Garth Brooks Signs with Sony, Reveals Plans for New Album, and Previews Tour Announcement as Soon as Monday

Garth Brooks put out a lot of publicity regarding his press conference this week, and he didn't let fans down. The event, which had been moved from Monday to Thursday to this week, included announcements that we expected and ones that we don't.

Let's start with what we expected: Brooks confirmed that he had signed with Sony Music and RCA Nashville. More importantly, the country icon confirmed that he had entered the studio to record his first wholly new album since 2001's Scarecrow. He couldn't offer a release date or a title, but he acknowledged that it would be the first record in his discography not produced by Allen Reynolds, his longtime recording partner. Mark Miller, the engineer for all of his previous albums, will step up to fill the role, so Brooks still has his old "team" together for the new "double album." Brooks suggested that fans could hear new music within two months.

Now the unexpected: Brooks revealed that for the first time, his catalogue would be going digital. The performer had long rejected the notion of putting his music on services such as iTunes because he believed (and many will agree) that those services don't do justice by songwriters. Thus Brooks will be handling digitization his way, and the new format will only be available through GarthBrooks.com. That may cause some trouble down the line, but it could also result in big profit for the star, who has a history of making money.

A tour was confirmed, but those looking for dates will have to wait. Brooks related a tale where a fan from Atlanta asked what would be the opening for his "world tour" (long before anything was official). Brooks promised the fan that "Andy" would be the first to know the first date. He told the reporters gathered that he would call Andy on July 14 to reveal the first date, and then the fan could do with it what he pleased. So expect to know at least one date on Monday.

"I hope we give you a show that makes you forget about the ones in the '90s," Brooks said to preview the tour however.

The current Dublin scenario wasn't avoided. Brooks explained that he refused to do any shows if he couldn't perform the two dates that didn't receive permits from the city. The performer likened to his policy of charging the same price for all tickets, and that it wouldn't be fair to the 160,000 who lost their tickets if he played for the other 240,000. He noted that the second pair of shows were added because the city of Limerick experienced a blackout during sales of the original tickets, and the performer felt that it was only fair to offer them a second shot.

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