Garth Brooks - 'Fresh Horses'

Fresh Horses Bottom Line:

Fresh Horses is another well crafted album of ballads and up tempo songs by Garth Brooks. Seven of the ten tracks became hit singles. It's one of the best selling country albums of all time by this country superstar.

Fresh Horses Review:

Garth Brooks was one of the new faces to emerge on the country music scene in 1989 along with others like Travis Tritt and Clint Black. His debut self titled CD exploded when the second single "If Tomorrow Never Comes" shot to #1 on the country charts. Fans couldn't get enough of this new wild man from Oklahoma who was taking country music by storm. Sometimes during his concerts, the music would take a back seat to his wild and crazy onstage antics that thrilled audiences all over the world.

And after his debut album, the hits and the albums just kept on coming. In 1995 he released one of his most popular albums to date. It was entitled Fresh Horses. And as of 2006, over 6 million copies of the album have been sold in the United States alone. The album had a worldwide radio ban until it was available for the public to buy. Only the two singles "She's Every Woman" and "The Fever," a rockin' country remake of an old Aerosmith song, were allowed to be played prior to its release. And once it was released, it shot to #1 on the Billboard country album charts and #2 on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart.

There was concern as to the success of this album since it had been 2 years since his last studio release. Fresh Horses was another milestone for Garth in that he was involved in the writing of 8 of the 10 tracks on the CD. And what outstanding tracks they were!

Fresh Horses - The Songs:

The CD kicks off with the song "The Old Stuff." It's a 4 minute, 13 second retrospective of the career of Garth, the band and touring. A little self indulgent? Maybe, but still a great song. It would go on to become the 7th and final single from the album only reaching #64 on the country chart.

The two singles previously mentioned "She's Every Woman" and "The Fever" would go on to reach #1 and #23 respectively on the U.S. country music chart.

The third single "The Beaches Of Cheyenne" would also climb to the #1 position in 1996. However, the following single "The Change" would only crack the top 20 reaching #19.

The fifth single from Fresh Horses "It's Midnight Cinderella" would return Garth to the top 5 later in 1996. December of 1996 would find Garth closing out the year with his #4 hit "That Ol' Wind." So, 10 tracks, 7 singles, 4 of which reached the top 5 or better.

In 1998, Fresh Horses was re-released as part of the 6 CD boxed set called "The Limited Series" and included one new track. A cover of the Bob Dylan song "To Make You Feel My Love." Released as a single in 1998, it would also go on to reach #1 on the country music chart. This is truly one of the best country albums of our time from this country music icon.

Release Date: November 21, 1995 - Capitol Nashville

Fresh Horses Track List:

1. The Old Stuff
2. Cowboys And Angels
3. The Fever
4. That Ol' Wind
5. Rollin'
6. The Change
7. The Beaches Of Cheyenne
8. It's Midnight Cinderella
9. To Make You Feel My Love *Limited Series only*
10. She's Every Woman
11. Ireland