Market with Apple Music

November 10, 2016 at PST

Tattooed Heart

Ronnie Dunn’s sly cover of Ariana Grande’s “Tattooed Heart” turns a teenage flirtation into an expression of yearning and regret—just one of the ways that this album bridges classic country with Nashville's current youth-oriented pop. “That’s Why They Make Jack Daniels” has swagger equal to anything by Florida Georgia Line, but none of Dunn’s juniors could match the plaintive country craftwork of “She Don’t Honky Tonk No More.”

12 Tracks

January 9, 2020 at PST

Re-Dunn

Ronnie Dunn has had plenty of occasions to look back on his two-decade run of hits with Brooks & Dunn. The duo reunited for a flashy Vegas show, made an album revisiting their best-known numbers with a new generation of guests, and got inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. But Dunn wasn’t finished looking back: On Re-Dunn, he reinterprets 24 songs that preceded his early-’90s fame and reflect the listening habits and live repertoire from his formative years on the Texas and Oklahoma club circuits. “I wanted to put something down, almost selfishly, to define the music and songs that are involved with—I hate using this term because it sounds so heady and very un-country-singerish—my musical DNA,” he tells Apple Music. Since Dunn built his Nashville reputation on hard-rocking modern honky-tonk, it’s hardly surprising that his taste in covers spans traditional country, country rock, soft rock, pop, and R&B. What they have in common is comfortably solid grooves. Altogether, they showcase his leathery depth and discernment as a singer. What's clear is that Dunn relished shifting the spotlight from his commercial legacy to his musical sensibilities and memories, as did the seasoned studio musicians he handpicked for the project. “Some of them would inevitably start telling some story about someone they knew that played on the record, or an experience that they'd had on the personal level, and they just added fuel to the fire,” he recalls. Here are the stories behind eight of the classics he covered on Re-Dunn.

Drinkin’ Thing
“Gary Stewart [who recorded this tune in the ’70s] came along after I got out of college and moved from Texas to Tulsa. I was playing in a bar band and went in one night and the jukebox was just lit up. They were playing one Gary Stewart song after the other. It was more about the style and the originality and the authenticity of what Gary represented. That was the most down-in-the-dirt beer joint music I had ever heard. And the vocal matched the subject matter of the song.”

Peaceful Easy Feeling
“The Eagles come along, and on the first record, ‘Peaceful Easy Feeling’—I'm thinking, ‘That's country to me. Now we're talking.’ That was a song that we played [in the bars] all the time. That's a 2/4 dance song.”

If You Don’t Know Me by Now
“There's two dominant versions of ‘If You Don't Know Me by Now'—Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes and Simply Red—and both are pretty darn classic. [My version] evolved way late at night when we were in the studio and maybe should have gone to bed a few hours earlier. There are a couple that I wish I had a few more minutes to finesse a bit. I was dancing dangerously close to the fire with those. I go back to Willie [Nelson], on [1978's collection of pop standards] Stardust. Of course he's not in any way trying to capture those vocals. He's doing what he wanted to. I'm not going to say it's my version of that, but it's the same mindset.”

The Cowboy Rides Away
“I gravitate back to ‘Cowboy Rides Away’ and ‘That's the Way Love Goes’ more than any other two that I did. Those are the kinds of songs that came natural, that were just effortless and felt good, really in my wheelhouse.”

Showdown
“I don't know what it is about Jeff Lynne, other than he's a darn genius at melodies. The line about the southern wind, it just kind of stuck with me for some reason. That was one of the songs that were way off to the left of center for me.”

Ashes by Now
“In the mid-’80s, late ’80s, when I was really paying attention in Tulsa, Rodney [Crowell] was so cool and progressive, and to me he was right in that vein with Emmylou Harris. I had a buddy that managed the local record store, and he would call me before he put the Rodney albums out on the shelves and say, ‘I'm having them hold one back for you. His new one just came out.’ So I was crazy about that one. And I actually played ‘Ashes by Now’ in the clubs a lot.”

A Showman’s Life
“I wasn't aware of ‘A Showman's Life’ until I came to Nashville, and then several producers I worked with over the years kept throwing that song out. And as a result, it's been cut by almost everyone, from George Strait to you name it. A lot of people.”

