It’s gotten to the point where my year-end song rankings would be incomplete without this track, so I finally bit the bullet and gave the song a fair shake. After eight months of steady climbing, the song seems to be playing every time I turn on the radio, and it’s poised to reach No.

It turns out, however, that when you’re Garth freaking Brooks, the normal rules of engagement don’t apply. To mix a few phrases, I thought Brooks’s golden goose was cooked.

At the time, I decided to punt on the song and ignore it, assuming that it wouldn’t make enough of a dent on the airplay charts to make a difference: His previous single “Baby, Let’s Lay Down And Dance” only made it to #15, and aging artists usually only get one chance at a last-gasp resurgence (think Randy Travis’s “Three Wooden Crosses”). When “Ask Me How I Know” was released back in March, Brooks’s antiquated “ I determine how you listen to my songs” policy meant the track was nowhere to be found on the Internet, and I couldn’t find a full copy of the song to listen to for a review. All right Garth, you win: I’ll review your darn single.

Garth brooks nothing about me yet