Garth Brooks Versus The Machine

[Brett Dale]

Victory goes to the Machine, there hasnt been a bigger victory since the might of the Canterbury
Rams played the Wellington Saints. in the New Zealand Basketball league in 1986.

First the Good....

Garth Brooks come back tour 2014-2017 was brilliant, you cant argue with 6.4 Million tickets sold. For those
that saw it, you saw something special.

His album Man against Machine despite not putting up massive numbers was excellent, one of his best.

Facebook Live is a Great way for Garth to connect with his fans despite some cheesy questions.

He won several awards at various Country music award shows.

Fanmix of triple live was great.

His Two anthologies were solid efforts.

Notre dame in the ice and snow looked amazing.

But concerts and products are just part of it.

The Machine has kicked Garth in the ass every step of his comeback.

From the horrible Ghost Tunes, to the last few days debacle with talkshoplive, to little or no
promotion for Man against Machine, to a horrible sound system at Atlanta Stadium, to announcing
to the upper decks of Yankee stadium that the show had been cancelled when it hadn't, for 2018's
way of having announcements for announcements for announcements, to three years of calling ya
tour a world tour and hinting you will play overseas, then at the VERY end saying you wont, for hinting
maybe one day you will join youtube or itunes or spotfiy but sticking with just amazon, even for the
bizarre opening facebook video, to GunSlinger being lost in all the boxset hype and duet albums,
to getting people to pre order an album and not releasing it for a year, to firing a phone,
it's been one huge mistake after the other.

I for the life of me, that an artist of Garth's stature would make such a big mistake with a big
product launch. With all due respect to talkshowLive, this shouldnt happen, and it makes Garth
look like an amateur.

So from here on in, what should Garth do in 2019??

[randa16]

The comeback has been a huge disappointment to me.

MAM 2 singles only
Christmas album with Trisha WTF!!! Horrible
Gunslinger 2 singles only
Triple live is double live with a few new songs. The dual speaker thing horrible gimmick
Anthology was done horribly. Could have been so much better
Now we get vinyl with another gimmick of a number (I can use a sharpie)
He screws over his foreign fans non stop

So basically Garth has thrown in the towel on singles and new albums. He cares about concerts cause that’s where the money is and padding his album sales. The new album sounds horrible already (not a fan of all day long or the last sappy crap he put out) so this is what we get.

What do I hope for in 2019?
Put out a new album
Put out singles
Release an album like lost sessions or a cover album
Stop teasing us with stuff
Quit trying to pad sales of old stuff

[Garthmedic]

Wow...... Hardcore criticism.

[CER956]

Sticking to just the music, I'll say the real disappointments (IMO) is following a great yet under-promoted album in Man Against Machine (easily one of my top 5 Garth albums ever, maybe even top 3) with one of his worst, Gunslinger. Horrid production and mostly subpar writing.

The Anthology while as books are really well put together, have been hit or miss audiowise.

Part one was sketchy but the unreleased Garth tunes made it a worthwhile purchase.
Rehashing Double Live for part 3 was a slap in the face IMO, he could've just added Central Park or something else, trotting those performances yet again just screamed laziness.

[Emerald Isle]

I have had plenty of critical things to say about Garth over the years (mostly about how he "announces" things and his seemingly insatiable quest to build his RIAA numbers and get Diamond Awards by repackaging the same old songs over and over again), but I am still sooooo glad that he's back! I am so glad we're still getting new music. I'm glad he's touring again.

All in all, even though the way Garth does things is sometimes crazy, infuriating, and frustrating, I guess I would rather take all that than to have him still retired and not doing anything at all.

And with regard to the comeback albums so far, I actually like Gunslinger way more than MAM. So different strokes for different folks, I guess.

[Emerald Isle]

Rehashing Double Live for part 3 was a slap in the face IMO, he could've just added Central Park or something else, trotting those performances yet again just screamed laziness.

I would say it screams "boost my RIAA numbers for Double Live" more than laziness, but yes, I know what you mean.

