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For country music fans who have vowed to skip the crowds and chaos of this year’s earlier-than-ever Black Friday festivities, Garth Brooks seems determined to test your resolve.
The Oklahoma music megastar released Thursday an eight-disc box set titled “Blame It All on My Roots: Five Decades of Influences,” inspired by his recently completed – well, almost completed—residency at the Wynn Las Vegas resort and casino. Available exclusively through Walmart, the six-CD and two-DVD collection, which comes with a 68-page photo booklet, is priced at a ridiculously modest $24.96.
The new DVD “Blame It All on My Roots: Live at the Wynn” alone is worth that paltry sum, capturing the Owasso resident in full-on storyteller mode, commanding the stage with just his acoustic guitar, his smooth voice and his self-deprecating sense of a humor.
In a hyper and hilarious mood, the Tulsa native eagerly chats about his musical influences in between zipping through acoustic versions of 36 songs in two hours. Most of the selections are just snippets – often he sticks with just the first verse and chorus – but they tell the story of how the developed his signature sound. Growing up in Yukon as the youngest of six children, he got his love of old-school country from his dad (inspiring him to sample Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried” and George Jones’ “The Grand Tour”), his penchant for soul from his mom (leading into covers of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine” and Otis Redding’s (Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay”) and his devotion to 1960s and ‘70s rock ‘n’ roll from his older siblings (moving him to play Bob Seger’s “Night Moves” and his hero James Taylor’s “Sweet Baby James”).
Along with covers of George Strait, Billy Joel and Jim Croce, the Oklahoma State University alumnus regales the enthusiastic audience with tales of playing Willies Saloon in Stillwater as well as raucous one-man-band renditions of his hits “Papa Loved Mama,” “The Thunder Rolls” and classic closer “Friends in Low Places.” He also croons his beloved ballads “Unanswered Prayers,” “The Dance” and “If Tomorrow Never Comes,” but the romantic portion of the show reaches its peak when Brooks’ wife and fellow country superstar Trisha Yearwood joins him for their duet “In Another’s Eyes.” Their beautiful harmonizing on a long-awaited new song, “The Call,” is the highlight of the show.
The rest of the box set also mixes Brooks’ signature smashes with affectionate versions of his favorite songs by other artists. Each of the four new covers albums delves into a different genre and includes 11 tracks, many featured in his intimate Vegas shows, and his publicist provided The Oklahoman with a sampling of two cuts from each cover CD.
On the “Country Classics” album, Brooks and Yearwood make beautiful music together on the Conway Twitty-Loretta Lynn ballad “After the Fire Is Gone,” and the Oklahoma native brings the necessary attitude, if not the grit, to Jerry Reed’s story-song “Amos Moses.” Brooks’ supple voice is as well suited for his takes on Simon and Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson” and Taylor’s “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight,” from “The Melting Pot” CD, as it is for his covers of Free’s “All Right Now” and Stevie Wonders’ “Superstition,” from the box set’s “Classic Rock” selection. All those hours listening to his mama’s 45’s as a child pay off on his expressive covers of Gladys Knight & the Pips’ “Midnight Train to Georgia” and Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” from the “Blue-Eyed Soul” CD.
The box set also folds in his 2007 “The Ultimate Hits” release, which includes two CDs and one DVD showcasing 33 of the superstar’s classic smashes and 33 of his memorable music videos.
Tracklisting CD1:
01 – I Heard it Through the Grapevine
02 – Midnight in Georgia
03 – Hold On, I’m Coming
04 – Ain’t No Sunshine
05 – Drift Away
06 – Stand By Me
07 – Shout
08 – I Never Loved Someone the Way I Loved You
09 – Sitting on the Dock of the Bay
10 – Lean on Me
11 – What’d I Say
Tracklisting CD2:
01 – Against The Wind
02 – Superstition
03 – Sweet Home Alabama
04 – Life in the Fast Lane
05 – Somebody to Love
06 – Bad Company
07 – Midnight Rider
08 – All Right Now
09 – Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me
10 – Addicted to Love
11 – Goodnight Saigon
Tracklisting CD3:
01 – Great Balls of Fire
02 – After the Fire is Gone
03 – Act Naturally
04 – Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down
05 – Amos Moses
06 – Fishin’ In the Dark
07 – Unwound
08 – Good Ole Boys Like Me
09 – White Lightnin’
10 – Don’t Close Your Eyes
11 – Jambalaya
Tracklisting CD4:
01 – Black Water
02 – Mrs. Robinson
03 – Maggie May
04 – Who’ll Stop the Rain
05 – Wild World
06 – Doctor My Eyes
07 – The Weight
08 – Amie
09 – Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels)
10 – You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere
11 – Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight
Tracklisting CD5:
01 – Ain’t Going Down (‘Til the Sun Comes Up)
02 – Friends in Low Places
03 – Shameless
04 – Two of a Kind, Workin’ On a Full House
05 – The Beaches of Cheyenne
06 – If Tomorrow Never Comes
07 – Papa Loved Mama
08 – More Than a Memory
09 – Good Ride Cowboy
10 – In Another’s Eyes
11 – The Fever
12 – Midnight Sun
13 – Learning to Live Again
14 – Longneck Bottle
15 – To Make You Feel My Love
16 – We Shall Be Free
17 – The Dance
Tracklisting CD6:
01 – Callin’ Baton Rouge
02 – Two Pina Coladas
03 – The Thunder Rolls
04 – That Summer
05 – The River
06 – Beer Run
07 – Unanswered Prayers
08 – Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)
09 – Workin’ For a Livin’
10 – What She’s Doing Now
11 – When You Come Back to Me Again
12 – Standing Outside the Fire
13 – American Honky-Tonk Bar Association
14 – The Change
15 – Rodeo
16 – Wrapped Up in You
17 – (blank)
18 – (blank)
19 – Leave A Light On
Extra Informatie:
Aantal Discs: 6xCD
Genre: Country
Format: MP3 @ 320kbit
Year of Release: 2013
Speelduur:
Cover: Front is in de RARs verwerkt
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