It would be better to take the New Yorker route and find merit in Keith Urban’s grit, sing the praises of Kenny Chesney’s inventive songwriting, and compose odes to the gifts of Swift. If you want to have credibility as an open-minded writer about music, it’s not like you want to dismiss an entire genre of music, by some measures the most popular in America. I’m not happy about this, but you’ve pushed me over the edge. Thanks to you, I’ve now, finally, completely lost patience with contemporary country music. The ballad “Unanswered Prayers,” penned by Brooks with Pat Alger and Larry Bastian, was the perfect contrast as a follow-up.All right, Garth Brooks, that’s it.
Written by DeWayne Blackwell and Earl Bud Lee, it was an instant, singalong winner, played in every honky tonk bar just as it was rapturously embraced by country radio. The album had the perfect introduction with the feelgood “Friends In Low Places,” released three weeks upfront. Remarkably, all four tracks released from the album went to No.1 on the country chart. No Fences turned into a mini-greatest hits all on its own, with a series of singles that showed the artist’s intrinsic feel for songs that appealed to country audiences of all ages and backgrounds. No wonder Entertainment Weekly remarked in its review of the album that “country’s hottest new ‘hat act’ continues to display a wide streak of individuality.” It was notably successful in Australia and Ireland, where Brooks maintains a massive, loyal following to this day. Released on August 27, 1990, it climbed to US sales alone of some 17 million (reaching the 17-times platinum certification in 2006) and became a smash well beyond American borders.
It went on to become the biggest-selling country music album of all time.
If Garth Brooks’ self-titled 1989 debut album for Capitol Nashville was the one that made him a country star in the US, then the follow-up No Fences broke him way beyond those barriers.
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