Garth Brooks photo by Mark Tucker, courtesy of Pearl Records.

For large portions of the 100 minutes he spent on stage, Garth Brooks stood at the edge of the flooring at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena Thursday with the toes of his boots literally hanging over the edge as front-row fans clutched at his cuffs.

It was a major show of trust — and of self-control — that Garth never wavered, never lost track of the lyrics or the chords while those strangers nabbed at just a touch of the superstar’s leg.

But that also made the encore of his set particularly surprising. Garth came barrelling up from a spot beneath the flooring and tripped at the top step, tumbling into view. The timing was amusing — his pratfall came during the ironically titled “Ain’t Goin’ Down (‘Til The Sun Comes Up).”

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George Strait photo by Danny Clinch, courtesy of UMG Nashville.

Memorabilia belonging to country music’s best — from Country Music Hall of Fame member George Strait to multi-platinum act Taylor Swift — is on display in a new exhibit at the Hall of Fame and Museum, where the genre’s vault neatly escaped the ravages of Nashville’s recent flooding.

The Hall’s caretakers held an invitation-only preview Thursday for its updated exhibit, Sing Me Back Home: A Journey Though Country Music, which features a bevy of memorabilia from acts that had their commercial peaks in the last three decades. Behind the glass are such pieces as the boots Reba McEntire wore her first night on the Grand Ole Opry, the Martin D-28 guitar Garth Brooks played on his recording of “The Dance” and Bill Anderson’s hand-written lyrics to “Whiskey Lullaby.”

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Garth Brooks is all smiles as he announces his new one-man show at the Wynn in Las Vegas, Nev. during a press conference on October 15, 2009. Photo courtesy of garthbrooks.com.

It’s been four months since Garth Brooks launched his series of weekend shows at the Wynn Las Vegas, allowing him to still perform in a fairly intimate setting without actually touring until his daughters are raised.

When Garth shocked country fans by retiring from the road, he shifted his gears into parenting and planned to work on screenplays. But now that he’s been singing in a semi-regular routine again, he’s also discovered that some of the old creative juices have returned, and he’s got scraps of paper with shreds of lyrics lying around the Oklahoma house he shares with his three daughters and wife Trisha Yearwood.

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Garth Brooks is all smiles as he announces his new one-man show at the Wynn in Las Vegas, Nev. during a press conference on October 15, 2009. Photo courtesy of garthbrooks.com.

#3 on GAC’s Top Stories of 2009 |  View all »

As early as 1992, just three years into his skyrocketing career, Garth Brooks began publicly mulling retirement from the music business. The subject continued to come up frequently, though few believed anyone that successful could walk away from it all.

Garth did, in fact, go into hibernation following the release of an album in 2001, but many observers figured he would find a way to return to the spotlight. Periodically, he would emerge to promote a new compilation project or to do a charity gig, but he finally went back to performing regularly in December when he kicked off a scaled-down concert format in a surprisingly loose deal with Wynn Las Vegas. Garth essentially delivers a one-man show for 15 weekends annually over a five-year period, at which time he’s likely to begin touring once again. If either Garth or casino owner Steve Wynn is disenchanted with the arrangement, either is able to back out.

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Garth Brooks is all smiles as he announces his new one-man show at the Wynn in Las Vegas, Nev. during a press conference on October 15, 2009. Photo courtesy of garthbrooks.com.

It was supposed to be the end of Garth Brooks’ self-imposed retirement from live performing. And it was.

But now his five-year deal with Wynn Las Vegas is being hailed as a new way of doing business in America’s gambling capital.

Vegas is known for its glitz and over-the-top productions. That’s not what the audience got over the weekend. Garth showed up Friday in a hoodie and jeans, according to USA Today, kicking the show off with a cover of Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried” and spending much of his two hours on stage by taking requests. Working without a band, he logged many of his own hits, including “Friends In Low Places,” “Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)” and “The Dance.” As he often does in his solo acoustic gigs, he threw in covers of hits by such acts as George Jones, George Strait and Billy Joel. And perhaps the glitziest moment came with the introduction of a special guest — Trisha Yearwood, not much of a surprise since they live in the same house — leading to a collaboration on “Walkaway Joe.”

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