Garth Brooks Hearkens Back to Honky Tonk Past in “All Day Long” (review)
Garth Brooks is the reigning 2-time Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year. He’s the biggest concert draw in America, and one of the biggest concert draws in the world. Garth Brooks owns virtually every sales record that exists in American music. And yet with all these accolades and his undeniable success, you couldn’t find another major artists whose stylistic contributions to country music, or popular music in general are currently more irrelevant.
The promise and hope ahead of Garth’s return from retirement was one of revitalizing country music by hearkening back to the early 90’s, which compared to today’s sounds, were super twangy and most certainly country. Many people love to hate on Garth Brooks, and he definitely makes it easy for them. They love to bring up Chris Gaines and lip sync controversies, and these and many other things are undoubtedly fair game and warranted. But if you think “Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)” and “Friends in Low Places” weren’t country, or that “The Dance” wasn’t a good song, then you seriously need to question if you’re truly a country fan, or if you’re just bent out of shape.
But now Garth Brooks has become basically a nostalgia act, even though he has the commercial prowess and attention to be much more if he chose. He just needs to decide who he is, and what he wants to be post his retirement. If he wanted to rise up and buck the country music system while revitalizing a more traditional country sound, there would be millions of country fans right there with him behind his back. Garth fans are country fans, not interlopers, not hip-hop fans who decided they liked country when they heard Sam Hunt. But post retirement Garth has been hard to define. His singles have been flat, wanting to be part pop star inspirational, part objectionably sentimental, and twangy only when the edges are shaved off.
Yet it all remains right in front of Garth if he wants to help usher in a traditional country resurgence, and maybe now more than ever since we have a whole host of young performers with a traditional throwback sound indicative of vintage Garth flooding into both the mainstream and independent ranks, and finding some traction and success. The reason these artists are doing so well is because people are starved for the twang that artists like Garth served earlier in their career that has virtually disappeared.
Garth says he was inspired to cut “All Day Long” while playing a surprise show at Layla’s down on lower Broadway in Nashville. Along with Robert’s Western World right next door, these were the two honky tonks that were the cradle of the late 90’s neotraditional resurgence that rose up when artists like Garth were allowing country to stray too far from its roots. It’s either fitting, or perhaps ironic that it’s this setting that inspired Garth to cut the most country-sounding song since his return, or perhaps in the last 20 years or more of his career.
“All Day Long” doesn’t have much as a composition. In fact it may not sound Bro-Country on the surface, but it’s list-like approach and self-affirming country-isms are of a similar vein. But “All Day Long” also has clearly present steel guitar and fiddle, and dedicated instrumental solos for each, even if the lead guitar is unnecessarily crunchy under the misguided idea that this is what will attract the kiddos. Many of today’s young listeners don’t like any lead guitar at all. But Garth promised a throwback honky tonk sound, and that’s what you get with “All Day Long.”
It’s a lead single. It’s meant to be easy, fluffy, and infectious, and it pulls that off just fine. It’s not good, but it’s okay, and fun enough. If you’re looking for songs of a more sentimental nature for Garth’s upcoming record, don’t you worry. This is Garth Brooks we’re talking about. There will be plenty of time for him to brush away crocodile tears as he presents some sappy ode to grandmothers on a network morning show to coincide with the anniversary of a national tragedy so he can show us all how magnanimous and caring he is.
And call Garth a moron all you want for not making “All Day Long” and the rest of his catalog widely available. But guess what, Garth has plenty of money, and now he probably has more of it, as do the songwriters (Bryan Kennedy, Mitch Rossell, and Garth himself) because people are downloading and streaming this song exclusively on Amazon instead of racking up $0.000008 margins on Spotify and YouTube. Technologists will continue to call Garth stupid, but Garth’s accountants will continue to count the money.
For now, and for the first time since his un-retirement, Garth has shown a little bit of country music backbone. And don’t be surprised if “All Day Long” does well on country country radio. It’s just bad enough to be a mainstream hit, while still decent enough to not piss off the core country constituency. Because beyond everything else, “All Day Long” is very Garth, like all of Garth’s efforts. It just happens to be a much earlier version of Garth when he was still useful to the country cause.
1 1/4 Guns Up (6/10)
(Sorry, no preview. Garth’s exclusive to Amazon and all.)
