Garth Brooks & Trisha Yearwood Do Yankee Stadium – July 8th and 9th, 2016

The first country music concert ever at Yankee Stadium happened on Friday night followed by the second one the following evening. These were the first shows for Garth Brooks since the freebie in Central Park that drew between 300,000 and a million depending on who you’re talking to. Regardless, he‘s got brigades of loyal fans who filled up the Bronx joint twice without any problem.

Brooks spoke highly of George Strait, Chris LeDoux, and Billy Joel in the press conference on Friday prior to the show. He characterized Strait as an idol and LeDoux as someone he “stole everything he could” while pointing out his bona fides as a cowboy as well as a musician. He saved his highest praise for Joel however, who he covered during his performance as well as Bob Dylan. Brooks appeared on stage with Joel in 2008, wearing a Mets jersey no less, at Shea Stadium when the piano man played a guest star studded string of shows to mark the closing of that Flushing Meadows venue. Regarding the spectacle, the Tulsa born artist mentioned Queen and Kiss as acts he looked towards when designing the stage and show.

When I spoke to Brooks one on one for a few minutes after the press conference, he mentioned that he was unsure of his own pen after not writing songs for so long. That’s the reason he co-wrote only 3 of the 14 songs on Man Against Machine. He’s getting back in the groove these days and promises that his next album will feature more melodies and lyrics of his creation. In addition to the Christmas Brooks/Yearwood duet album on the way that will include their first song (it’s about Thanksgiving) written together, he’s got a new radio station on Sirius/XM and she has a cooking show on the food network.

Note: Saturday night’s show was delayed for hours because of thunderstorms so Yearwood did not open but appeared as a mid-set special guest.