Warren Zanes, adjunct faculty in Songwriting, announced the release of Garth Brooks latest volume in his Anthology series, Volume 2: The Next Five Years, which follows Volume I: The First Five Years and Volume Three: Live (yes, these were produced out of sequence). Zanes partnered with Brooks from the very beginning to create the series. They are currently working on Volume IV: The Retirement Years, which focuses on the period during which Brooks took a break from the business to raise his three daughters.
When they were introduced through Melcher Media, they clicked immediately, said Zanes. “We saw eye to eye, songwriting is storytelling art and Garth is one of the art’s most intelligent voices.”
Zanes came to the partnership with a full resume, including three albums he made with the Del Fuegos and three solo albums. He penned a collection of books, including, among others: Revolutions in Sound: Warner Bros. Records The First Fifty Years and Petty: The Biography, which Good Reads noted in its review, “No one other than Warren Zanes, rocker and writer and friend, could author a book about Tom Petty that is as honest and evocative.” Zanes also worked with Martin Scorsese on his acclaimed George Harrison documentary, Living in the Material World, and served as the executive director of Steven Van Zandt's Rock and Roll Forever Foundation.
He and Brooks, the only artist in history to have released nine albums to reach diamond status, forged a friendship while working on the anthology. On three occasions, Brooks has dropped in via Zoom on Zanes’ Songwriting history course, 14 SONGS and, in 2022, the two held a University-wide conversation. “He actually asked if it was okay to visit the class,” Zanes said, laughing. ”He’s always completely engaged and happy to answer students' questions, as well as listen to their own stories. He is the most genuine person. I keep waiting for the armor to crack, but it never does.”