June 25, 2018 @ 8:21 am
Great review.
I like the old Garth Brooks.
Ain’t going down till the sun comes up is my favorite honky tonk song. Great song for some two stepping and great rodeo memories. I went camping in Montana for a long weekend and we end up going to the rodeo. As we were able to leave the rodeo grounds, I tuned up the radio and got “ain’t going down to the sun comes up”. Perfect song. Leaving the rodeo, on our way to Missoula MT for some two stepping. Can’t ask for a better song!!…
Friends in low places is a classic of course but I am not a drinker so I can’t really relate to it!
June 25, 2018 @ 9:23 am
The song itself sounds like the old Garth Brooks. The last two albums just haven’t felt like Garth Brooks. Hopefully the album sounds more like this song and more like his older material. A step in the right direction and a great honky-tonk song! 8/10
June 25, 2018 @ 10:11 am
Garth Brooks needs to be Garth Brooks, embrace what people love about him, which he hearkens back to the last time country music sounded like country music, and take the leadership position bestowed by being the 2-time reigning Entertainer of the Year, and help usher in a honky tonk resurgence with a bunch of young performers behind him. It’s all right here for the taking. Garth just needs the conviction to do it. This song is a step in the right direction, even if it isn’t a great song.
June 25, 2018 @ 11:35 am
I don’t believe this for a second.
June 25, 2018 @ 4:26 pm
I agree that Garth needs to be Garth. I feel that the single is pretty country instrumentally. I too hope Garth chooses to keep going in the right direction and happen to like the song as well. What excites me most about the single is that it sounds a lot more like Garth than most of the stuff he’s put out in the last few years since coming out of retirement.
June 25, 2018 @ 4:30 pm
Agree….and ironic it took a modern day movement from a younger generation to make him realize it (potentially).
June 25, 2018 @ 5:25 pm
Spot on as always Trig.
June 27, 2018 @ 11:37 pm
6/10 is too high for “isn’t a great song”.
Why is you website format screwy?
June 25, 2018 @ 12:21 pm
I like this one
June 25, 2018 @ 9:38 am
It still fascinates me that one of the most country-sounding songs in his catalog, “Two Of A Kind, Workin’ On A Full House”, was co-written by a leading light in the “jam band” field, Warren Haynes, formerly of the Allman Brothers Band, founder of Gov’t Mule, and a solo artist in his own right.
A most highly respected (and underrated) guitarist, he is one of my favorites.
June 25, 2018 @ 9:46 am
Garth heard it cut by one of the other writers Bobby Robbins. Looking back he was an mca Nashville artist and it went to #71. Garth told him if his record deal ever falls through to call him. The day his deal fell through he was a man of his word and called him to cut the song. Garth tells the story on the Garth channel on xm.
Looking at the wiki about the song and artist his B side of this song/album was “church on Cumberland road” and that was later a hit for Shenandoah.
June 26, 2018 @ 3:43 am
Interesting sbach , I had no idea Warren wrote that. Haynes also did a stint as DAC’s lead guitarist! There’s some YouTube footage of them back in the day. Apparently he likes country music.
And yes, Warren Haynes is a great artist as well.
June 26, 2018 @ 6:02 am
Yep. It shows up in his live set from time to time, I think he was doing it when he toured with Railroad Earth.
June 25, 2018 @ 10:00 am
“Bad enough to be a mainstream hit”…so much sad truth in seven words
June 25, 2018 @ 10:01 am
In my opinion, Garth is/was awesome. It’s all the hat acts that came after Garth, tried to be Garth, or one up Garth that wrecked country music.
June 26, 2018 @ 4:45 am
Bingo. Been saying this for years. It wasn’t Garth who ruined country music, it was labels/executives/radio movers and shakers and artists who tried to unsuccessfully replicate his success.
June 25, 2018 @ 10:24 am
It’s definitely a “lukewarm” song; I certainly wouldn’t call it “traditional” by any means, but it still sounds old-school enough compared to Kane Brown and Sam Hunt that the radio will play it so they can say, “SEE??? We still play traditional country!!”
June 25, 2018 @ 10:47 am
Coming from a guy that wasn’t influenced by Country Music entertainers, I can’t look for relief from Garth. There’s a reason his songs became less and less country as he gained popularity.