Good Time Charlie’s Got the Blues
“I think that the biggest stretch was ‘Good Time Charlie.’ I know a lot of people have cut that over the years, but I've come to the conclusion that no one's going to match Danny O'Keefe's [early '70s] version. I mean, I've sat with players and we've broken that track down analytically. I mean, as much as you can, we put it in the test tube. So many of the songs out of that era, the tracks were so imperfect, which is the charm.”

24 Tracks

October 28, 2021 at PDT

Jonesin’ (feat. Jake Worthington) - Single

1 Trackfalse

July 28, 2022 at PDT

100 Proof Neon

Though his albums with Brooks & Dunn number in the double digits, Ronnie Dunn has only released a handful of solo albums over the years. 100 Proof Neon is Dunn’s fifth outing on his own, following 2020’s Re-Dunn, and it’s a collection that proves the country icon still has plenty of gas left in the tank. For starters, Dunn’s voice sounds as fine as it ever has, rich with emotion and anchored by the nimble delivery that initially established him as one of country music’s preeminent vocalists. “Where the Neon Lies” channels ’90s country without devolving into pastiche, with a vocal from Dunn that will have longtime fans reminiscing.

“Two Steppers, Waltzes, and Shuffles” delivers on its name, offering up a honky-tonk-ready dance number. And a real high point of the album is Dunn’s cover of Ashley Monroe’s striking 2015 song “The Blade,” which Dunn treats with reverence and care. “You'll hear writers and old pros here in town talk about, ‘That’s an old song,’” Dunn tells Apple Music. “‘It's been around forever, but no one's cut it. It's never punched through the clouds.’ I tried to get it [for] the last record before this. And Ashley Monroe got it at the last minute and made it the title of her record. That's just one of those songs that they're few and far between.” Parker McCollum and Jake Worthington guest on the LP.

11 Tracks

February 10, 2022 at PST

Broken Neon Hearts - Single

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June 6, 2011 at PDT

Ronnie Dunn (Expanded Edition)

14 Tracks

August 18, 2022 at PDT

Apple Music Nashville Sessions

“You get to a point where it’s like, ‘Okay, I have a fortune, but I really want to make the good music that I enjoy and that I'm proud of,’” country legend Ronnie Dunn tells Apple Music. “And I feel like [100 Proof Neon] stands up. This is the record that, finally, I feel like I broke that mental barrier.” 100 Proof Neon, Dunn’s fifth solo album, which was released in July 2022, is Dunn at his best—an impressive showcase from the Brooks & Dunn megastar that stands up to his decades of hits and accolades.

In this Apple Music Session, Dunn celebrates music new and old, offering a dynamic sampler of what makes him one of the genre’s most influential artists. 100 Proof Neon opening track “Broken Neon Hearts” gets the full band treatment, complete with shimmering pedal steel. Lainey Wilson, who Dunn tells Apple Music is “just locked in” when performing, joins Dunn on the 2007 Brooks & Dunn favorite “Cowgirls Don’t Cry,” connecting the dots between country’s old guard and its current rising stars. And Dunn offers up his own take on Jon Pardi’s “She Ain’t in It,” his emotive voice bringing out the ache at the song’s heart.

6 Tracks

April 7, 2014 at PDT

Peace Love and Country Music

After ending a 20-year tenure on Arista that began with his hitmaking duo Brooks & Dunn, Ronnie Dunn released his most personal album ever, Peace Love and Country Music. While his self-titled debut solo outing hewed a bit closer to the sound he'd established with his old partner Kix Brooks, the follow-up, though not wildly divergent, gets simultaneously rougher around the edges and more introspective. On his first release as a sexagenarian, Dunn shows that maturity means a lot more than just getting older, especially on the anthemic "Grown Damn Man" and the wistful "I Wish I Still Smoked Cigarettes." He also happens to rock harder than ever, on "Country This," a long-overdue takedown of country artists who try too hard to play the down-home card. On "Let's Get the Beer Joint Rockin'" and "Country Music in Texas," Dunn shows off his own honky-tonking barroom bona fides, and his cover of the classic "You Don't Know Me" tellingly taps into not only the old-school country roots of the Eddy Arnold original but also the soulful splendor of the famous Ray Charles version.

14 Tracks