Two Words, One Answer.
Garth Brooks
 No Fences $15.98 "No Fences" (August 1990) is quite possibly the best "Garth Brooks" album ever. It features such staples as "Friends in Low Places," "The Thunder Rolls," "Two of a Kind, Workin' on a Full House," "Unanswered Prayers," Wild Horses," and the bonus track (on the CD re-master), "This Ain't Tennessee," which is by far one of his best tunes of the early 1990's. Following his 1989 debut album, Brooks' "No Fences" WAS and (still) IS the most consistant release he has ever put out in his 20 year career as the world's biggest country-rock pioneer of the 1990's. Garth's hey day took place between 1990 and 1995, and this album is truly a testament to his "glory days" or "early days" preceding the flourish of albums that would follow in its footsteps not too long afterwards. Garth Brooks would soon follow "No Fences" up with 1991's "Ropin' the Wind," which is probably his second best original album, excluding his two top-selling HITS collections. "No Fences" is sure to please anyone in the mood for a little good-time country-rock, and six songs/singles listed above will bring a smile to both Garth-Fanatics and casual listeners who don't have the time to weed through his entire catalog, in which a succession of studio albums were released in record numbers between 1989 and 2001. Overall, the album (in its re-mastered form that is) remains a classic among the country music community, as well as those music lovers who enjoy listening to a purely, consistant album or two in order to mix up the seemingly endless daily dose of manufactured pop music that invades the airways these days.  Beyond the Season $15.98 Recorded at a time when Garth was the hottest star in any type of music in America, this album contains an excellent mix of songs, some of them being very familiar, some of them being covers of obscure songs and some of them being (at the time) completely new. Garth stuck firmly to the style of his other music, so anybody familiar with it knows what to expect. The most familiar songs here are Silent night, White Christmas, What child is this, God rest ye merry gentlemen and Go tell it on the mountain, all of which Garth performs superbly. At the of Silent night, Garth adds a nice touch by narrating a story about his favorite Christmas (1987) while the melody continues. The other songs include a Buck Owens classic (Santa looked a lot like Daddy) that should be familiar to country music fans as several other country singers have covered it for their own Christmas albums. Pop music fans who don't normally listen to country music, but who are nevertheless attracted to Garth's music, have probably not heard this song elsewhere. A traditional song that is rarely heard these days (The friendly beasts) makes a most welcome appearance here. There are two original songs, one of which (Unto you this night) I haven't heard elsewhere, but the other (The gift) has been covered by other singers including Ireland's Daniel O'Donnell. If you enjoy Garth's other music, you should enjoy this excellent Christmas album. |
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