{"id":24388,"date":"2021-12-12T18:18:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-12T23:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=24388"},"modified":"2021-12-13T10:22:59","modified_gmt":"2021-12-13T15:22:59","slug":"garth-brooks-country-music-legend-to-returns-to-ireland-to-play-croke-park-in-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=24388","title":{"rendered":"Garth Brooks: Country Music Legend To Returns To Ireland To Play Croke Park In 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Garth Brooks (Zuma)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He is one of the biggest stars in the world and that is Garth Brooks<\/strong>. Now I am a big U2 and Rolling Stones fan but this man can fill out stadiums in a matter of hours and I am talking about venues that hold over 70,000 fans. He is the No. 1 selling solo artist in US history and he is returning to Irish soil with five dates in Croke Park, Dublin on 9, 10, 11, 16 and 17 September, 2022. Croke Park will be the ONLY European venue Garth will play next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am going to stop there and give a little history on this country music star who is bigger than big, no matter what music you like so sit up and take notice of what this SUPER STAR is all about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was the youngest child of Troyal Raymond Brooks Jr., a\u00a0draftsman\u00a0for an oil company, and Colleen McElroy Carroll, a 1950s-era country singer of\u00a0Irish ancestry who recorded on the\u00a0Capitol Records\u00a0label and appeared on\u00a0Ozark Jubilee. This was the second marriage for each of his parents, giving Brooks four older half-siblings (Jim, Jerry, Mike, and Betsy). The couple had two children together, Kelly and Garth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At their home in\u00a0Yukon, Oklahoma, the family hosted weekly talent nights. All of the children were required to participate, either by singing or doing skits. Brooks learned to play both the guitar and banjo. As a child, Brooks often sang in casual family settings, but his primary focus was athletics. In high school, he played football and baseball and ran track and field. He received a track scholarship to\u00a0Oklahoma State University\u00a0in\u00a0Stillwater, where he competed in the\u00a0javelin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At nights, he worked as a bouncer at a local bar and formed his own band, Santa Fe, learning to play whatever the college audience wanted. Brooks graduated in 1984 with a degree in advertising. His roommate,\u00a0Ty England, later played guitar in his road band until going solo in 1995.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is an American\u00a0country music\u00a0singer and songwriter. His integration of rock and pop elements into the\u00a0country\u00a0genre has earned him popularity, particularly in the United States with success on the country music single and album charts, multi-platinum recordings and record-breaking\u00a0live performances, while also crossing over into the mainstream pop arena. Brooks is the only artist in music history to have released nine albums that achieved\u00a0diamond\u00a0status in the United States (surpassing\u00a0the Beatles\u2019 former record of six); those albums are\u00a0\u2018Garth Brooks\u2019\u00a0(diamond),\u00a0\u2018No Fences\u2019\u00a0(17\u00d7 platinum),\u00a0\u2018Ropin\u2019 the Wind\u2019\u00a0(14\u00d7 platinum),\u00a0\u2018The Chase\u2019\u00a0(diamond),\u00a0\u2018In Pieces\u2019\u00a0(diamond),\u00a0\u2018The Hits\u2019\u00a0(diamond),\u00a0\u2018Sevens\u2019\u00a0(diamond),\u00a0\u2018Double Live\u2019\u00a0(21\u00d7 platinum), and\u00a0\u2018The Ultimate Hits\u2019\u00a0(diamond).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 1989, Brooks has released 23 records in all, which include 13 studio albums, two live albums, three compilation albums, three Christmas albums and four box sets, along with 77 singles. He has won several awards in his career, including two\u00a0Grammy Awards, 17\u00a0American Music Awards\u00a0(including \u201cArtist of the 90s\u201d) and the\u00a0RIAA\u00a0Award for best-selling solo albums artist of the century in the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Troubled by conflicts between career and family, Brooks retired from recording and performing from 2001 until 2005. During this time, he sold millions of albums through an exclusive distribution deal with\u00a0Walmart\u00a0and sporadically released new singles. In 2005, Brooks started a partial comeback, giving select performances and releasing two compilation albums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2009, he began\u00a0\u2018Garth at Wynn\u2019, a periodic weekend\u00a0concert residency\u00a0at\u00a0Las Vegas\u2019\u00a0Encore Theatre\u00a0from December 2009 to January 2014. Following the conclusion of the residency, Brooks announced his signing with\u00a0Sony Music Nashville\u00a0in July 2014. In September 2014, he began his comeback\u00a0world tour, with wife and musician\u00a0Trisha Yearwood, which culminated in 2017. This was followed by his\u00a0Stadium Tour, which began in 2019. His most recent album,\u00a0\u2018Fun\u2019, was released in November 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brooks is one of the world\u2019s\u00a0best-selling music artists, having sold more than 170\u00a0million records. As of 2020, according to the RIAA, he is the\u00a0best-selling solo albums artist in the United States\u00a0with 156\u00a0million domestic units sold, ahead of\u00a0Elvis Presley, and is second only to the Beatles in total album sales overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brooks