Brooks & Dunn News

by HEATHER MCCLURE

Daily Staff Writer

What do you get when you combine one of the most successful and energetic duos in recording history, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, and the fiery red-head who is country music's lead female vocalist?

An unbelievable high-energy concert full of a wide range of musical talent and wild audience cries for more.

The concert, which was supposed to begin with all three artists, did not start out according to plans.

It seems Reba was detained unexpectedly and did not join the duo until halfway through the show.

Even without Reba, the concert began in a volcanic explosion -- well, Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn kinda appeared from this volcano -- and began a high-powered show that had the audience, especially the women, on their feet with "Little Miss Honky Tonk" and moved immediately into "Lost and Found" from their "Brand New Man" album.

And if any concert goer was afraid of missing the action, they didn't worry long because there were four big overhead screens so even those in the nose-bleed section could see the sweat dripping off their favorite artist.

Although Brooks & Dunn have rapidly found their way to country music fame, they seem to not have forgotten who helped them get there -- the fans.

You never heard either one say the normal cheesy concert stuff like, "Hey, we're sure glad to be here in Ames, Iowa."

There's nothing like the audience going wild over that half-baked, my-manager-just-told-me-where-I-am line.

What they did do was talk to the audience, paid special attention to the little kids in the front row, gave away what seemed to be several hundred drumsticks, accepted flowers and Brooks even brought a little girl on stage during "Boot Scootin' Boogie" to dance with him.

Sure, some of it they may say at every show. There are 85 of them on the Mobil 1 tour. But, for the most part, it was their normal conversation and spur-of-the-moment style that won the audience over.

However, their stage presence went beyond talking to the audience. Brooks & Dunn not only worked well together musically, their personalities are just different enough to compliment the other's. The on-stage banter between the two was as much fun to listen to as the music.

One more element you only get at a live show and not on an album is Brooks' vast amounts of energy. This is one way to show how different the two are.

As Dunn just kinda hangs out on stage, Brooks is running down the catwalk and reaching all corners of the stage several times during a song.

It seems the sheer energy of the concert takes over his body and, if he is tired, I don't think he notices until later.

Brooks & Dunn continued with their No. 1 hits like "My Maria," "Neon Moon," "Hard Workin' Man," "Brand New Man" and brought out four giant blow-up dolls for "Rock My World (Little Country Girl)."

Perhaps the most gripping part of their performance was during a song the two dedicated to Lane Frost. For those of you who aren't into championship bull riding, Frost was at the top of his career when died tragically.

After riding an "unridable" bull, the bull decided to attack Frost, breaking a rib which, in turn, punctured a lung. If you want the whole story, go rent "8 Seconds."

The song didn't have the audience in awe because of the dedication to Frost though. On the big screens overhead, there was footage of Tuff Hedeman, a three-time champion bull rider, when he got caught up after riding in Las Vegas a couple of years ago.

It was completely gripping and it seemed as though everyone had stopped breathing while waiting to see what happened.

Eventually Brooks & Dunn disappeared off of the stage, which only meant one thing -- Reba had arrived, which seemed to please the men in the audience.

Before I begin, let me say the woman who has a reputation of changing her clothes several times throughout a performance, only changed three times.

Because Reba has been recording since the late 70s, she had to pick the best of the best, incorporating her old with her new. She did this with songs like "Tell Me Why," "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia," "The Fear of Being Alone," "Take It Back," "Why Haven't I Heard From You," "You Lie" and her all-time classic, "Fancy."

There were two songs that stuck out most -- "I'd Rather Ride Around With You" and "Does He Love You."

The first was fun because someone had taken the time to film footage of Ames and put it together for the big screen.

Shots of Campustown, the Campanile and all of the other wonderful things that make up Ames were shown.

For "Does He Love You," Linda Davis appeared on stage. It was an amazing performance between the two that showed off not only Reba's vocal abilities but Davis' as well. Unlike the video, Reba didn't blow anyone up in the end.

Although Reba's performance was incredible, the audience changed. As most were on their feet and dancing where they could for Brooks & Dunn, they seemed to sit for Reba and the applause didn't seem as loud.

Maybe everyone was tired, maybe it's because Reba did play a lot more slower tunes than Brooks & Dunn or maybe everyone was content to sit back and enjoy -- whatever the reason, this didn't stop her from taking the stage with just as much energy as Brooks and Dunn combined.

The show ended with a duet by Dunn and Reba, followed by an explosion of fireworks from which Brooks appeared and ran down the catwalk wearing a number 50 Iowa State Men's Basketball jersey.

The two-and-a-half-hour concert, with no intermissions, was nothing but an intense, high-energy concert.

