Garth 2

PARTY ON, GARTH: An official announcement has Garth Brooks' forthcoming Pearl/RCA Nashville album streeting around Black Friday (see our story here). Sony will distribute the set and coordinate marketing, and RCA Nashville will work it at Country radio. He's seen above letting out a collective "yee-haw" with Sony Music chief Doug Morris who joined him for the announcement, EVP Biz Affairs Julie Swidler, EVP/CFO Kevin Kelleher, Sony Nashville chief Gary O and other key players (roll over the pic for the left-to-rights). Despite his being downright loquacious during this morning's press conference, Brooks did leave a lot of questions unanswered (or at least "TBA"). Is his forthcoming album with RCA Nashville only going to be digitally available as part of the trove to be uploaded "in a few weeks" on GarthBrooks.com, or will he make an exception for the new release and make it available on iTunes? Is Sony's participation physical only? This would still likely mean a huge retail play; Garth has sold nearly 900k of his box set in six months via Walmart exclusively, and he explicitly said today that the new album will go to all physical retailers. (7/10p)