The Ultimate Hits, Garth Brooks

This has got to be best deal of the year: Two CD's full of the best country of the 90's and a DVD including some of Garth Brooks' best concert performances for about 13 bucks.

There are 33 songs on the two CD's including three new releases. Man, do they bring back memories of better days. I used to listen to these songs driving home on Friday nights from North Carolina or Delaware or wherever the hell I had found a contract at the time. I had my own lyrics to Much too Young (to feel this damn old) to make it fit my situation perfectly. (Of course, I can't say that anymore, I have a perfect right to feel this damn old.) You may have done the same when some other song that mirrors your life. That's just how much great music means to us.

I was trying to think if anything was missing from the 33 that would make it more complete. The only song that really comes to mind is Red Strokes, and it wasn't quite the hit that the included songs were.

The monster Friends in Low Places is, of course here. The DVD version has that extra verse that we all love so much (from the London concert.) The groundbreaking video of Thunder Rolls is here. CMT would not play it but VH1 played the hell out of it. This was the song that made Garth a crosssover star, as many of his CD's debuted at number one on the POP charts as well as C&W.

Since I mentioned the DVD, I'd like to point out the other major thing I think it was that made Garth a pop star. He was to first to put on a concert show like a rock performer and the audiences ate it up. I remember pating $20 to see Conway Twitty and all he did was stand on a stage (no lighting effects even) and sing with his band. That's just the way country acts were then. Kenny Chesney and the other artists raking in the huge bucks today should be paying him tribute.

But, that's the real thing about this man and his music. He changed the way things were done - he made them upgrade the recording equipment to be the equal of a pop recording studio. A country album from the 80's sounded like crap next to, say, an Eagles album.

If you like country without the whine, and you are not familiar with this music, you owe it to yourself to check it out.

If you've been a fan and own all his stuff already, it's nice to have all the best songs together in one package.

And there is some new stuff. More Than a Memory should be a giant hit and another instant classic for GB.

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