From Country's newest star to Country's biggest star

In 1990, Garth Brooks had a successful and critically acclaimed debut album under his belt. Hit's like "If Tomorrow never comes" in 1989 had placed him on top of the country chart's and the single "The Dance" pushed the original "Garth Brooks" album into the pop charts.
Many wondered or doubted Brooks would be able to top his debut success.....everyone besides the people at Capitol records, who had heard "No Fences", that is.

Brooks' second album was released to an eager public halfway into 1990. However, like his debut in 1989, things didn't look promising at the start. The controversial video for "The Thunder Rolls" (which featured scenes of sex, abuse and even murder) was banned by almost every music video station in the USA.

Needless to say the public responded by placing the album (and single) to #1 in the Country charts and it won "Best video" at more than one award ceremony over the next couple of years. The track itself is more pop than country, but suits Brooks' voice better than any other (Brooks had written the song before he found his fame as a singer and had offered it to Country star, Tanya Tucker, in 1988, who turned it down).

"Two of a kind", a hard core country ditty about a love affair, cleverly compares love to a poker game ("we're two of a kind, working on a full house") and is about finding happiness with the simple things in life. This song, a popular concert number, was also a #1 hit for Brooks in 1990.

Despite "The Thunder Rolls" and "Two of a kind (working on a full house)", being huge hit's and making Garth Brooks a household name in the USA, there is no doubt that the albums big hit came with "Friends in low places". A drinking song, about finding pride in yourself, turned Garth Brooks from new country boy on the block to the level of bonafide superstardom and an eventual place as an all-time legend. The song was so popular in pushed a release of the album in Great Britain, perhaps the only place where his debut album hadn't been released, up till that point (it was eventually released there in 1999, ten years after it was put out in America, but had been available on import sometime before hand). The "No Fences" album went gold in Britain and quickly passed 5 million in sales in the USA.

Other tracks on this album and infact less rowdy than most of the hit's from it and bring a tear to your eye. They include "New way to fly", another beer drinking song, this time about lost love affairs, "Victim of the game", a song about how you should listen to yourself and not kid yourself around on false promises in life.

Garth does a wonderful fun cover of The Fleetwood's "Mr. Blue", but the most sentimental moment on "No Fences (and that's saying something) has to be "Unanswered Prayers", yet another #1 hit for Brooks, this was written by Garth himself after a chance meeting with his ex-high school sweetheart, when he realised that his life had been better after they broke up and his life since had been made more fulfilled with his loving wife by his side.

"No Fences" is Garth Brooks at his best. Ten smash songs by one of the most talented singer/songwriter's of all-time. Now, after he had been able to pull off the almost impossible by bettering his debut, many were wondering how he would be able to follow-up the excellent "No Fences". Garth provided the answer the following year with "Ropin' The wind "..........