My roommate wasn’t home that afternoon. I used to share a house with Jess Leary who went on to write hits like “Where the Green Grass Grows” and “Mi Via Loca.” Back then we were just trying to get noticed. Victoria Shaw: Garth and I wrote “The River” in my little house in East Nashville on McCarn St. For more, read our interview with Shaw, who talks about “The River” below:Īmerican Songwriter: When and where did you and Garth write “The River?” It can live on longer than anyone-even the dreamer-expects. Today the songwriter, of course, is still going strong, selling out shows, releasing music, and maintaining his status as one of the most important performers in country music, even 30 years after the release of “The River.”īut that’s what a dream can do. ![]() ![]() For the stadium-filling, “The River” is just another chance to imbue passion into the hearts of many.Īnd doing so, singing this way, both emboldens his audience and Brooks himself. Perhaps more than anything else, Brooks’ ability to inspire both large groups of people and individuals is his biggest superpower. To begin the song, Brooks delivers the lyrics with a fragile, hopeful voice: One of the greatest awards that this song has ever received was the fact that it was played at Dale Wehr’s funeral. And this is what happens when two dreamers get together and write from the heart. Victoria Shaw is a wonderful writer and a wonderful friend. ![]() “ Of all songs, most of the letters I receive concern ‘The River.’ It is a song of inspiration… a song that I will be proud of a hundred years from now. In the liner notes for his 1994 greatest hits compilation record, The Hits, Brooks wrote: And it appeared on Brooks’ album that year, Ropin’ the Wind, his third studio LP. Hot Country Songs and Canada Country Tracks. The meaning behind the song itself is centered on the idea of following your dreams no matter how turbulent life can be.įollowing its release in 1991, “The River” later hit No. Brooks co-wrote the song with award-winning American country artist Victoria Shaw (more on her below!). Just one dreamer helping another to push on through life’s rapids and impending shores.įor the 59-yeard-old Tulsa, Oklahoma-born Brooks, “The River” has lasted as one of his most beloved songs throughout the decades. So, that’s why when Brooks says he was inspired by Taylor to write his hit song, “The River,” it’s a big deal. But he’ll never know the godsend he was to our family.” I’ve tried to explain that to James, how much I appreciate it. “But if you came home and heard James Taylor on the stereo, it was going to be a good, peaceful, wonderful night. If you had an argument, you ended up in the backyard. “I owe James my life because, you know, our house was not an easy house to grow up in. “My older brother Mike brought a James Taylor record into our house and our house finally agreed on one music,” Brooks told American Songwriter in 2020. Brooks, who was raised in both a music-loving and at times-rough-and-tumble household, said that at any time, there could be fisticuffs afoot but when he came home and heard Taylor on the stereo, he knew things were okay. ![]() In our cover story with the legend Garth Brooks, he told American Songwriter how important James Taylor was to him while growing up.
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