If the performance is as popular in the other 84 tour cities as it was in Ames, then Mobil 1 may have sponsored one of the most successful tours in country music history.

----------------------------------------------------------------- Brooks & Dunn Astrodome, Houston, Feb. 19, 1997

On Day 6 of the Rodeo, country music's entertainers of the year came to town for the first of two shows, and of course, the crowd came out to hear them – 50,274 strong. Or maybe the audience came more to see them. After all, much of Brooks & Dunn's music, though certainly not all, epitomizes what is wrong with country music today – pounding drums and blaring electric guitars designed to get people dancing, and predictable, silly lyrics that fail to make any kind of emotional connection.

However, the guys are great entertainers, and in the current country music climate, showmanship goes a long way. Tonight's show began with a cattle stampede in front of wild lightning on the Astrodome's big screens, and while that was playing, Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn walked out across the Dome's floor to the loud drumbeat and guitars of their stereotypical country dance song, "Little Miss Honky Tonk." As uninteresting as that song's lyrics are, Kix's enthusiastic guitar playing and the song's big sound drew screams and cheers from the audience.

Another hit with the audience was "Boot Scootin' Boogie," which was disguised at the beginning by an awesome fiddle solo and a crazy dance by Brooks. When the crowd recognized the song's opening notes, it just erupted.

The duo reached a new level of cheese, however, with "Rock My World (Little Country Girl)." The crowd participation part (half the crowd screaming, "rock my world," and the other half, "little country girl") wasn't so bad, but the two King-Kong-sized blow-up country girls in halter tops and short shorts at either side of the stage were just too much.

Another problem was that Dunn didn't really seem to want to be there. He seldom cracked a smile, even when he was telling a story about his wife interrupting him while he was watching the Super Bowl. His wife was unhappy that he always writes songs about beer drinking, pickup trucks, and rodeo and told him he doesn't have a sensitive bone in his body. It was a cute story, but Dunn's heart didn't seem to be in the delivery.

Dunn is always laid-back, though, so maybe he's difficult to judge. Brooks is the flamboyant one in the duo, beginning with his clothing (a wild red, white, and black patterned shirt and blue jeans versus Dunn's all-black attire) and extending to his stage presence. Brooks works the stage well and even came down onto the Astrodome floor to dance with a woman during "Boot Scootin' Boogie."

Brooks had his moment of humor, too. "I was gonna be a rodeo cowboy growing up," he told the rodeo audience. "Took a wrong turn somewhere, ended up a hillbilly on a merry- go-round." He also took some time to needle Dunn, but he just didn't seem to be as wild and crazy as he has been in the past.

Maybe the duo is unhappy with the way they have been pigeonholed. Ever since "Boot Scootin' Boogie," fans just expect line-dance song after line-dance song, with a power ballad thrown in every now and then. Listening to them in concert, however, and getting to hear most of their singles in succession, one realizes that at one time the duo was about more than dance music.

Several years ago, before the line-dance craze, Brooks & Dunn were putting out great, high-energy honky-tonk music. Songs like "My Next Broken Heart" and tonight's closer, "Brand New Man," are still great pieces of real country music. "Lost and Found" would have been another highlight, but it was the second song in the show, and Kix sounded hoarse and had a hard time singing.

The show-stopper was "Neon Moon." (Funny how all of the best songs are from the duo's debut album, isn't it?) For the first verse, Dunn was backed only by an acoustic guitar and a tambourine to keep the beat, and then a steel guitar joined in.

It's on stripped-down songs like this that the band's true talent shine's through. The acoustic and steel guitar playing were gorgeous, and Dunn proved that he has one of the richest, strongest male voices in country music today.

"A Man This Lonely" gave Dunn another chance to shine vocally, and he took full advantage by belting out the tune's lyrics of heartbreak with a powerful vibrato. He showed that he can sing ballads with the best of them, even though he often wastes himself on songs that fail to use his vocal talent.

After "Lost and Found," Brooks found his voice, and although he has nowhere near the talent of his partner, he did a fine job on "You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone." He also sang an acoustic tribute to the late bull rider Lane Frost while spine-chilling footage of the cowboy's tangle with a bull played on the big screen.

Thus, the problem with Brooks & Dunn is not that they have no talent or that their career has been built solely upon image. It's that they've let their music, which was once interesting and creative, be dominated by the expectations of their fans and country radio. "Boot Scootin' Boogie" was the best thing to ever happen to them, but it might also have been the worst.

Perhaps the saddest statement that can be made about the duo (and country music in general) is that their best song of the past few years was "My Maria," a reworked Seventies rock hit. It used to be that people complained that country music was starting to sound too much like Seventies rock, but now it seems that much of country music has gotten so bad that that statement would be an insult to Seventies rock.