Fresh Horses (album)

Fresh Horses is the sixth studio album by American country music artist Garth Brooks. It was released on November 21, 1995. Fresh Horses peaked at #2 on the Billboard 200 chart, and #1 on the Top Country Albums chart.

Fresh Horses
Studio album by
ReleasedNovember 21, 1995
RecordedJack's Track's Recording Studio
GenreCountry
Length38:13
LabelCapitol Nashville
ProducerAllen Reynolds
Garth Brooks chronology
The Hits
(1994)
Fresh Horses Sevens
(1997)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic2.5/5 stars[1]
Entertainment WeeklyB−[2]
Robert ChristgauB+[3]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide2/5 stars[4]
Spin(8/10)[5]

The album had a worldwide radio ban until it was available to buy. Only the two singles issued ("She's Every Woman" and "The Fever") were allowed to be played before this date, the latter of which was a new country-rock version of an old Aerosmith song. Through 2006, approximately 7 million copies have been sold in the U.S.

Background

Brooks commented on the album saying:

"Everyone was expecting this album to be pop. Everyone said we were leaving (country). For the first time ever, I was involved (in writing) in eight of the 10 cuts, so it's a huge reflection of myself. It's the things I enjoy singing about. I got to sing about the band on the road, I got to sing about cowboys, and more importantly, the women who put up with those cowboys.'[6]

Track listing

  1. "The Old Stuff" (Bryan Kennedy, Dan Roberts, Garth Brooks) – 4:12
  2. "Cowboys and Angels" (Kent Blazy, Kim Williams, Brooks) – 3:16
  3. "The Fever" (Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Roberts, Kennedy) – 2:40
  4. "That Ol' Wind" (Leigh Reynolds, Brooks) – 5:22
  5. "Rollin'" (Harley Allen, Reynolds, Brooks) – 4:07
  6. "The Change" (Tony Arata, Wayne Tester) – 4:06
  7. "The Beaches of Cheyenne" (Roberts, Kennedy, Brooks) – 4:13
  8. "It's Midnight Cinderella" (Williams, Blazy, Brooks) – 2:23
  9. "She's Every Woman" (Victoria Shaw, Brooks) – 2:53
  10. ”Ireland" (Stephanie Davis, Jenny Yates, Brooks) – 5:01

“The Limited Series” (1998) of the album inserted a cover of Bob Dylan’sTo Make You Feel My Love” between tracks 7 and 8.

Chart performance

Fresh Horses peaked at #2 on the U.S. Billboard 200, and peaked #1 on the Top Country Albums, becoming his sixth #1 Country album. In November 2006, Fresh Horses was certified 7 x Platinum by the RIAA.

Album

Charts (1995) Peak
position
Australian Albums Chart[7] 5
Canadian RPM Top Albums 7
Canadian RPM Country Albums 1
Dutch Albums Chart[7] 53
European Albums Chart[8] 24
German Albums Chart[9] 55
Irish Albums Chart[10] 1
Norwegian Albums Chart[7] 10
Swiss Albums Chart[7] 35
UK Albums Chart[11] 22
U.S. Billboard 200[12] 2
U.S. Billboard Top Country Albums[12] 1

Sales and Certifications

Region Provider Certification Sales/Shipments
Australia ARIA Gold [13] 35,000
Canada CRIA 5x platinum [14] 500,000
United Kingdom BPI Gold [15] 100,000
United States RIAA 7x Platinum[16] 7,000,000
World-Wide 7,635,000

Singles

Year Single Peak positions
US Country CAN Country
1995 "She's Every Woman" 1 1
"The Fever" 23 2
"The Beaches of Cheyenne" 1 1
1996 "The Change" 19 8
"It's Midnight Cinderella" 5 2
"That Ol' Wind" 4 3

Other charted songs

Year Single Peak positions
US Country
1995 "The Old Stuff" 64
"Rollin'" 71

Chart Successions

Preceded by
"(What's the Story) Morning Glory?" by Oasis
Irish Albums Chart
23 November 1995 – 7 December 1995 (2 weeks)
Succeeded by
"Robson & Jerome" by Robson & Jerome
Preceded by
The Greatest Hits Collection by Alan Jackson
Top Country Albums number-one album
December 9, 1995 - January 26, 1996
Succeeded by
The Woman in Me by Shania Twain
Preceded by
The Greatest Hits Collection by Alan Jackson
The Woman in Me by Shania Twain
RPM Country Albums number-one album
November 27 - December 24, 1995
April 1–14, 1996
Succeeded by
The Woman in Me by Shania Twain
The Woman in Me by Shania Twain

Personnel

  • Garth Brooks - lead vocals

Additional musicians

  • Susan Ashton - backing vocals
  • Sam Bacco - percussion
  • Bruce Bouton - steel guitar
  • Mark Casstevens - acoustic guitar
  • Mike Chapman - bass guitar
  • Ed Foote - hurdy-gurdy
  • Rob Hajacos - fiddle
  • Gordon Kennedy - electric guitar
  • Chris Leuzinger - electric guitar
  • Jimmy Mattingly - fiddle
  • Bobby Wood - piano, organ, keyboards
  • Leigh Reynolds - acoustic guitar
  • Milton Sledge - drums, percussion
  • Trisha Yearwood - backing vocals

References

  1. Allmusic review
  2. "Fresh Horses". EW.com.
  3. "Robert Christgau: CG: garth brooks". www.robertchristgau.com.
  4. Brackett, Nathan; Christian Hoard (2004). The Rolling Stone Album Guide. New York City, New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 105. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  5. "Garth Brooks - Fresh Horses CD Album MP3". www.cduniverse.com.
  6. "Garth Brooks News Archive: Ready to ride Garth Brooks has 'Fresh Horses' for his biggest, longest tour ever". Planetgarth.com. 1995-11-21. Archived from the original on 2012-02-29. Retrieved 2012-02-16.
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 "Garth Brooks - Fresh Horses - hitparade.ch". www.swisscharts.com.
  8. "Hits of the World - Eurochart". Billboard (Nielsen Business Media, Inc.): 43. 9 December 1995. https://books.google.com/books?id=JA0EAAAAMBAJ. 
  9. "Die ganze Musik im Internet: Charts, Neuerscheinungen, Tickets, Genres, Genresuche, Genrelexikon, Künstler-Suche, Musik-Suche, Track-Suche, Ticket-Suche - musicline.de". Archived from the original on 2013-12-13. Retrieved 2013-12-10.
  10. "Hits of the World - Ireland". Billboard (Nielsen Business Media, Inc.): 85. 16 December 1995. https://books.google.com/books?id=JA0EAAAAMBAJ&q=garth+brooks. Retrieved 21 July 2012. 
  11. "Official Charts Company". www.officialcharts.com.
  12. 12.0 12.1 Illegal name entered garth brooks/garth+brooks/chart Billboard Magazine: Discography
  13. "Accreditations". Australian Recording Industry Association. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  14. "Canadian Recording Industry Association: Certification Results- February 15, 2010". CRIA. Archived from the original on 2012-09-23. Retrieved 2010-02-15.
  15. "Certified Awards". BPI. Archived from the original on 6 February 2013. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  16. "Gold & Platinum - February 12, 2010". RIAA. Archived from the original on 2007-06-26. Retrieved 2010-02-12.