Chris Gaines

It was ten years ago that the Chris Gaines album came out. It was also ten years that the media gave itself a blackeye, by trashing one of the most incredible pieces of art in music history.

The media's treatment of this album was sickening. Garth actually had to put up with late night phone calls from Journalists asking him if he was suffering from a nervous breakdown and if he had a disorder that they were unaware of.

For some reason the media played dumb and couldn't figure out the concept. They came out with one liners, bagging the album before they ever listened to it.

If they did research, they would know Chris Gaines was given life in 1996, when Garth Brooks wrote a screen play about a fictional grunge artist from Australia who suffers a horrific car accident, according to the rumors in 1996 the plot also involved a murder the night of the grammy's with a coverup that gets uncovered by a journalist.

That was in 1996, paramount signed up to make the movie in 2000, but wanted Garth to do the soundtrack in 1999, which he did in the typical Garth way.

No stone was left unturn in the life of Chris Gaines, Chris's background, his parent background, his musical biography.

Apparently that wasn't enough for the media, they still played dumb, the reminded me of high school bullies when the geeky kids announces he's doing an experiment that they don't understand they just mock it and ask questions that are meant to embarrass.

So the album got released, there weren't actual reviews of the albums just pathetic questions directed to Garth, the album or movie didn't stand a chance, and then the screenwriter's wife was diagnosed with an aggresive form of cancer, delaying the final script, and Garth didn't want to push the man whilst his wife was ill.

(Thanks to BLL from Planet Garth for the information about the screenwriter, part of this blog post is taken from his message at the Planet Garth forums)

That was a crying shame because the music on the album was pure genius, this wasn't some ego driven project like Eminem's eight mile. The specific reason Garth made it about a Aussie grunge artist was that people couldn't say that hes making a movie about himself.

The handful of critics that actually reviewed the music, compared the style to a cross between Dylan and the Beatles. If you were handed the album and not told of the artist's name you would be blown away by the melody's, the soulfulness of the lyrics and the message, IMHO Garth's Chris Gaines's album was on a level of the best pieces of musical art in history.

I'm guessing if the Chris Gaines was thought up by Eddie Vedder or Eminem or any artist that wasn't involved in country music, it would of sweep the grammy's.

It's too bad the media hasn't grown up yet, I'm guessing they are saving all their good reviews for Britney Spears.

Meanwhile an album with such Classics as Lost in you and Drifitng Away and It don't matter to the sun is put to the back burner because the artist that created them was named Garth Brooks.

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