Garth Brooks [ORIGINAL RECORDING REISSUED]

Garth Brooks

• Audio CD (November 21, 2000)
• Original Release Date: November 21, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B000051769
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review:
   

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    (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #73,198 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording
If one were forced to choose a single Garth Brooks album to own, it should be his first. Believe it or not, Brooks once studied at the feet of singer/songwriter Bob Childers, an obscure Oklahoman who has written songs more akin to Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt than to the pop country Brooks would later make his cash cow. This debut has a vision of careful songwriting and honky-tonk traditions Brooks never fully recaptured. "If Tomorrow Never Comes" is the best thing he's ever recorded, a gorgeous country tune recalling Lefty Frizzell and Charlie Rich. Had he continued to make such strong singles, Brooks's artistic stature might have equaled his stock portfolio. It never happened, but that shouldn't stop us from recognizing country music this solid. --Roy Kasten

Amazon.com
Unlikely as it might seem some 70 million in total album sales later, Garth Brooks's self-titled debut was widely ignored at the time of its 1989 release. Most of the program doesn't wander far from the new-traditionalist country pattern established in the '80s by George Strait. Songs such as "If Tomorrow Never Comes," "Every Time That It Rains," and "Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)" have an understated charm that stands in appealing contrast to the self-conscious grandiosity of much of Brooks's later work. But it was the least traditional tune on the album, the melodramatic ballad "The Dance," that catapulted Brooks to superstardom. The rest, as they say, is history. --Rick Mitchell