How James Taylor Inspired What Became One of Garth Brooks’ Most Heartwarming Songs

In 1992, Garth Brooks released “The River“. Written by Brooks and Victoria Shaw, the song appears on Ropin’ The Wind, his third studio album.

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A No. 1 hit for Brooks, “The River” is more serious and heartwarming than his previous singles. A song about determination, the chorus says, “I will sail my vessel / ‘Til the river runs dry / Like a bird upon the wind / These waters are my sky / I’ll never reach my destination / If I never try / So I will sail my vessel / ‘Til the river runs dry.”

The two were writing at Shaw’s home in Nashville, but were stuck on an idea for what to write about.

“We were blank, so blank,” Shaw recalled (via Songfacts). “And so finally, he said, ‘You know what? Let’s just take a break. What are you listening to on the stereo?’ And I had just bought this new James Taylor CD, so I put it on, and we were just listening to it … and it got us in a mood.”

It wasn’t long after they started listening to Taylor when inspiration struck Brooks.

“All of a sudden, in the middle of (a song), he goes, ‘Turn it off. I’ve got something,’” Shaw recounted. “He literally picked up a guitar and just went, ‘You know a dream is like a river…’ He had probably the first few lines. They just came out, and it was like, ‘Oh, OK, that’s where we’re going.’”

Shaw admitted that she initially disliked the word “vessel”. Fortunately, Brooks convinced her to keep the word in the lyric.

“I did try to talk him out of (using the word) ‘vessel,’” Shaw said. “I thought that was a weird word. And now ‘vessel’ is one of my favorite words.”

What Garth Brooks Says About James Taylor

Taylor might have served as the inspiration for “The River”. But, truthfully, he inspires much of Brooks’s now-legendary career.

“My older brother Mike brought a James Taylor record into our house, and our house finally agreed on one music,” Brooks told American Songwriter. “I owe James my life because, you know, our house was not an easy house to grow up in. If you had an argument, you ended up in the backyard.

“But if you came home and heard James Taylor on the stereo, it was going to be a good, peaceful, wonderful night,” He added. “I’ve tried to explain that to James, how much I appreciate it. But he’ll never know the godsend he was to our family.” 

When Shaw and Brooks wrote “The River”, he was still new in his career. He held onto the song, but did not include it on his sophomore album, No Fences. But by the time he created Ropin’ The Wind, he knew the song was perfect. Brooks’s future wife, Trisha Yearwood, sings background vocals on the song.

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