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Unlikely as it might seem some 70 million in total album sales later, Garth Brooks's self-titled debut was widely ignored at the time of its 1989 release. Most of the program doesn't wander far from the new-traditionalist country pattern established in the '80s by George Strait. Songs such as "If Tomorrow Never Comes,"I
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Unlikely as it might seem some 70 million in total album sales later, Garth Brooks's self-titled debut was widely ignored at the time of its 1989 release. Most of the program doesn't wander far from the new-traditionalist country pattern established in the '80s by George Strait. Songs such as "If Tomorrow Never Comes," "Every Time That It Rains," and "Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)" have an understated charm that stands in appealing contrast to the self-conscious grandiosity of much of Brooks's later work. But it was the least traditional tune on the album, the melodramatic ballad "The Dance," that catapulted Brooks to superstardom. The rest, as they say, is history. --Rick Mitchell