[randa16]

I agree with emerald isle I am glad he is back and I really am not trying to rip him apart. He irritates me with how he is doing things. The anthology could have been epic, release one book a year to cover one album. Include the original album in it (boost sales) include rare pics not the ones we have seen before, included all videos for that time frame (original GB would have been the dance, if tomorrow never comes) include rare concert footage from that time and throw in a bonus CD from the vault of songs that almost made the album or songs you cut during that time that never used. He instead gave us a easy book with no real effort. We don’t even get to hear from sandy who supported him during this time.
He needs to put more effort into the albums and putting out singles if he wants to prove to me he is looking to get back as a real player in the country scene. 2 albums and 4 singles is not doing that.

I agree also gunslinger is a great album and far better then MAM

[Brett Dale]

Sticking to just the music, I'll say the real disappointments (IMO) is following a great yet under-promoted album in Man Against Machine (easily one of my top 5 Garth albums ever, maybe even top 3) with one of his worst, Gunslinger. Horrid production and mostly subpar writing.

The Anthology while as books are really well put together, have been hit or miss audiowise.

Part one was sketchy but the unreleased Garth tunes made it a worthwhile purchase.
Rehashing Double Live for part 3 was a slap in the face IMO, he could've just added Central Park or something else, trotting those performances yet again just screamed laziness.

So agree with Man against Machine, the album was one of his best, up there with his best work.

I hope FUN is just as good, and cant wait for triple live.

Also cant wait to hop on youtube when the stadium tour starts!!!!

If the live show is anything like Notre Dame, then it will be a sure fire winner.

[wimpy77]

I agree with emerald isle I am glad he is back and I really am not trying to rip him apart. He irritates me with how he is doing things. The anthology could have been epic, release one book a year to cover one album. Include the original album in it (boost sales) include rare pics not the ones we have seen before, included all videos for that time frame (original GB would have been the dance, if tomorrow never comes) include rare concert footage from that time and throw in a bonus CD from the vault of songs that almost made the album or songs you cut during that time that never used. He instead gave us a easy book with no real effort. We don’t even get to hear from sandy who supported him during this time.
He needs to put more effort into the albums and putting out singles if he wants to prove to me he is looking to get back as a real player in the country scene. 2 albums and 4 singles is not doing that.

I agree also gunslinger is a great album and far better then MAM

I agree with you on just about everything but why do you think we would hear from Sandy. From everything I read their divorce wasn't pretty and I think she wants to remain out of the eyes of the public.

[wimpy77]

So agree with Man against Machine, the album was one of his best, up there with his best work.

I hope FUN is just as good, and cant wait for triple live.

Also cant wait to hop on youtube when the stadium tour starts!!!!

If the live show is anything like Notre Dame, then it will be a sure fire winner.

Youtube? Basically any concert footage that shows up there he pulls.

[Brett Dale]

Youtube? Basically any concert footage that shows up there he pulls.

That is true, but it normally stays up for about 6-12 hours, so if ya fast enough, you can view it!!! Going
to be so so interesting to see what his 2019 show is going to be like.

[randa16]

I agree with you on just about everything but why do you think we would hear from Sandy. From everything I read their divorce wasn't pretty and I think she wants to remain out of the eyes of the public.

She was there in the thick of it working to support him while he tried to make it. I would have liked to hear what she had to say (would love her to write a tell all book) Everything I have read about her sounds like she is a really nice person and i don’t see her saying no. It just bugged me he did not give her that. Now you could be 100% right idk but would have liked to hear her side.

[wimpy77]

Sometimes with profile divorces come with NDA's so that could also be something preventing her from saying anything.

[Skywise]

Everything I have read about her sounds like she is a really nice person and i don’t see her saying no. .......

Although I dont' have links / copies of everything I've ever read about her post divorce.... I think that's kinda an idealistic way of looking at her.


there are two sides def. to every story/situation I know. however, I offer their own story of how they met (her fist in a wall in a bathroom at a bar), a personal experience (she almost ran over my foot in their truck.. missed me by about a foot actually - yes, there was a reason she'd be perfectly in the right- I was parked beyond the no parking sign outside the house and had been so for about 30m - that was a long time ago).... #3 multiple encounters that lead to tabloid 'exposures', dealing mostly with a relationship with a man who ended up holding her at gunpoint if I remember outside a convenience store (or that may have been where she escaped to, I honestly have let that slide out of my memory)..

stories heard about her giving garth ultimatums about getting off the road, etc.......


