26 November 2016 - GARTH BROOKS

GARTH BROOKS

G'day folks,

I'm pleased to present a great country singer from the USA.  Troyal Garth Brooks, is an American country pop singer and songwriter. His integration of pop and rock and roll elements into the country genre through multi-platinum recordings and record-breaking live shows. 

Garth Brooks is as responsible as any one musician for the sound known as modern country. Never a favorite among discerning music snobs (and particularly not during the phase of his career when he inexplicably assumed the identity of glam rocker Chris Gaines), Brooks nonetheless achieved a level of mainstream commercial success theretofore unseen in his genre—or any other, for that matter. Taking country music from the pickup trucks and dirt roads south of the Mason-Dixon Line into the suburban living rooms of Yankees everywhere, his accessible themes, lovelorn honk, and lite-FM rock riffs nationalized country music.

The Tulsa-born Brooks excelled as an athlete in high school and earned a track scholarship to Oklahoma State University. He competed in javelin and graduated with a degree in advertising in 1984. Though Brooks enjoyed country music, his first love was sensitive singer-songwriter soft rock like James Taylor and Dan Fogelberg. This influence would serve him well when he moved to Nashville in search of fame.

He would find it quickly with his self-titled debut in 1989. The album reached #2 on the country charts and 13th on Billboard, launching the most successful country album career in history. The following year’s No Fences spent 23 consecutive weeks at #1 on the country charts and peaked at #3 on the pop charts. The next year, Ropin’ in the Wind became the first country album to debut at #1 on the country charts.

In three short years, Brooks was a household name. His trademark headset microphone and slickly produced stage show outfitted country music’s blue collar anthems and patriotism with arena rock panache and ambition. Brooks joined the storied Grand Ole Opry in 1990 and carried country music into a new stratosphere of sales, in the process driving the Nashville sound to something more closely resembling arena rock acts like Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel than Hank Williams.

Brooks is a Country Music Hall of Famer, winner of two Grammys, and recipient of 17 American Music Awards, including recognition as “Artist of the ‘90s.” This title is well-deserved, as nobody has sold more than Brooks’s 70 million records since 1989. He is only surpassed on the all-time list by the Beatles and Elvis Presley.

Clancy's comment: I'm not a fan of all country music, but I do like this guy.

I'm ...

6 January 2017 - WHAT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY

WHAT HAPPENED

 ON THIS DAY

G'day folks,

Ever wondered what happened on this day in history? Wonder no more ...

WHAT HAPPENED TODAY - 6 January

• 1970 The Wiener Musikverein is inaugurated

The famous concert hall is the home of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

• 1929 Mother Theresa arrives in India

Through her tireless work in helping the poor and ill, the Albanian religious sister later received the Nobel Peace Prize and was posthumously beatified.

• 1912 German scientist Alfred Wegener presents his theory of continental drift

His work laid the foundation for the theory of plate tectonics, which explains why continents move.

• 1907 Maria Montessori opens her first school

Montessori's revolutionary educational approach is practiced at about 30,000 schools today.

• 1838 Samuel Morse presents the telegraph to the public

Together with Alfred Vail, the inventor relayed the message “A patient waiter is no loser” over a distance of 2 miles (3 km).

  

 

Births On This Day – 6 January

• 1946 Syd Barrett

English singer-songwriter, guitarist

• 1920 John Maynard Smith

English biologist

• 1883 Kahlil Gibran

Lebanese/American poet

• 1811 Charles Sumner

American politician

• 1412 Joan of Arc

 

 

 Deaths On This Day – 6 January

• 1999 Michel Petrucciani

French/American pianist

• 1993 Dizzy Gillespie

American trumpet player, bandleader, composer

• 1919 Theodore Roosevelt

American politician, 26th President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate

• 1918 Georg Cantor

German mathematician

• 1852 Louis Braille

French educator, invented Braille

Clancy's comment: There ya go. Now you know.

I'm ...