“Being the youngest of six kids, my infuences come from all over the board,” explained Garth Brooks. “I particularly liked James Taylor, Dan Fogelberg, Elton John, Journey, Boston, Kansas, . . . Janis Joplin, . . . Styx, and Queen.”
Not a country artist cited.
June 25, 2018 @ 11:03 am
He also talks about Haggard, Jones and Strait with extreme reverence and frequently does covers of “Golden Ring” and “Amarillo By Morning” during his concerts.
June 25, 2018 @ 2:04 pm
He has to play those songs. He doesn’t have enough country songs in his portfolio.
June 26, 2018 @ 4:47 am
Completely false. Listen to his original debut album through “Sevens” then get back to me. If, after that, you determine he has no “country” songs, then nothing will ever be country enough.
June 26, 2018 @ 1:16 pm
What?????????
June 25, 2018 @ 11:07 am
You’re being very selective with your quotes there. Garth has said many times that he was heavily inspired by Chris DeDox and Keith Whitley, even going as far as tho say he felt guilty being inducted in to the Country Hall of Fame before Whitley.
https://savingcountrymusic.com/garth-brooks-tried-to-turn-down-hall-of-fame-induction/
“I felt guilty and embarrassed and honored. Randy Travis cleared the whole way for the 80’s for guys like me and the class of ’89 to come through. He opened all those doors. My generation’s shot at Haggard and Jones was Keith Whitley. Keith needs to be in here. My God, Ricky Skaggs. None of us would be here if it wasn’t for Ricky Skaggs. He filled all the honky tonks and everything there. There’s a lot of catching up to do, and like everybody that goes in it, says it. And they’ll eventually get here. I just don’t think that I should have been here before them. But I feel very honored, and I’ll take it and feel very grateful for it.”
Look, there’s no doubt Garth Brooks can be a turd. That’s well-documented and goes without saying. But let’s not try to act like he wasn’t inspired by country at all, because his early output is very country.
June 26, 2018 @ 4:50 am
Well said, Trigger. Not to mention that many of us who grew up in the 90’s and loved Garth then later came to love George Jones, Merle Haggard, Don Williams and others precisely because Garth turned us on to them as a result of talking about his influences. That aspect of Garth’s influence cannot be understated.
June 25, 2018 @ 10:49 am
LOL…. “what Garth needs”.
He only has to do what he wants to do- as does every other citizen in the world. As long as no ones inherent rights are violated they’re good to go and the last time I checked telling others what they need to do is a violation of others rights regardless what excuse is used for a banner.
Words mean things- IMO- LOL
June 25, 2018 @ 11:09 am
I hope this comment is sarcasm.
June 25, 2018 @ 6:18 pm
Why? Do words not mean things? Telling somebody what he needs to do is pretty presumptuous unless they’re threatening you- you even said yourself in the comment section “Garth needs to be Garth”- as a word smith you more than anyone else here should know words mean things- now, had you said something along the lines of “I’d like it better if Garth (or whoever) did such and such” that would be expressing a valid opinion and not at all presumptuous- if that offends you, my apologies- but, words mean things- I see it everywhere and when the opportunity to express it is given I take it- a lot of our ills in this country is due to incorrect use of words by “professionals” – since communicating with words is what we do here it’s imperative to use them properly, for everyone’s benefit-
And I’ll gladly stop commenting if you so desire- or you can delete this if you so desire- but, it won’t change the facts, or my mind-
June 25, 2018 @ 7:41 pm
DJ,
I don’t desire that you stop commenting, and there’s nothing that I hate to do more than delete comments. It just seems like you’re being a little high strung about word choice here, with all due respect. Sure, “need” is a very strong word, but context is also applicable here. This article is a piece of artistic criticism, and so in the content it’s a given that it’s subjective, opinionated, but there’s also an underlying respect for the subject and subject matter. Clearly I’m not demanding or commanding Garth Brooks to do anything. And if I was, it would render this article, and really this entire website as laughable. I’m simply giving my subjective opinions in order to create discussion points, not attempting to impinge on the free will of Garth Brooks, who by the way, could by my ass 1,000 times over if he so chose.
June 25, 2018 @ 10:54 am
Talk about a boring topic. He should have stayed retired or faded out like so many from the 90’s.
