Garth Brooks Working on Live Album
Tuesday, May 12, 1998. Wall of Sound
Story by Gary Graff

Garth Brooks is ropin' the wind and a whole lot more these days. The country superdude has just released The Limited Series, a boxed set of his first six albums with bonus tracks, including his version of Bob Dylan's "To Bring You My Love," which he recorded for the Hope Floats soundtrack. Now, Brooks is focusing on his next album release a live package that has no release date other than as soon as possible.

"You want to know, in a perfect world, when we'd love to do it?" Brooks asks Wall of Sound. "Thanksgiving. We'd love to release it then." He says the live album, which was recorded in Ireland, will combine 74 minutes of audio-only material with two hours of video footage that will feature at least six extra songs. A double album was suggested, but Brooks says he's not interested. "That would drive the price up for people, especially when you're talking DVD," he says. "It's going to be more expensive to produce it, so if you double the disc, you double your cost. That gets passed on to the people, which just isn't an option here."

Brooks says he and longtime producer Allen Reynolds are currently deciding which songs will go on the album, and they're locking horns over one in particular an upbeat tune called "Tearin' It Up and Burnin' It Down," which was considered for but left off Brooks' latest album, Sevens, because Reynolds didn't like the lyrics. "He said 'You've got your live album coming up. See how it goes over live'," Brooks says. "If we lose it, I guess we lose it. Hopefully he'll find something there that he likes, and it could be in the mix."

Besides the recording projects, Brooks is also slated to complete his three-year world tour with one final North American leg this fall. He also directed the videos for his next two singles "Anonymous" from the boxed set, and "I Don't Have to Wonder" from Sevens. And that's not all his film company, Red Strokes Entertainment, is preparing to begin work on its first feature, tentatively titled The Lamb. Although details have yet to be finalized, Brooks may star as a musician, singing a soundtrack of songs produced by none other than Babyface.