Tunes the way Garth first heard them

The songs roll on Brooks tribute album

Garth Brooks co-wrote half of the 16 songs performed on the songwriters' tribute disc

'In the Beginning: A songwriter's tribute to Garth Brooks'
Various artists
VFR Records

By Mary Jo DiLonardo
Special to CNN

(CNN) -- In kind of a chicken-or-egg scenario, Garth Brooks and his favorite songwriters have long had a mutual-admiration society. Could he have had the hits without the songs? Could they have had the songs without the hit-maker?

Brooks obviously realizes good material helps make good hits. The wordsmiths know it doesn't hurt when the singer of their songs happens to be a megastar.

Since Brooks is allegedly on the verge of yet another retirement, his most loyal songwriters have banded together on this tribute disc, recording their own acoustic versions of the songs Brooks made his own.

	AUDIO
The Thunder Rolls sound The River sound The Dance sound

Seven of these songs were No. 1 hits, including "The Dance," "If Tomorrow Never Comes" and "The Thunder Rolls." But others are little-known tunes that never were released as singles, yet are near and dear to Brooks' heart. Stephanie Davis' powerful "Wolves" and Tony Arata's chilling "Face to Face" are moving, poignant songs.

On first listen, the disc is so bare, it's almost shocking. It's strange to hear songs that were made famous by Brooks' electrically charged performances delivered in such a low-key, stripped-down manner.

There's no fancy production, no thousand-layer harmonies. It's mostly the singer, a guitar and maybe a back-up voice or two, letting the listener hear the songs the way Brooks first heard them.

The disc's folk-y tone and the spare instrumentation are reminiscent of listening to someone strumming away in a Texas honky-tonk. A few of the writers-turned-singers maybe should continue to speak with their pens. But some of the cuts are moving, most notably Pat Alger's haunting version of "The Thunder Rolls" and Victoria Shaw's wonderful presentation of "The River."

The only song on this compilation that (fortunately) never appeared on a Brooks' recording is "Pains," Dewayne Blackwell's tongue-in-cheek extra verse to "Friends in Low Places." It contains references to beans, Mexican food and gastric distress. 'Nuff said.

These singer-songwriter relationships go way back. Most of these writers were penning country tunes long before Brooks moved to Nashville. In fact, some had hired the yet-unknown Oklahoman to sing their songs on demo tapes so they could pitch them to other artists.

No slacker himself, Brooks co-wrote half of the 16 songs on the record, including "If Tomorrow Never Comes" (with Kent Blazy) which became the first No. 1 hit for both.

The disc's liner notes are interesting as each writer reminisces about the singer and the songs.

After Brooks recorded his song, "The Dance," Arata remembers being told that he should've saved the song for a more well-known singer. Arata replied, "I couldn't be happier if Elvis had come back to do it."

"The Dance" went on to win song of the year honors from The Academy of Country Music and received a Grammy nomination.

Says Brooks in the album's liner notes: "They should have called it The Way It Should Have Been or The Way It Woulda Been (if He Was Smart Enough To Do It This Way)."

Nah. Brooks was obviously pretty darn smart. But this album shows that he had loads of help from the talent who helped put the words in his mouth.

Brooks dominates American Music Awards
January 18, 2000
Garth Brooks: Making music's what it's all about
November 25, 1998

AlbumWeb
Unofficial Garth Brooks Web site
Tony Arata
Victoria Shaw
Stephanie Davis

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.