Classic Rewind: LeAnn Rimes – ‘Blue’

From the 1996 CMA Awards:

Album Review: Brooks & Dunn – ‘Hard Workin’ Man’

Following the mega success of their debut album, Brooks & Dunn released their sophomore effort, Hard Workin’ Man in early 1993.  Like its predecessor, Hard Workin’ Man proved to be a critical and commercial success and furthered the pair’s status as the new superstar duo in country music following The Judds’ retirement in 1991.   Indeed, their second album would provide the musical formula that has continued to work for Brooks & Dunn for the next decade and a half.  Debuting at #2 on the Country Albums chart – while Billy Ray Cyrus’s Some Gave All had a tight hold on the top spot – Hard Workin’ Man would spawn 5 hit singles, all of which hit the top 5 on the Country Singles chart, with 2 going all the way to the top.  Since its release, the album has also sold over 5 million copies.

To try and regain some of the momentum gained by the dance-floor classic, ‘Boot Scootin’ Boogie’ from Brand New Man, the first single sent to radio was the high-octane title track.  Ronnie delivers a solid vocal on what is a half-decent lyric on the first listen or two.  It’s essentially a track for the band to jam on, so I think the lyrics were secondary.  Kix takes his own turn with some of the duo’s blandest lyrics for the final single.  ’Rock My World (Little Country Girl)’ sounds like a Toby Keith song-prototype to me.  I wondered where Toby found all his girls.  It was in Brooks & Dunn singles from this era.  See also: ‘Little Miss Honky Tonk’ and ‘Mama Don’t Get Dressed Up For Nothing’.

Those two missteps aside, there are some great songs on this album.   The second single was the driving ‘We’ll Burn That Bridge’, which finds two people on the edge of a good time, with the narrator hoping to earn his chance at this woman’s heart, ‘We’ll put our your old flame, we’ll build a bigger fire/I’ll pick up where he let you down, and take you so much higher‘, he promises.  It’s a great listen, with plenty of steel mixed in with the drums and electric guitars.  Ronnie Dunn wrote the song with Don Cook, and it sailed to a #2 peak on the Country Singles chart.  All but two of the album’s eleven tracks are from the combination of Ronnie Dunn, Kix Brooks and Don Cook, with the following breakdown: 4 written solely by Dunn, 2 Brooks/Dunn co-writes, 2 by the three-man team of Brooks, Dunn, and Cook, 1 Kix Brooks song, and 2 written by ‘outside’ writers.