She MAY be a nice person, I don't know- there's evidence out there to the contrary though.. (as well, there is with many people)

[Skywise]

Sometimes with profile divorces come with NDA's so that could also be something preventing her from saying anything.

that's also true- there could be details behind the scenes that no one's ever been privy to.. an NDA wouldn't surprise me in some form

[CharlieBarton]

I can certainly agree with the sentiments of the original post here. I was just thinking to myself yesterday, how frustrated I am with Garth Brooks. Now, I know that me, myself and I don't really affect Garth in the slightest degree. That being said, I've been a hardcore fan for 30 years now. Since his comeback, there really hasn't been a lot of good things to say about the guy. Man Against Machine is a great album. It was, indeed, a worthy addition to his catalog. The cover? By far the stupidest album cover he's ever pulled off. The tour was a massive success here in the states. There you go. That's about all the good I have to say about the guy over the last 4 years. The bad? The list is long. I may even forget a few, but I'll give it my best shot. That incredibly successful tour here in the states was not so successful for the fans who kept waiting for that tour to be the World Tour that it was billed as. Instead of just coming out and saying it, he kept playing games with his overseas fans. Ghost Tunes was a joke. I don't think I need to expand on that at all. I remember some sort of digital bundle he kept trying to sell through GT with the forthcoming 2015 album. 2015 came and went without a new album. I'll be honest, I really don't know if you all got what was promised to you or not. Gunslinger was a huge disappointment no matter what angle you're looking at it. I realize there a few of you out there who love the album, but I'm sure the consensus has been that it's by far the worst album he's released to date. The music was largely forgettable. The packaging and sales gimmicks he did with it were simply absurd. That being said, it did have a great album cover. Imagine that. Then there was another box set with all the same music mixed up on different discs. This would actually be really cool if he was actually retired. But I digress. Oh, then there's the Garth Channel on XM radio. I was quite excited about this when it started. I'm a truck driver and I listen to XM radio continuously while at work. Wow. He really screwed the pooch with this one. The only cool thing about it is the little story tidbits you sometimes get before they play one of his songs. Only one of every six or so songs is actually a Garth song. He plays far too much crap music like Katy Perry, Pink, rap music etc. This one has been a huge letdown for me in particular. 2018 came with the promise of a new album and new music. We got a couple of new songs, but the album apparently won't come until some time in 2019. Meanwhile he's pawning the singles on Amazon if you pre-order that digital album that has no release date or list of songs. The album is finally announced and is being called FUN. I guess it really isn't fair to comment how dumb of a title that is being that I haven't seen or heard this mystery album. Then the vinyl announcement comes out. This has me excited. I collect vinyl. I'm a little bit giddy with this one. He finally announces the sale and introduces us to the contents of the box. No song listing. For some reason, only certain albums are being included in the box. This is a huge mystery to me. Why? Again, this is very stupid. This whole sales snafu with talkshop is just laughable. Just release the dang albums individually on vinyl and put them in the stores. All of them. People will buy them. I really do question the intelligence of this man and the people he has running his business. I don't say that lightly. Anyway, that's my $.02 about Garth at the moment. I'm to the point that the next album, FUN, will be the final straw for me. If this album is as bad as Gunslinger, I'm going to be through with him. I'll always cherish the first 9 studio albums as well as Chris Gaines and Lost Sessions. I will give FUN a chance though. But he's on thin ice with me. Again, I realize that I, personally do not affect Garth in any way. But I know there has to be many more like me. I'm praying it's a great album though.

[garthcop]

