RIDGEWOOD, N.J--Dec. 9, 1997--For Garth Brooks and 400 fans, the day before Thanksgiving was a day for getting intimate.

The man who has broken records on his current world tour used the release of his latest CD, ``Sevens,'' as an opportunity to reconnect with fans.

Instead of a stadium, fans gathered at Kmart in Manhattan. Instead of tens of thousands, the audience was limited to 400. And yes, of course, Garth Brooks sang, but he also spent ninety minutes talking with the fans and answering their questions.

Turning a Kmart into a cozy concert venue for one of the world's top country music stars took a lot of legwork, and DWJ Television, a video production and public relations company retained by Kmart, had less than a week to pull it off.

``We did everything from the staging, lighting and the sound system to ordering and setting up the chairs,'' said Anita Fethes, DWJ's senior operations producer. ``We also had three cameras and a director switch editing the event live and projecting it on a large screen in front of the room. In all, we had a crew of about 20 people on location and another five people in our Ridgewood, N.J. headquarters coordinating everything.''

DWJ Television also produced a video news release (the TV version of a press release) which was fed by satellite to TV news producers around the country. The media placement and editing for the VNR involved another 10 of DWJ's Ridgewood, N.J. staff.

The event was Brooks' only in-store public appearance. He chose Kmart because they sell more country music than any other retailer in the United States. The Manhattan store, located at 770 Broadway, happens to be Kmart's store number 7777. The first 777,777 copies of ``Sevens'' will be marked ``first edition'' and are expected to become collectibles.