News
TIMELESS: Garth Brings Home Six Awards, Including Album of the Year, at the 1991 Academy of Country Music Awards
As the 61st Annual Academy of Country Music Awards show draws closer on May 17, we’re looking back to the 26th Annual ACM Awards show in 1991. It was a watershed event in Garth’s career. He walked away with six trophies for Entertainer of the Year, Top Male Vocalist, Album of the Year, Single of the Year, Song of the Year, and Top Country Video, riding a wave of success from No Fences that laid the foundation for Ropin’ the Wind.
Garth set a record for the most ACM wins in one night, and we’re doing a story on each award, in the order it was presented. This is the fourth story, Album of the Year.
Garth had already won Top Country Video for “The Dance,” Single Record of the Year for “Friends in Low Places,” and Song of the Year for “The Dance” when Valerie Harper announced No Fences as Album of the Year.
In his acceptance, Garth paid special tribute to studio musicians. “The pickers almost seem to write it all while they’re cutting it and get no credit,” he said, before naming each of the musicians who played on the album.
No Fences was released in August 1990, and Garth recalls how he chose the title. “I picked the album title because once you hear ‘The Thunder Rolls’ into ‘New Way to Fly’ . . . ‘Friends in Low Places,’ ‘Mr. Blue,’ ‘Unanswered Prayers,’ ‘Wolves,’ it just became clear that this record had no boundaries.”
Fueled by four consecutive #1 hits-- “Friends in Low Places,” “Unanswered Prayers,” “Two of a Kind, Workin’ on a Full House,” and “The Thunder Rolls,” No Fences was Garth’s first #1 album. It went gold soon after its release, and Capitol Records displayed a banner on their Nashville office building that proudly proclaimed, “Garth Brooks Goes Gold.” The banner was outdated almost immediately as the album was quickly certified platinum and then multi-platinum! So, they painted an “X” over the word “Gold” and added a banner underneath that said, “Platinums.” Problem solved!
No Fences was Garth’s first album to sell more than 10 million copies, earning the RIAA’s Diamond Award. It is currently certified by the RIAA at 18 million. In addition to ACM Album of the year, it was CMA Album of the Year in 1991 and Favorite Country Album at the 1992 American Music Awards.