was inducted into the\u00a0Country Music Hall of Fame\u00a0on October 21, 2012, having been inducted into the\u00a0Songwriters Hall of Fame\u00a0the year before. He was also inducted into the\u00a0Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum\u00a0in 2016 with his studio musicians, The G-Men. On March 4, 2020, Brooks received the\u00a0Library of Congress\u00a0Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. At age 58, he is the youngest recipient of the award. On January 20, 2021, Brooks performed \u2018Amazing Grace\u2019 at the\u00a0inauguration\u00a0of\u00a0Joe Biden. He said his performance was an opportunity \u201cto serve\u201d and is a \u201cstatement of unity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1985, Brooks took his first steps into the music industry, singing and playing guitar in clubs and bars around Oklahoma. Entertainment attorney Rod Phelps made the journey to Dallas to see Brooks perform and offered to produce the singer\u2019s first demo. Introducing Brooks to his contacts and encouraging him to relocate to Nashville, Phelps acted as an advisor to the young musician as he got his start in the music industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 1989, Brooks released his first album to chart success with the record peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. The album included Brooks\u2019 first No.1 hit \u2018If Tomorrow Never Comes\u2019 which was followed by the equally successful \u2018Not Counting You\u2019 and \u2018The Dance\u2019. Brooks has since remarked that of his entire back catalogue, \u2018The Dance\u2019 still remains his favorite song he has ever recorded.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brooks followed the success with his sophomore album,\u00a0\u2018No Fences\u2019, in 1990 which spent 23 weeks in the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. It became Brooks\u2019 highest-selling album and included what has since become one of the singer\u2019s most well-known songs, \u2018Friends in Low Places\u2019. Later that year, Brooks was honored by being inducted into the Grand Ole Opry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 1991 and the end of the millennium, Brooks released eight more albums with huge chart success, he headed off to perform for fans on world tours, and also even tried out for a spot on the San Diego Padres pro baseball team.
In 2000, Brooks announced that his next album,\u00a0\u2018Scarecrow\u2019, would be his last as he focused on his life as a father. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard pop and country charts before Brooks began his short-lived retirement. Brooks returned in 2006 after signing a deal with Walmart to become the exclusive retailer for his back catalogue. Over the next eight years, Brooks took to the stage for select performances, opting for events like weekends on the Las Vegas Strip despite not releasing any new music.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2013, the country music star began to ease his way back into the limelight, releasing a compilation box set called\u00a0\u2018Blame It All on My Roots\u2019\u00a0ahead of the festive season. Much to the delight of his fans, Brooks also later announced that he would be heading back on tour to see them around the globe. He sold out arenas across the US and toured for almost three-and-a-half-years alongside his wife and fellow musician, Trisha Yearwood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Garth Brooks World Tour became the biggest North American tour in history, selling over 6.3million tickets. Brooks was back in fans\u2019 Christmas stockings at the end of 2016 as he released three albums;\u00a0\u2018Christmas Together\u00a0with Trisha Yearwood\u2019,\u00a0\u2018The Ultimate Collection\u2019 and\u00a0\u2018Gunslinger\u2019. The artist tried to match the success of his previous world tour in 2019 heading out on The Garth Brooks Stadium Tour which set new stadium attendance records at nearly every venue. That year, he also released\u00a0\u2018Legacy Collection\u2019, a box set featuring his albums\u00a0\u2018No\u00a0Fences\u2019,\u00a0\u2018The Chase\u2019,\u00a0\u2018In Pieces\u2019,\u00a0\u2018Fresh Horses\u2019 and\u00a0\u2018Triple Live\u2019, before returning with new music on his 14th studio album, \u2018Fun\u2019, in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now, he\u2019s announced his return to Dublin in 2022 to perform for Irish fans. Garth Brooks is going to take Ireland by storm and you know what? He is so proud of his Irish heritage, isn\u2019t that fabulous? He\u2019s one of us, yippee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tim O’Leary<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now I am going to give a short interlude on a singer who has a beautiful Christmas song that a very good friend sent to me with a little bio on himself. His name is Tim O\u2019Leary<\/strong> and guess what? He\u2019s from Cork City. Tim believes that his love for writing music and playing the guitar started as a teenager in the early 70s. Tim told me that Cork has been synonymous with so many talented musicians it was easy to be influenced, I should know that myself. The name of his Christmas song that he wrote is \u2018I believe in Santa Claus Tonight\u2019 and it\u2019s very good too, I might tell yea. Because I liked it so much, I added the link to it on Facebook, so just click on the following link and I am so sure you will also like it too: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/tim.m.oleary<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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