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This week: The semi-return and musical autobiography of Garth Brooks.

For the last three years, Garth Brooks — who has sold more records than anybody else on earth since SoundScan started counting in 1991, despite an eight-year retreat from music after 2001 — has broken his silence to perform an annual one-man show in Las Vegas. It’s not only a concert: it’s a stand-up comedy show, monologue, and explanation of who he is aesthetically, punctuated by pieces of his favorite songs by other artists performed alone with acoustic guitar. (The third and most recent of these concerts was broadcast by CBS the day after Thanksgiving this year.)

From that concept comes his latest album, “Blame It All on My Roots: Five Decades of Influences.” The six-disc set includes four of covers — categorized under “Country Classics,” “Blue-Eyed Soul,” “Classic Rock” or “Melting Pot” — as well as his greatest hits collection and a DVD of the Las Vegas show.

Jon Caramanica stopped by the Popcast studio to talk about the album, the TV special, and what this broken water-main of homage could mean, strategically, in Mr. Brooks’s career, which has included experiments in professional baseball (three spring training seasons with three different major league teams) and the beginning of a fictional pop alter ego, Chris Gaines, whose only album is believed, by some East Coast jazz critics, to be underrated.

Listen above, download the MP3 or subscribe in iTunes.

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Jon Caramanica on Garth Brooks.

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST

A playlist of Garth Brooks-related music (but not his own music, alas): (Spotify users can also find it here.)