I can certainly agree with the sentiments of the original post here. I was just thinking to myself yesterday, how frustrated I am with Garth Brooks. Now, I know that me, myself and I don't really affect Garth in the slightest degree. That being said, I've been a hardcore fan for 30 years now. Since his comeback, there really hasn't been a lot of good things to say about the guy. Man Against Machine is a great album. It was, indeed, a worthy addition to his catalog. The cover? By far the stupidest album cover he's ever pulled off. The tour was a massive success here in the states. There you go. That's about all the good I have to say about the guy over the last 4 years. The bad? The list is long. I may even forget a few, but I'll give it my best shot. That incredibly successful tour here in the states was not so successful for the fans who kept waiting for that tour to be the World Tour that it was billed as. Instead of just coming out and saying it, he kept playing games with his overseas fans. Ghost Tunes was a joke. I don't think I need to expand on that at all. I remember some sort of digital bundle he kept trying to sell through GT with the forthcoming 2015 album. 2015 came and went without a new album. I'll be honest, I really don't know if you all got what was promised to you or not. Gunslinger was a huge disappointment no matter what angle you're looking at it. I realize there a few of you out there who love the album, but I'm sure the consensus has been that it's by far the worst album he's released to date. The music was largely forgettable. The packaging and sales gimmicks he did with it were simply absurd. That being said, it did have a great album cover. Imagine that. Then there was another box set with all the same music mixed up on different discs. This would actually be really cool if he was actually retired. But I digress. Oh, then there's the Garth Channel on XM radio. I was quite excited about this when it started. I'm a truck driver and I listen to XM radio continuously while at work. Wow. He really screwed the pooch with this one. The only cool thing about it is the little story tidbits you sometimes get before they play one of his songs. Only one of every six or so songs is actually a Garth song. He plays far too much crap music like Katy Perry, Pink, rap music etc. This one has been a huge letdown for me in particular. 2018 came with the promise of a new album and new music. We got a couple of new songs, but the album apparently won't come until some time in 2019. Meanwhile he's pawning the singles on Amazon if you pre-order that digital album that has no release date or list of songs. The album is finally announced and is being called FUN. I guess it really isn't fair to comment how dumb of a title that is being that I haven't seen or heard this mystery album. Then the vinyl announcement comes out. This has me excited. I collect vinyl. I'm a little bit giddy with this one. He finally announces the sale and introduces us to the contents of the box. No song listing. For some reason, only certain albums are being included in the box. This is a huge mystery to me. Why? Again, this is very stupid. This whole sales snafu with talkshop is just laughable. Just release the dang albums individually on vinyl and put them in the stores. All of them. People will buy them. I really do question the intelligence of this man and the people he has running his business. I don't say that lightly. Anyway, that's my $.02 about Garth at the moment. I'm to the point that the next album, FUN, will be the final straw for me. If this album is as bad as Gunslinger, I'm going to be through with him. I'll always cherish the first 9 studio albums as well as Chris Gaines and Lost Sessions. I will give FUN a chance though. But he's on thin ice with me. Again, I realize that I, personally do not affect Garth in any way. But I know there has to be many more like me. I'm praying it's a great album though.

I told my wife the other day that it seems like he should have come out of retirement with some awesome music with the time he had to write since we know the quality of music he had when he made it big. But telling from the anthology series, it does seem like these songs were written in a small window of time with other writers. He does say often that the only reason he is listed as a writer on songs is because he was lucky enough to be in the room when they were written, not because he had anything to do with them. Maybe that's actually the truth. Maybe he's not the songwriter he first seemed to be.

As far as the people he is running his business with, I tend to agree. If talk shop is hashtag's business, then he costs Garth a lot of money basing on the comments people were leaving Thurs. night on the stream. I've not been a fan of who has helping with FB live. They seem to be very selective on what comments and questions they pick. One of my comments was read to and responded by Garth on Thurs. night, but she didn't even read all of what I actually put. But, maybe that is all at Garth's direction.

[Brett Dale]

I guess in my OP, you could add Croke Park to the top of the list.

[CharlieBarton]

I guess in my OP, you could add Croke Park to the top of the list.

Absolutely! I do realize that we will never know all the dealings around that, but I sure know there were a lot of upset people around that issue.

[randa16]

First let me say thank you to the moderators for allowing this site to be real and allow us to vent. Many of the FB sites ban you if you say anything negative, so again thank you for allowing this site to be real.

I am not trying to be hard on Garth, he has done a lot of stupid things since he came back and just don’t get it. It makes me mad.

Drop an album once a year and I will be happy. Make it only available on Amazon as a download (no CD’s or hard copies so can’t be that expensive to do) you still get your album sales and it’s cheap to make.

Release a traditional country album. Chris Stapleton and sturgill Simpson have been big and surprise they both sing traditional country. It’s horrible when artist get out for a few years and come back trying to sound hip but sound stupid. The fans want real country give it to them.

Last I love Garth. Started when I was 13 in 1989. I had a rough childhood and things were really bad but I could always lie in bed with headphones and a Garth CD and get lost from it all. That mans songs were the soundtrack of my life. His songs have seen me get married, have two kids and also burry a father. I complain about things but I could never picture my life without a Garth song so I am hooked.

