CD review: Ronnie Dunn “Ronnie Dunn”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Country
Ronnie Dunn “Ronnie Dunn” (Arista Nashville)
Ronnie Dunn emerges from behind the ampersand on his self-titled solo debut, and his smooth twang sounds fresher, freer yet unquestionably familiar.
For two decades, the former Tulsan was half of Brooks & Dunn, the top-selling duo in country music history. Since the Texas-born crooner was the primary voice for the superstar pairing, which split amicably last year, the absence of Kix Brooks isn’t particularly jarring. Fans clearly haven’t been too vexed: Dunn’s solo effort already has a top 10 hit with the passionate piano anthem “Bleed Red,” a resonant plea for forgiveness and understanding.
Dunn, who grew up and got his musical start in Tulsa, opens the album by separating himself emotionally if not sonically from his platinum-selling time in the duo with “Singer in a Cowboy Band,” a foot-stomping, fun-loving ode to road-dogging with a beat-up guitar from beer joints and arenas to rodeos and casinos across Texas and Oklahoma. The singer-songsmith, who wrote or co-wrote nine of the 12 tracks, keeps the Brooks & Dunn honky-tonk vibe going on the raucous electric boot-scooter “Let the Cowboy Rock” and the Tex-Mex road song “How Far to Waco.”
But Dunn’s previously underutilized talents as a balladeer rightly get most of the spotlight on his reintroduction. After all, when your singing partner looks a bit like the Marlboro Man, it’s kind of awkward to stack the playlist with too many love songs. As a soloist, though, Dunn can croon sweet nothings to his heart’s content, and he lets the ardor flow on “Once,” “Last Love I’m Trying” and “Your Kind of Love.”
He avoids temptation on “I Don’t Dance” and gives in on “I Can’t Help Myself,” and he copes with heartache on “I Just Get Lonely” and “Love Owes Me One.” But Dunn uses his well-honed voice most effectively on the timely story-song “Cost of Livin’,” about a laid-off veteran desperately seeking any job to make ends meet.
— BAM
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SPOT ON BAM!!!!….I have this CD on repeat, repeat, repeat…… what a great voice Ronnie has….