Garth Brooks Discusses His Five-Part Book/Music Anthology
Garth Brooks always seems offer the perfect Christmas gift idea, doesn’t he? His latest, of course, is a five-part music/book anthology chronicling his career, and it sounds pretty impressive.
The book, a 240-page hardcover, includes never-before-seen photos and five CDs that include outtakes, first takes, demos and masters. Nineteen of the 52 songs on the discs have not been released before. Part 1: The First Five Years covers Garth’s career from 1989-93 and will be available beginning November 14th.
.@GarthBrooks talks about 5-part anthology book/CD series (exclusive) https://t.co/UB38kp8AOs pic.twitter.com/wcVVVAldnU
— billboard (@billboard) September 27, 2017
“My favorite thing about Part 1 was what I learned,” Garth tells Billboard. “I had no idea that [songwriter] Tony Arata’s first cut in Nashville was ‘The Dance.’ I would have thought it had to be his 20th. I was very aware of my stuff, but there are so many stories from [producer] Allen Reynolds, [songwriter] Pat Alger, Bob Doyle and others.”
Such stories behind the songs are a big part of the offering. “What I love about the music is it backs up the stories I’ve told my entire career,” Garth says. “I’ve told a million times the story about ‘Rodeo’ being a girl’s song. I love the story where Bob Doyle or [co-writer] Larry Bastian say they tried to get every female in town to cut this. I’d forgotten it went out to Linda Davis, Faith Hill, Trisha Yearwood … so I ended up doing it. You get to hear what we heard and then what it became. To hear Tony Arata reach over to that boom box and touch record for the first time to record ‘The Dance,’ I cried when they sent that in.”
The remaining four parts to the anthology will cover the rest of the 1990s, touring and his comeback. Oh, and eventually there will be a two-and-a-half hour documentary for each – that’s right, each – part. If all goes as planned, first-part documentary will be released in Sprng 2018. Read more in Billboard here.
Teddy McDonald is a fun-lovin’ country music fan man living in Nashville, Tennessee.