[ElectricOutcast]

I can also understand having opinions and everything, but don't y'all think that we're getting a little too divisive and toxic lately? Especially after I made a post about us human beings failing to practice adult debates and disagreements?

[fences2312]

[QUOTE=randa16;435800]First let me say thank you to the moderators for allowing this site to be real and allow us to vent. Many of the FB sites ban you if you say anything negative, so again thank you for allowing this site to be real.

Agreed. Thank You. I love the site just because of threads like these. Thank you!

[Emerald Isle]

I can also understand having opinions and everything, but don't y'all think that we're getting a little too divisive and toxic lately?

I don't disagree with this, and while there is a lot to be positive about, there are also some aspects of being a die-hard Garth fan that are extremely frustrating. And since we at this site are all die-hards, this is one of the few places where we can express those frustrations among peers. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[garthcop]

I don't disagree with this, and while there is a lot to be positive about, there are also some aspects of being a die-hard Garth fan that are extremely frustrating. And since we at this site are all die-hards, this is one of the few places where we can express those frustrations among peers. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Did you see all of the brutal comments left when it became obvious that there were issues on Thurs? Sounds like according to Garth's FB live on Fri., he felt some of that. I thought negativity here gets too much some times. But it looks like all of his fans feel the same frustration while being loyal to him. Maybe that will change some things with him since there hasn't really been an opportunity until this past week for him to here those things from his base.

[LostSessions]

I agree with you on just about everything but why do you think we would hear from Sandy. From everything I read their divorce wasn't pretty and I think she wants to remain out of the eyes of the public.

They had an amicable divorce and Sandy knew they were through for quite some time. Garth wanted out so bad he agreed to give Sandy $125 million in the divorce. It was said that there were rumors of Sandy giving Garth ultimatums to get off the road. Remember, Garth cheated on Sandy early on and was quoted as saying he wore out a pair of jeans begging Sandy to take him back. He had his out since he was also in love with Trisha and could have ended the marriage then. Ironically, Garth decided to retire and help Sandy raise his children and was therefore off the road even though they were divorced.
I’ll just say this: I don’t know of any NDA, but Sandy doesn’t want anything to do with being in the spotlight or giving interviews or writing books. That ship has sailed. She is happy with her life. I won’t go into detail but to say I’ve met and spoken to Sandy. She is one of the nicest people you will ever meet. I got to know her. Garth used to mention Sandy from time to time but lately he has completely forgotten about her and who bore his children. She’s referred to as “ the girls’ mother” if mentioned at all. I understand people get divorced and move on but jeez Garth, quit tearing Sandy down. That’s uncalled for with someone you CHOSE to stay with and who you CHOSE to keep having kids with. But Sandy doesn’t want any part in the anthologies as far as being quoted. But Garth puts Trisha in both anthologies with many pics in I and ridiculous interview answers in III.

Here is a quote from an article: “It wasn’t until Brooks decided to take a break from his career to focus on his family in 1999 that their marriage really fell apart. So, in an ironic twist, the time at home resulted in him getting to be a better dad… but also discovering he could no longer be a husband to his wife.”
In the early years, he might have loved her but the minute he’s off the road, he realizes he and Sandy are strangers.

*Sidenote: Sandy is out of this world beautiful; nothing like Garth’s current wife. Blech.

[LostSessions]

Alright, back on topic...
Wait, just so you all know, I’ve met Garth as well and I know his two youngest daughters. So to say I’m a diehard fan is putting it mildly.

Okay. I personally love Man Against Machine and Gunslinger.
Should have been more singles released on both albums.
Wish he would put his music on iTunes. But that’s never going to happen.
The North American tour was awesome. I went to two concerts; Tulsa and OKC.
New music is better than no music from Garth.
What a cluster**** Talkshoplive was Thursday evening. I didn’t get my order to finally take until 10:30 pm and I didn’t get my special number. Garth needs to use a bigger platform for which to do these things rather than rinky dink Talkshoplive in the future.
I absolutely love All Day Long and I cried when Garth sang Stronger Than Me. That song is in my top 10; maybe even top 5 favorite Garth songs.

So all in all, those are my comments and suggestions. Not too much negativity. Although the on sale vinyl, if you read the comments, people were pissed! and rightfully so, me included.

[randa16]

Lost sessions thank you for that view into her life. I will always believe she should have been included in the anthology but it is what it is.