Who is Garth Brooks

2007 three disc set (two CDs + DVD). One artist...one decade...one hundred million albums sold! Garth Brooks remains the biggest Country artist of all-time.

He harnessed the Country and Pop influences of has past and created a new kind of Country that appealed to different generations of fans and crossed over into the Pop market like no other artist before him. Garth Brooks changed the rules based on his talent alone. He became a worldwide superstar while remaining true to his humble roots, which added to his appeal.

This three disc set features two CDs scheduled to contain 34 tracks including four new songs plus a bonus DVD containing videos for all the CD's tracks. Pearl.

In 1991 Garth Brooks did what no other country artist before had: he broke the million-seller mark with No Fences and solidified a string of No. 1 hits that also conquered the pop market. Fourteen of his No. 1s are here, including the rowdy working-class anthem "Friends in Low Places" and the signature power ballad "The Dance." All of Brooks's albums have their share of filler, but not this one. Even the toughest cynic will admire Brooks's charisma and deadly mastery of pop and country hooks. -- Roy Kasten

Garth Brooks's obvious inspirations for Double Live were all those 1970s double-album concert recordings from album-oriented-rock influences such as Bob Seger, Kiss, and Peter Frampton. The difference between those classic-rock sets and this one is that Live Bullet, Alive and Frampton Comes Alive all helped to rescue their respective artists from virtual obscurity. Coming as they did from still largely unknown commodities, they seemingly promised nothing yet delivered everything. Already a superstar, Brooks merely promises more of the same on Double Live. He delivers, too. "You guys already know what's coming, don't you?" he asks at one point. "And you know what? You're right." Loaded with 22 hits (and three new tunes) recorded in any number of unnamed cities (and studios, too) over the past seven years, Double Live finds Brooks exaggerating his most irritating tics--the Wynnona-ish growls, the ridiculously elastic twang--in the process ruining even his finest songs. Still, even those convinced that Brooks is the Garth Vader of country music will be brought to pause as tens of thousands of admiring fans sing earnestly along to "The Dance" or "Unanswered Prayers," and scream their way through the anthem "Friends in Low Places." (Please note: You may receive any one of the album's six different covers.) --David Cantwell

USA Today:
Brooks gives his fans plenty of concert-only goodies on the album's 25 songs, like the additional verses that pound home the points of "The Thunder Rolls" and "Friends in Low Places."

In... The Life of Chris Gaines is a way for Garth Brooks to indulge his rock-star fantasies without directly putting his country credibility on the line. This fictional greatest-hits album is supposedly a prequel to a movie (The Lamb) in which Brooks will assume the role of a mysterious Australian-born pop singer. The first single, "Lost in You," sounds like Kenny Loggins auditioning for a role in the Backstreet Boys. Gaines's other "hits" range from the funk-lite of "Snow in July" to the Prince-like "The Way of the Girl," the Beatlesesque "Maybe," and the blatant Wallflowers rip "Unsigned Letter." The tune on which Brooks most resembles the cat in the hat we all know is the melancholy ballad "It Don't Matter to the Sun." The most provocative tune is "Right Now," which interpolates (really) the Youngbloods' hippie classic "Get Together" with Cheryl Wheeler's antigun screed "If It Were Up to Me." As himself, Garth Brooks has sold almost 100 million albums. If he's lucky, many of those fans will forgive him for Chris Gaines. --Rick Mitchell

The Limited Series is either: a) the most generous gift to an artist's fans ever, since it packages six albums (that's Garth Brooks, No Fences, Ropin' the Wind, The Chase, In Pieces, and Fresh Horses) for a price that's actually less than what you'd normally pay for three; or b) the most manipulative use of an artist's fans ever, since it forces them to purchase as many as a half dozen albums they already own in order to hear the one new song included on each disc, simultaneously assisting Garth in his race to beat the Beatles' record for most units moved. Hmmm... Would you believe c) all of the above? --David Cantwell