprised of "Mama's Meatloaf" or "Fried Chicken with white gravy" and choice of 3 sides, plus other culinary specialties.

"I am a fan of simple and sustainable things that I'd make for my family — whether that's chicken tenders and steak fries, the same chocolate chip cookies I made in the eighth grade, or the wedding cake my mother made for Garth and me [in 2005]," Yearwood offered.

Safe, yet spectacular

Brooks quickly discussed opening a  police substation  at the honky-tonk, developed in partnership with the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.

Brooks offered that for the past half-decade, Nashville's emergence as one of America's leaders in population growth, real estate development and tourism also demands that the city's police department be able to enforce laws and regulations to ensure public safety amid that growth.

It's one of many clear nods in the space to a governing ethos of being safe yet spectacular, which is a clear, unifying theme throughout the venue.

To wit, MNPD consulted with Brooks on bar safety, including sexual assault prevention training and the installation of a system that, in the case of a medical emergency, allows for, with the press of one button, the lights rising, music lowering and the ability for that patron's issue to be addressed.

The 157 million record-selling Country Music Hall of Famer hopes the system will be installed initially in all of Lower Broadway's venues.

Brooks offers that a military and rodeo-style family atmosphere built on "living and breathing spaces [existing in communal] energy" was what he ideally wanted to see.

"It'll be loud and fun here while people are having the times of their lives, but it'll also be safe.

Nashville evolves with 'love,' 'fresh, exciting moments'

Brooks and Yearwood conducted the press conference while standing before a state-of-the-art LED screen on a 30-foot stage featuring a "Circle G" emblem repurposed from the Central Park stage, where he performed to over a million people in 1997.

It's a far cry from where he was a decade before, playing honkytonks on Lower Broadway in the late 1980s.

"We've got a green room in the back and one of the best stage setups with crowd views that rival anywhere in the city," stated Brooks.

"It's probably too nice, but supporting the local artists who will play on this stage demands that they have a fresh, exciting moment."

When asked about the value of his venue at this moment in country music, Nashville and the world's history, Brooks offered a comment that defined a unifying thread between them.

"This world's in a nasty place right now. [Friends In Low Places] will become that ripple [of love out into the world]. Here, we'll treat people like they want to be treated. We'll have first-time customers by chance. They'll be repeat customers by choice."

"What you do matters, but who you do it with matters more. This is a space where people who want to love one another come, and the backdrop [where they get to do that] is country music. It doesn't get better than that."

Deputies use facial recognition software to ID suspect who said he was Garth Brooks

KNOX COUNTY, Tenn. ( WVLT /Gray News) – Deputies with the Knox County Sheriff’s Office used facial recognition software to identify a man who told them he was “Garth Brooks.”

First responders were called to a Hobby Lobby in Tennessee after receiving a call about an intoxicated man.

According to the arrest report, 47-year-old Truman Wayne Chapman was outside of the store screaming for help.

The report states he was unsteady on his feet and smelled like alcohol and urine.

While the deputies took Chapman outside, he reportedly screamed and shouted profanities while trying to pull himself from their control.

The deputies had to redirect Chapman’s face numerous times to avoid being spit on, according to the report.

Chapman had an outstanding arrest warrant from another county.

Copyright 2024 WVLT via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Season 1 - Building the oasis

Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood embark on their most personal journey yet to build the honky-tonk of their dreams in the heart of Nashville. Paying tribute to his roots, Garth enlists the help of his friends, day-one tour team, and an all-star hospitality group to open the epic, four-story bar on Lower Broadway. This is a labor of love and his 'thank you' to the community of Music City.

Blame It On All My Roots

Episode recap.

In Episode 1, Garth explains his vision for Friends in Low Places.

Growing up in a house full of music and encouragement from his parents and siblings, Garth soon realized that doing music for a living wasn’t so far-fetched.  He describes playing honky-tonks in the early days of his career.

Setting the Stage

Episode 2 finds Garth setting the stage, literally, to bring the thrill and scale of his stadium shows to Friends in Low Places Bar and Honky-Tonk.  Enlisting the help of his tour production manager, stage designer, sound engineer, and lighting director—who have all toured with him for the last three decades--Garth installs the largest stage in any club on Lower Broadway.  

Setting The Table

Trisha Yearwood steps forward in episode 3, overseeing the design of her 3 rd -floor kitchen at Friends in Low Places and deciding which of her mouth-watering dishes will make it to the FILP menu.  

The Sevens Club

Classy. Cool. Sexy. Timeless. These words describe the Sevens Club on the third floor of Friends in Low Places.  In episode 4, Garth, Trisha, and the Fab 4 create the elevated experience that this private space will offer.

Inspiration for the Sevens Club comes from old Las Vegas and Frank Sinatra.

Road to the Oasis

In episode 5, the Friends in Low Places team races the clock to bring a tropical paradise to a rooftop on Lower Broadway.  With unobstructed bird's-eye views, palm trees, indoor and outdoor spaces, and the biggest rooftop in the Neon Neighborhood, the Oasis at FILP is THE spot to enjoy country music, cold beer, and a pina colada . . . or two! (one for each hand).

Full Circle

In the final episode of Friends in Low Places: Building the Oasis , Garth, Trisha, and team celebrate the grand opening of FILP after working feverishly to put all the finishing touches in place for the big night.  

Allegiant Stadium Tickets

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