Brooks & Dunn
photo: gage skidmore · cc by-sa 3.0 ↗Formed in 1990 at the suggestion of producer Tim DuBois, the duo of Kix Brooks (b. 1955) and Ronnie Dunn (b. 1953) fused rowdy, rock-inflected honky-tonk with smooth country-pop balladry. Their 1991 debut single "Brand New Man" kicked off a run as the top-selling country duo of all time, defining the loud, boot-scooting side of 1990s Nashville.
Ronnie Dunn came up steeped in classic honky-tonk songwriting and cites Merle Haggard among the singers whose storytelling and vocal directness shaped him. It surfaces in Brooks & Dunn's plainer, waltz-time barroom numbers.
listen forPut on Haggard's "Mama Tried" and then Brooks & Dunn's "Neon Moon" — both ride a spare, unhurried honky-tonk shuffle built for a half-empty bar at closing time.
Alongside Haggard, Ronnie Dunn has pointed to George Jones's soulful, story-driven vocals as a formative influence — audible in Brooks & Dunn's more melodramatic, narrative-heavy ballads.
listen forCompare Jones's aching "He Stopped Loving Her Today" to Brooks & Dunn's "She's Not the Cheatin' Kind" — both hinge on a slow-building, story-song vocal that leans hard into every twist of the lyric.
Ronnie Dunn has said it was Willie Nelson who first turned him on to country music growing up in Texas — the plainspoken, road-worn storytelling of the outlaw generation feeds Brooks & Dunn's more reflective, rambling numbers.
listen forListen for the loose, front-porch phrasing of Willie's outlaw era on his classics, then hear that same rambling, open-road sensibility in Brooks & Dunn's "Red Dirt Road," a plainspoken hometown reminiscence rather than a barroom stomper.