Ronnie Dunn Goes Honky Tonking on New Album
After 28 Academy of Country Music Awards, 19 Country Music Association Awards, two Grammy Awards, and more than 30 million records sold as part of Brooks & Dunn, Ronnie Dunn has certainly earned the right to rest on his laurels.
But the lead singer of country music’s most awarded duo just loves the music business too much to call it a career.
More from WWD
Travis Barker, Halsey and Lil Wayne Join Machine Gun Kelly's L.A. Concert
Dixie D'Amelio Kicks Off Album Launch with Party at Nightingale
“It’s just for the love of music,” he said. “That’s what I got into it for. It’s not for the money. It’s just for the pure enjoyment.”
The result is his fifth solo album, “100 Proof Neon,” a toe-tapping throwback to ’80s and ’90s country with cuts that are reminiscent of the heyday of Brooks & Dunn. It was released on Friday.
“This is a project that I’ve wanted to make for a long time,” he said. “I purposely reached for a late ’80s and ’90s country vibe: honky tonks, whiskey, neon lights, lost love, looking for love, twin fiddles, steel guitars and string-bending telecasters.”
His favorite song on the album is the first single, “Broken Neon Hearts,” as well as “The Blade,” a slow tempo number by Allen Shamblin, Marc Beeson and Jamie Floyd that he placed deliberately “right in the middle of my jukebox honky tonk madness. I wasn’t a part of writing it, but it’s an incredible song.”
Next up is “Road to Abilene,” a duet with Parker McCollum. “We were in the office just listening to voices and styles,” he said, searching for people to be invited to be guests on the record, Dunn said. “I heard him and said, ‘There’s a voice I wouldn’t mind incorporating into the mix.’ Then he shows up in a big white Corvette, all revved up. He walked in and he looks like he just stepped off a baseball field. He’s a good-looking guy. But when he walked up to the microphone, he nailed it.”
The album also features another duet with Jake Worthington who placed second on the sixth season of “The Voice.” Although he’s only 26, Worthington has a voice that sounds much older and when Dunn first heard it, he was impressed. “He sounds like Lefty Frizzell to me,” he said. “I love him.”
There’s one thing every song on the album has in common, and it was Dunn’s wife Janine who actually noticed it first. “She said every song has honky tonk in it,” he said. “I didn’t even think about that. I just picked the songs I liked. So that’s where the title for the record came from: ‘100 Proof Neon.’ If you’re going to do, you’ve got to own it.”
Dunn has been owning it for a long time. It was in 2009, after 20 years together, that he and Kix Brooks took a break from their successful music career. Dunn released several solo albums, while Brooks hosts a popular national radio show. “I was burned out from the road and being gone all the time and having to play that frantic corporate game with the label and the machine,” Dunn said.
But in 2015, they reunited for a Las Vegas residency show with Reba McEntire, and four years later, released “Reboot,” re-recordings of some of their most popular songs as duets with the current generation of country artists, such as Luke Combs and Kacey Musgraves. They’re touring the country for “Reboot” and will continue playing shows across the country this summer.
At the same time, Dunn will also be promoting “100 Proof Neon” on social media, television and by playing some smaller venues and theaters after its release. “I feel like I have a little more freedom to find a jukebox, a smoky bar or a honky tonk, then dive in and see what really comes out in the dark,” he said. “We’re just going to go cowboy on it.”
One thing he’s not banking on, however, is hearing his songs played on the radio.
Although a lot of older artists are still recording music, their songs seldom gets played on contemporary country stations. But Dunn’s OK with that. “You get to a certain point and a certain age and there are mandates and rules about bringing in the next act. That’s radio. But cycles change and now we have steaming. I never hear younger kids saying they listen to the radio. It’s Spotify, Apple — we’re doing a big initiative right now with Apple. They came on board with a full-fledged everything.” Dunn will be part of Apple Music Sessions, live shows from Nashville that have already featured Carrie Underwood and Tenille Townes.
At 69 years old, Dunn jokes that he’s the “old guy” in Nashville, but he’s worked with a lot of country’s new crop, including Combs, Hardy and Morgan Wallen. He singled out Wallen and his “Dangerous” double album as one of his favorites. “It’s hard to get around how good that record is and the talent that he has.” Another favorite is Cody Johnson, who he called a “killer singer,” and Lainey Wilson, who he worked with on the Apple Sessions.
Jim Arndt
In addition to singing and songwriting, Dunn also started his own publishing company, Perfect Pitch Publishing, which currently has four writers on its roster. “I walk through the room and try to act like the guru, but I get no respect at all,” he said with a laugh. “It’s like when the old guy leaves, they can get back to writing.”
But in all seriousness, he always advises them and other young artists seeking their big break to “just keep chasing what they love doing. You can write 500 songs and number 500 is probably better than number one.”
In addition to his music, Dunn is also a dedicated photographer, specializing in outdoor and Western imagery. In 2017, he founded the Lensmen Project, a fine art gallery headquartered in Nashville. He’s shot Cheyenne Frontier Days, and one of his photos was used on the cover of Cowboys & Indians magazine, and has traveled to Alaska to shoot bears in the Funnel, as well as Africa, the Galapagos Islands and other famed locations.
So, what’s next for Dunn?
“I’m just going to run this Brooks & Dunn thing because it’s more fun than ever,” he said. “I have a cowboy project coming up and I got a call the other day to do a duet with somebody, but I can’t say who yet. And if I get bored, I’ll just go out to the farm and take some pictures.”
Best of WWD
Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
