''Sevens'' is the seventh studio album by 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 November 25, 1997, and debuted at #1 on the ''Billboard'' 200, and on 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. To date, it is Brooks' last studio album to be certified

diamond Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, b ...

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/ ...

. The album also topped the Country album charts in

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

for several months and crossed over into the mainstream pop charts. His duet with

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 ...

, "In Another's Eyes", won the

Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals The Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to quality country music collaborations for artists who do ...

at the

Grammy Awards of 1998 The 40th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 25, 1998, at Radio City Music Hall, New York City. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. Rock icon Bob Dylan, Alison Krauss & Union Station, and R. Kelly were th ...

. ''Sevens'' was nominated for the

Best Country Album The Grammy Award for Best Country Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality albums in the country music genre. Honors ...

Grammy the following year.

Background

Brooks commented on the album by saying: "I'm proud, I'm excited, I'm nervous, and it feels good to be back in the game again. This is a very personal album. I only wrote six of the songs, but there are many that are so 'me' that people I work with every day thought I wrote them."

Track listings

* A music video was made for "I Don't Have to Wonder", even though it was not released as a single. It was directed by Jon Small and Garth Brooks.

Personnel

The following credits are sourced from liner notes. * Susan Ashton – backing vocals on "She's Gonna Make It" and "You Move Me" *Sam Bacco – percussion on "You Move Me" and "Belleau Wood";

congas The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest). ...

on "She's Gonna Make It" *

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 ...

–

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 ...

– lead and backing vocals *

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 ...

– backing vocals on "Do What You Gotta Do";

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 ...

on "Do What You Gotta Do" and "When There's No One Around" * Shawn Camp – acoustic guitar on "Two Piña Coladas" *Mark Casstevens – acoustic guitar except "Fit For a King" *Mike Chapman – bass guitar *

John Cowan John Cowan (born August 24, 1953) is an American soul music and progressive bluegrass vocalist and bass guitar player. He was the lead vocalist and bass player for the New Grass Revival. Cowan became the band's bassist in 1972 after the departu ...

– backing vocals on "Do What You Gotta Do" *

Béla Fleck Béla Anton Leoš Fleck (born July 10, 1958) is an American banjo player. An acclaimed virtuoso, he is an innovative and technically proficient pioneer and ambassador of the banjo, bringing the instrument from its bluegrass roots to jazz, classi ...

– banjo on "Do What You Gotta Do" * Pat Flynn – acoustic guitar on "Do What You Gotta Do" *Kevin "Swine" Grantt – bass guitar on "Fit for a King" *Rob Hajacos –

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, the ...

*Randy Hardison – drums on "Fit for a King" *Lona Heid – backing vocals on "Fit for a King" *Randy Howard – fiddle on "Fit for a King" *

Carl Jackson Carl Eugene Jackson (born September 18, 1953) is an American country and bluegrass musician. Jackson's first Grammy was awarded in 1992 for his duet album with John Starling titled "Spring Training." In 2003 Jackson produced the Grammy Award-wi ...

– acoustic guitar and backing vocals on "Fit for a King" *Chris Leuzinger –

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

Edgar Meyer Edgar Meyer (born November 24, 1960) is an American bassist and composer. His styles include classical, bluegrass, newgrass, and jazz. He has won five Grammy Awards and been nominated seven times. Meyer is a member of the Telluride Bluegras ...

–

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

on "Belleau Wood" *

Jim Ed Norman Jim Ed Norman is an American musician, multi-platinum record producer, arranger and label-head. As an arranger and producer, he was one of the principal architects of the distinctive sound of West Coast 1970s pop and country rock. He was Preside ...

– string arrangements and conductor on "In Another's Eyes" and "A Friend to Me" *

Al Perkins Al Perkins (born January 18, 1944) is an American guitarist known primarily for his steel guitar work. The Gibson guitar company called Perkins "the world's most influential dobro player" and began producing an "Al Perkins Signature" Dobro in 2 ...

–

resonator guitar A resonator guitar or resophonic guitar is an acoustic guitar that produces sound by conducting string vibrations through the bridge to one or more spun metal cones (resonators), instead of to the guitar's sounding board (top). Resonator guit ...

on "Fit for a King" *Allen Reynolds – backing vocals on "How You Ever Gonna Know"; producer *Milton Sledge – drums except "Fit For a King"; percussion on "How You Ever Gonna Know", "When There's No One Around" and "Belleau Wood" *Catherine Styron – piano on "Fit for a King" *

Steve Wariner Steven Noel Wariner (born December 25, 1954) is an American country music singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Initially a backing musician for Dottie West, he also worked with Bob Luman and Chet Atkins before beginning a solo career in the late ...

– acoustic guitar on "Longneck Bottle" *Bobby Wood – keyboards; piano on "Longneck Bottle"; electric piano on "Cowboy Cadillac"; backing vocals on "How You Ever Gonna Know" *

– duet vocals on "In Another's Eyes" *

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 section on "In Another's Eyes" and "A Friend to Me" Crowd vocals on "Two Piña Coladas": Dorothy "The Birthday Girl" Robinson, Charles Green, Mat Lindsey, Sandy Mason, Shawn Camp, Big Al, "Double D", Sam "The Man" Duczer, Garth Brooks

Chart performance

''Sevens'' debuted at number one on the US ''Billboard'' 200, becoming his fifth, and number one on the

, becoming his seventh Country number-one album. In November 2006, ''Sevens'' was certified 10× Platinum by the

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sevens (Album) Capitol Records albums Garth Brooks albums 1997 albums Albums produced by Allen Reynolds