June 25, 2018 @ 1:40 pm
You realize this is Garth fuckin Brooks, right?
June 25, 2018 @ 10:55 am
Song is absolutely atrocious. I have no idea how that could be a considered a “Honky Tonk” Song.
Garth, try again bud.
June 25, 2018 @ 11:57 am
Not a genuine bone in his body or note in his music. Throw in the fake aw shucks attitude and you have a self promoting sandwich board.
June 25, 2018 @ 4:39 pm
His first few albums were very country. I’m not a huge fan but one with ears has to admit that. And at the time, Garth Brooks self titled (89), No Fences and Roping were released I don’t think putting on a fake hat was a sure path either.
More money than one knows what to do with has ruined a lot of people….
June 25, 2018 @ 6:49 pm
A true artist follows his or her heart and instincts. But every move Garth makes must be run through his marketing folks to see if it will sell records. And his singing on Friends in Low Places sounds like a parody of country singing. Dollywood music. And long before Sam Hunt was name dropping Tyler Childers’ name to gain street cred, Garth was name dropping Chris LeDoux’s name for the same purpose.
June 25, 2018 @ 7:03 pm
a lot of the qualities you mention are why I’ve never been a huge fan. I just don’t think a guy who started off the way he did, singing country in bars in college, moving to the club scene and trying (twice) in Nashville, set out intending to fake anything. No Fences sold a lot of record before ‘Roping. The song you mention (low places) was likely the turning point where he lost sight of what he set out to do imo. Like others have said, money and fame can ruin a lot of people.
June 25, 2018 @ 12:14 pm
This is cowboy rock and roll in the Chris Ledoux tradition, which is what Garth does best. It’s lyrically stupid, but if you dig that kind of thing, you don’t care. If you cowboy, sometimes you like a cowboy song. If you don’t but daydream that you did, same goes. You want some twangy, starched Wrangler Garth to accompany the shit clanking around on the floorboards. The only thing that would make this song better is if it was about rodeoing AND getting drunk. But I’ll take what I can get.
June 25, 2018 @ 12:15 pm
If his passion for country was hardcore, the direction he took would’ve been different. That quotation about other influences was interesting because it was surprising. Surprises have the ring of truth. And when the money poured in after Friends in Low Places, where did Garth go? Back to Bakersfield? No. He went full arena rock style and became even more bombastic. He’s the Elton John of country music. This song is just a bid to get back in the game, and it’s telling to me that it’s not serious subject matter. At this point, I’d put more money on somebody with a bona fide country bone, like Tim McGraw.
June 25, 2018 @ 2:02 pm
Garth had one country album- his 1st. Did he evolve in a Country direction after that or pop? I take Garths comments as I would a politician, but I believe the RS article where the quote came from was the most truthful. Nobody loves Garth as much as Garth.
June 25, 2018 @ 2:34 pm
This is the first song by Garth Brooks in 20 years beside “good ride Cowboy” I really like. Two Pina’ coladas is the last single that I like from Garth Brooks.
June 25, 2018 @ 3:37 pm
The song is not good. The song is not bad.
The song will be a hit or not…but “All Day Long” will be forgotten the same time next year.
June 25, 2018 @ 3:53 pm
Garth Brooks recorded the Randall King song “The Road I’m On” too & Randall King is the new #1 in Texas with “Tuggin’ On My Heartstrings” (Texas Regional Radio Report Top 100 – 06/22).
June 25, 2018 @ 5:02 pm
Was just announced that “All Day Long” was the most-added song on country radio in nearly three years. I think it’s going to do very well, and I think it’s reception by radio is telling of some deeper trends.
June 26, 2018 @ 1:16 pm
“I think it’s reception by radio is telling of some deeper trends.”
But is that good
June 25, 2018 @ 4:30 pm
Well sure the song is country…country in the way that 90’s pre-pop country that eventually gave birth to bro country was country.
June 25, 2018 @ 4:37 pm
Tough crowd here, I used to like Garth and was disinterested in him with the Chris Gaines-James Taylor obsession, but as others have said, fame gets in the way. I hope he does return to his roots that made him famous and can put out some good music in the future, he is too young to retire.
