Garth Brooks - 'Ropin' the Wind'

Ropin' the Wind Bottom Line:

Ropin' the Wind was Garth Brooks' third release, and with this release, Garth did something no other country artist had done before. He debuted at the top of not only the Country Album chart, but the Top 200 all genre chart. The album has gone on to sell over 14 million copies, and is his second biggest selling album after No Fences. With covers of the Billy Joel's "Shameless," and passionate originals like "The River" and two cowboy songs, with "Rodeo" and "In Lonesome Dove," this album was called by many the best album he had recorded at that time.

Powerful singles!

When Garth Brooks released his third album, Ropin' the Wind he was already a bonafide star, with multiple number one songs, and multiple platinum sales of his previous albums. But no one anticipated that this album would make history. When Ropin' the Wind was released, it topped not only Billboard's Country Albums chart, but the Billboard Top 200 as well. No other country artist had ever done this. Five singles were released: "Rodeo" (No. 3), "Shameless" (No. 1), "What She's Doing Now" (No. 1 for 4 weeks), "Papa Loved Mama" (No. 3) and "The River" (No. 1).

The first track, "Against The Grain," starts with a breakneck pace, telling the story of sometimes having to do things your own way. I love the prominent guitar and fiddle in this song.

In the up-tempo "Papa Loved Mama," we learn the story of a straying wife, and a jealous husband who drives his truck into the hotel where his wife is having an affair with her lover. The children are left without a mom or dad, as their "mama's in the graveyard, papa's in the pen." This song is heavily guitar-infused, with a blistering steel guitar solo near the end.

Garth covers Billy Joel's "Shameless" in a passionate style with very definite steel guitar, giving this a more country feel to it.

A tinkling piano intro starts off the sad ballad "What She's Doing Now," which tells the story of a man who still longs for his ex, even going so far as calling her old number, just to hear her voice, even though he knows she's no longer there. Garth gives one of his best vocal performances on this emotional tune.

A Pair of Cowboy Songs

Garth likes to include at least one cowboy song on each of his albums, and on Ropin' the Wind he actually includes two -- "In Lonesome Dove," which has a mid-range tempo, and a folksy acoustic sound to it, and the mid-tempo tune "Rodeo," which tells the story of a man whose passion is riding in the rodeo, and his lady knows she can't compete with his love for the rodeo.

The final song on the album, which is always Garth's favorite song, is "The River," which is a song about striving for your dreams. It has a mid-tempo feel, and has a country pop feel on the verses, and a gospel feel on the choruses, with a choir of voices back Garth up there.

Bonus Track

With the 1998 release of the Limited Series, which included an extra song on each of Garth's first six albums, fans rushed to add the box set to their collection. The song added to this album was the Garth-penned "Which One Of Them."

With a variety of styles of music on this album, Ropin' the Wind makes an excellent primer CD for fans who want to get to know who Garth Brooks is.

About the only negative thing I can say about this album is that I wish there were more than 10 tracks.

Ropin' the Wind Track List:

1. "Against the Grain"
2. "Rodeo"
3. "What She's Doing Now"
4. "Burning Bridges"
5. "Which One of Them"
6. "Papa Loved Mama"
7. "Shameless"
8. "Cold Shoulder"
9. "We Bury the Hatchet"
10. "In Lonesome Dove"
11. "The River"