Brooks and Dunn
Now on their third album, Brooks and Dunn are at the forefront of that most critically disdained segment of contemporary country, the line-dance movement. Their debut album, 1991’s Brand New Man, sold four million copies, unleashed five hit singles, and gave the movement its biggest anthem, “Boot Scootin’ Boogie.” The liner notes couch the history of the duo’s formation in the guise of a western tale: two drifters meet up on the sun-scorched plains and decide to hook up. “How far you goin’?” asks Brooks. Dunn responds with a statement that proves to be prophetic: “Far as I can.” The real story is far less romantic. After pursuing separate failed solo careers, Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn were teamed up by Arista honcho Tim DuBois and took a last-gasp stab at success as a duo. They were a commercial smash out of the gate, and three albums later they’re still riding high–not on the range, but on country radio and in arenas.
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By comparison Ronnie Dunn is the tasteful one. He’s a tall, slim, bearded guy in black with a forelock jutting out like a cockatoo’s crest. One of today’s most underrated country singers, Dunn has a piercing nasal twang that cuts across an arena like Ajax through a stain; it’s no accident that the duo’s best songs are the ones he sings lead on. Together these two balanced their differences among the skulls and spotlights, all the way to the really big finish: a swaying Macy’s Parade-sized cow skull balloon that rose and backdropped the stage from floor to ceiling, signaling the start of a blasting, tinnitus-causing version of “Boot Scootin’ Boogie.”
