''Ropin' the Wind'' is the third studio album by the American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

artist

Garth Brooks Troyal Garth Brooks (born February 7, 1962) is an American country music singer and songwriter. His integration of pop and rock elements into the country genre has earned him popularity, particularly in the United States with success on the co ...

. It was released on September 2, 1991, and was his first studio album to debut at No. 1 the ''Billboard'' 200 chart and the

Top Country Albums Top Country Albums is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The 50-position chart lists the most popular country music albums in the country, calculated weekly by Broadcast Data Systems based on physical sales ...

chart. It was the first album by a country singer to top both of these charts since

Kenny Rogers Kenneth Ray Rogers (August 21, 1938 – March 20, 2020) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Rogers was particularly popular with country audiences but also charted mo ...

just over a decade earlier. It had four runs at No. 1 between September 28, 1991, and April 3, 1992, spending a combined 18 weeks at the top, eventually being certified 14× Platinum by the RIAA in 1998. In the UK, it reached the Top 50 pop albums list and went to No. 1 for several months on the country charts. It is the last studio album on Capitol Records Nashville until the 1995 album '' Fresh Horses''. The track "Shameless" is a cover version of a

Billy Joel William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American singer, pianist and songwriter. Commonly nicknamed the "Piano Man" after his album and signature song of the same name, he has led a commercially successful career as a solo artist since th ...

song recorded on his 1989 album '' Storm Front''. According to the music review website ''

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...

'', ''Ropin' the Wind'' was the first country album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

Background

Brooks commented on the album saying: "''Ropin' the Wind'' was what we called the son of ''Fences''. ''Ropin' the Wind'' was made in this kind of tour that we were on from ''No Fences''. We were gone, pretty much 250 days out of the year. And in that remaining 100 days, I elected to cut ''Ropin' The Wind'', and try to write for it. This album became a lot bigger than I ever thought it could possibly be. And when I listen to the singles off of it like 'Rodeo', 'What She's Doing Now', 'The River', 'Papa Loved Mama', and 'Shameless', I look at it and stand very proud. And then when I also look at the cuts, 'Against The Grain', 'Cold Shoulder', these songs I am equally proud of."

Reception

''Ropin' the Wind'' debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200, becoming his first, and No. 1 on the

number-one album selling 400,000 copies, becoming his second No. 1 country album. In September 1998, ''Ropin' the Wind'' was certified 14 x platinum by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/ ...

Track listing

Personnel

*Garth Brooks – lead and backing vocals, acoustic guitar * Susan Ashton – backing vocals *

Bruce Bouton Bruce Bouton is an American guitarist, session musician, producer, and songwriter. His pedal steel guitar has been featured on many country music recordings, and he helped reintroduce the pedal steel guitar to the forefront of the Nashville sound ...

–

lap A lap is a surface (usually horizontal) created between the knee and hips of a biped when it is in a seated or lying down position. The lap of a parent or loved one is seen as a physically and psychologically comfortable place for a child to s ...

and

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all steel guitars, it can ...

Dobro Dobro is an American brand of resonator guitars, currently owned by Gibson (guitar company), Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. ...

Sam Bush Charles Samuel Bush (born April 13, 1952) is an American mandolinist who is considered an originator of progressive bluegrass music. In 2020, he was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame as a member of New Grass Reviva ...

–

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of ...

*Mark Casstevens – acoustic guitar *Mike Chapman – bass guitar *Charles Cochran – string arrangements *

Larry Cordle Larry Cordle (born November 16, 1948) is an American country and bluegrass singer-songwriter . Cordle is most famous for his song " Murder on Music Row", which was recorded by George Strait and Alan Jackson and received the Country Music Ass ...

– backing vocals * Jerry Douglas – Dobro * Carl Jackson – backing vocals *Chris Leuzinger – electric guitar *Rob Hajacos – fiddle *

Kenny Malone Kenny Malone (August 4, 1938 – August 26, 2021) was an American drummer and percussionist. Life and career Malone was born in Denver, Colorado. From the 1970s onwards, he was a prominent session musician in folk, country and many other acousti ...

- percussion * Edgar Meyer – acoustic bass *Milton Sledge – drums, percussion * Bobby Wood – keyboards *

Trisha Yearwood Patricia Lynn Yearwood (born September 19, 1964) is an American singer, actress, author and television personality. She rose to fame with her 1991 debut single " She's in Love with the Boy," which became a number one hit on the ''Billboard'' c ...

– backing vocals *

Nashville String Machine Nashville String Machine is a musical collective comprising session musicians, based in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Members of the group have been credited on records dating from 1972 to the present, although the group was formally formed ...

–

string orchestra A string orchestra is an orchestra consisting solely of a string section made up of the bowed strings used in Western Classical music. The instruments of such an orchestra are most often the following: the violin, which is divided into first ...

Charts

Weekly charts

Singles

Other charted songs

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications and sales

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ropin' The Wind 1991 albums Garth Brooks albums Albums produced by Allen Reynolds Liberty Records albums Canadian Country Music Association Top Selling Album albums