The problem today and always has been that its hard to stay relevant and profitable playing the music you really love before it rips you and the band apart. There are so many groups that I love that are just hanging on and those long trips in vans across large swaths of this country have to take a toll on them, where they finally say, either we take the money or just go home.
Garth made it to super stardom and may have freaked out, George Strait on the other hand kept it in stride, but each took a different path. Maybe after all the Champagne, Garth may return to what made him what he is. Please no flames just my honest opinion.
June 25, 2018 @ 6:16 pm
I’ve only heard it twice, but I liked what I heard.
June 25, 2018 @ 10:44 pm
Garth may not realize it, but he’s setting the stage for the very best honky tonkin’ album to explode later this year. After his new hit has its run and everybody in mainstream copies it, Whitey Morgan and the 78s will release their magnum opus, the greatest honky tonk record ever created, and we will rejoice!
At least that’s what I’m telling myself. Come on, guys, we need that new record ASAP!
June 26, 2018 @ 2:58 am
Garth’s obsession with selling more records has hurt him artistically as his focus for many years was in repackaging the same hits over and over ad nauseum instead of recording new material. Someone should tell him he may be the #1 album peddler in the US but he is never going to catch The Beatles or Elvis in worldwide sales. Also this constant referral to himself in the third person is very very annoying.
That said when Garth Brooks is great…..he is great.
June 26, 2018 @ 3:21 am
I’ve noticed this weird third person thing from a lot of male country performers. Glad other people have picked up on it too.
June 26, 2018 @ 4:56 am
Very fair assessment.
June 26, 2018 @ 8:54 am
Yeah a while back I explained how Garth has made many fans purchase the same song 10 separate times.
https://savingcountrymusic.com/garth-brooks-has-made-millions-selling-you-the-same-damn-songs-over-over/
With Garth, you take the good with the bad. That’s the kind of performer he is. But if you let the bad completely blind yourself to the good stuff, you’re doing yourself a disservice.
June 26, 2018 @ 4:57 am
Ah, the ever present Garth-haters: Making perfect the enemy of good since 1989.
June 26, 2018 @ 10:35 am
Yeah, you know, standards. “Enemy” of the good?
No, I’d say we’re “making perfect the driver of the good since,” well, been a long time.
June 26, 2018 @ 1:13 pm
“He’s the biggest concert draw in America, and one of the biggest concert draws in the world.”
Whoa, dragon!! On what are you basing this? According to Pollstar GARTH!!! shows up at #10 in 2017. So, maybe “among the biggest draws” but not the biggest. And the fact that he is even as close as he is says something about how easy it is to separate people from their money. Lord, he sucks. Everything about him sucks from the “aw, shucks” bullshit fake humility to the fact that he sings like a cat caught between two large junkyard dogs.
Here are the top 10 concert tours in 2017 from Pollstar: https://www.pollstar.com/Chart/2017/12/2017YearEndTop20WorldwideTours_619.pdf
June 26, 2018 @ 1:28 pm
Garth’s “World Tour” (that was the name) started in 2014 coinciding with the release of his comeback album “Man Against Machine.” The tour wound down in 2017. Zoom out there just a tad speedracer and look at the big picture. His “World Tour” has already been certified as the highest-grossing country music tour of all time, and the 9th highest-grossing tour in history taking into consideration all genres.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_concert_tours
This is the reason he’s the two-time Entertainer of the Year.
June 27, 2018 @ 6:12 am
Dylan has been on perpetual tour since, oh, 1978 so how is that not bigger than GARTH!!!. It would be just like that self-promoting douchebag (GARTH!!!, not Dylan)to claim that every tour is just part of one so he could have the highest grossing tour title. I’m guessing Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour will end up dwarfing GARTH!!! in part because he is truly a global star, not one who is big here and in about 4 other countries
And note the list you provided is not adjusted for inflation. I’m guessing GARTH!!! would drop a bit if you did that. But this changes nothing – he remains a no talent ass-clown that is a blight on not just country music, but all music.
As for his two-time entertainer of the year award, you more than anyone should know how that happened.
I’m sorry, but I don’t think there is a coincidence that GARTH’s!!! rise preceded and paralleled that of Britney, N’Sync, The Backstreet Boys, etc. It’s a shame he made it and so many truly authentic bands didn’t.