Garth Brooks bandwagon: How to fake your way through a night of 90s country music

Garth Brooks was the biggest thing to happen to country music since pick-ups and broken hearts but if you have a ticket to his show in Saskatoon and you're not exactly a superfan, here's a cheat sheet to get you through.

Brooks is playing the first ofsix shows at SaskTel Centre tonight. He hastwo back-to-back concerts scheduled for Friday and Saturday night before playing his last show on Sunday.

• Garth Brooks to play 6 concerts in Saskatoon with record-breaking ticket sales

• SaskTel Centre says it's ready for Garth Brooks concert parking

The music

Garth Brooks released his first album in 1989 and became the poster boy for putting pop into country during the 1990s.

It didn't come without criticism from the establishment in Nashville, but the fans loved it.

Brooks has sold more music than Elvis Presley.

Here are a few hit songs any insta-fanneedsto know:

• Friends in Low Places.
• The Dance.
• Rodeo.
• The Thunder Rolls.
• Ain't Goin' Down (Till the Sun Comes Up).
• Callin' Baton Rouge.
• The River.
• That Summer.

Country music in the 1990s was all about mashing up traditional cowboy themes with pop glitz and glamour.

Brooks' trademark hat was often matched with loud "new country" cowboy clothes and a wireless headset mic that allowed for his unique high-energy shows.

Brooks' concerts were characterized by big pyrotechnics and plenty of on-stage antics.

Groundbreaking

Garth Brooks used his music to champion a couple social issues in the 1990s.

His song "We Shall Be Free" won a GLADD award in 1993 for its message about inclusion and social issues.

The music video for "Standing Outside the Fire" won acclaim from advocates for the Special Olympics after it tells the story of an athlete with Down syndrome.

Chris Gaines

As Brooks'career wore on in the late 90s, he adopted an alter ego and produced harder edged rock music. Both the alter ego and the music was panned by critics and fans. We don't like to talk about this time.

Personal life

Brooks' fame only increased when he married fellow 90s country superstar, Trisha Yearwood, in 2005. It came after his divorce from his first wife, with whom he'd been with since before his music career.

Yearwood's own hits include "XXXs and OOOs", "How Do I Live" and "Perfect Love".

One album

If you only have time to listen to one album before the shows in Saskatoon, make it the "The Hits" from 1994. Aside from being a time machine back to the prime of the 1990s country music renaissance, everyone else will be singing along to every song on it.

But don't bother looking on iTunes. Brooks never got on that bandwagon, instead choosing to make his digital music available on Ghost Tunes.

Quick facts:

• His real name is Troyal Garth Brooks.

• He has a degree in advertising

• He hashosted Saturday Night Live twice (1998,1999).

• Brooks retired in 2000 to stay home and raise his children. He returned to performing in Las Vegas a few years ago before launching his current comeback tour.

Chris Lane's Garth Brooks collection is mostly on cassette and he can still out-sing you on "Ain't Going Down (Till The Sun Comes up)". He's also the senior producer of news at CBC Saskatchewan.