Truth to be told: I don't really celebrate Halloween. It's not in my cultural background, we never did it when I grew up, and I'm not going to start now as a middle-aged adult just because this 'holiday' has seemingly reached every corner of the globe in the last decades. But hey, it gives me a good excuse to post something about musicians "getting in costume" and impersonating someone else. Literally.
Another shameful (?) admission: For a long time, I was a Garth Brooks fan. When I was a teenager, the media really tried to push Brooks for European audiences, through a variety of "documentaries" which essentially were barely veiled infomercials. But it worked! The stadium rock antics, zipline entrances, relatively interesting music videos and increasingly bombastic music. Having already inherited a love for country music, or more precisely classic country rock from my dad from a young age, Garth Brooks was not only a way to differentiate "my" country music from his (though you can see on these very pages that his type of country music came back with a vengeance), it also kept me with at least three toes in the mainstream, though Brooks wasn't a mainstream artist in my neck of the woods at the time. All of this was enough to see him in concert (despite, at the time, barely knowing his song book) and then, step by step, aquire his records.
Looking back at Brooks' discography now, it's much easier to see what a crass, almost cynical exercise it was. The fact that Brooks has a university degree in marketing seems to have seeped into every one of his steps once established as a major artist. The strict limit to ten tracks per album - no more, no less - , the almost mathematical construction of said albums with the required amount of ballads, stadium anthems and country humor songs, and - worst of all - the way Brooks imbued these songs with one of his many voices: There was wistful Garth, stadium Garth and the absolute worse, "humorous" hayseed Garth and his insufferable "I'm just a country boy, y'all" shtick.
Having said that, a bunch of the songs do hold up. One can't say that Brooks didn't know what he was doing. Robert Christgau said it about the Eagles, but it's also true for the Brookster: Brilliant stuff, but false.
Which brings us to the album of the day, which is false stuff, but not brilliant. It's pretty good, though. It's also not Garth Brooks. He is notoriously dedicated to protecting his music and its physical representation by all means necessary. You might not remember it, but Brooks' record company actually sued the inventors of the Mp3 technology because people could possibly steal Brooks' music with it. He has his minions scrub the internet and especially places like Youtube clean of his songs. And until very recently, there was no way to stream his music, until he signed a deal with Amazon. He still isn't on Spotify, though. Which means that people hungry to hear the hits from the good ol' days on there have to find alternatives.
And one such alternative is Mr. Brandon Garth. A dead ringer for Brooks' voice, he has now recorded three albums of Brooks covers under the very unimaginative title The Best of Brooks. Dude! Really? Garth Sings Garth was, like, right there, man! Thankfully, here at One Buck Records, we have rectified that oversight, as this is the title for the attached 15 song sampler which presents the best of The Best Of Brooks Vol. 1-3 of Brandon Garth dressing up as Garth Brooks. It's a pretty good costume, too. The arrangements sound almost exactly like the originals, as does Garth' voice, but only almost, with just enough whiffs of difference and variation. Instrumentation is tasteful and well-done, which means that while this is karaoke, it is high level karaoke (Some of the "In the Style of Garth Brooks" samplers for the CD rack of your local trucker rest stop are essentially a studio musician and his keyboard, truly horrendous stuff).
This compilation also focuses on his lesser known hit songs, rather than the true heavy hitters, because those really can't quite shake the karaoke stink, since Brooks (Garth, not Brandon!) is so associated with them. These aren't deep cuts exactly, obviously, otherwise Garth (Brandon, not Brooks!) wouldn't have recorded them, but they are slighly less known maybe than "The Thunder Rolls" or "Friends In Low Places". And that aforementioned "putting on voices"-thing that bugs some of Garth' (Brooks, not Brandon) work? He tries, but Garth (Brandon, not Brooks) doesn't quite get to the garish "here's this voice, so you know how to feel"-level of some of the other Garth's stuff. So, yeah, in some strange ways, these copies are maybe more enjoyable than the originals. They are definitely worth a spin, dear reader, so get into a different kind of Halloween spirit with Garth singing Garth...
Garth Sings Garth
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Your write-up raises some points/questions, which you are of course free to respond to or disregard at your pleasure.
ReplyDeleteWhere were you raised, that Halloween wasn't a part of your childhood? Or was it a religious upbringing that kept it out of your life?
You mention GB being pushed on Europe; the answer to the first question might answer my curiosity as to whether you were raised outside of the US.
I don't think anyone should feel guilt about whatever music they like. They can change their mind over time, of course, and try to come to terms with their previous selves, but outsiders shouldn't tell others who 'should be' listened to/admired. Which isn't the same as advocating for one way or t'other -- that's valid; I just don't believe in 'guilty pleasure' as a concept. Like what you like, sans guilt.
That said, I don't know GB's music since I could tell it was the kind of 'country music' more informed by the Eagles than by Jimmie or Hank or George (Jones, not Strait), and I loathe slick country pop like I loathed that other 80s artifact of artificiality, hair metal. But I don't begrudge him using his marketing savvy; one way or the other, artists try to optimize their releases, and that often means looking with a marketing eye as open as the artistic eye. Even if they deny it.
I also don't begrudge artists trying to keep their output behind a paywall, even tho I've been a rabid freebie downloader since I got online and started finding those records I couldn't find in the real world.
PS - I finally got to listening to the Sweet Magnolia Band you posted back awhile, and I think that is a very very solid album, so thanks for it! I'm diving into Mendocino Gene Clark as I type. That sweet acoustic take of Here Tonight -- the studio version of which I swear I played daily for months earlier this year -- is alone worth the whole album. So thanks for that, too!
C in California
Re: "Here Tonight" - what a shame that the Flying Burrito Brothers-backed version was never properly issued - what a beauty.
DeleteAs for Halloween, I was raised in Northern Germany where we didn't have that 'tradition' until well into my teens, by which time I was over tricking and treating. And truth be told, I know there's a ton of adults doing dress up for Halloween, but that has never been my gig...
Nice write-up, but I was never into Garth, so I think I'll pass on a cover collection. But similarly to you, coming from the Netherlands there never was a Halloween tradition, although by now there probably is. It certainly has reached Thailand as my wife went with her friend to Khao San Rd to 'celebrate' it, something which would have been unthinkable 25 years ago... As a kid I was musically heavily influenced by my uncle who was a hardcore 50s Rocker which lasted until the early 70s when I finally learned to accept other kinds of music! Instead of Garth Brooks I was a fanatical Shakin' Stevens (& The Sunsets at that time) fan, who often performed live in Holland...
ReplyDeleteCame for the cheesecake but I'm leaving the Garths behind!
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