The country star’s sophomore era is taking shape. More »
Country duo Brooks & Dunn have decided to call it quits after a 20-year career, squeezing out a greatest-hits collection and a farewell tour before riding off into the sunset. “After 20 years of making music and riding this trail together, we have agreed as a duo that it’s time call it a day,” 54-year-old Kix Brooks and 56-year-old Ronnie Dunn said in a statement. The duo collected a slew of country music awards over the course of their career, as well as two Grammy Awards; according to Nielsen SoundScan, their album sales in the U.S. have topped the 22 million mark. Thanks to Dan Gibson for recommending that I post their 1992 single “Neon Moon,” which came from their first album and was their third hit to reach No. 1 on the country charts, along with the announcement of their split. [Reuters] More »
Kix Brooks comments on Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama using his song to cap his nomination speech last night: “Seems ironic that the same song Bush used at The Republican Convention last election would be used by Obama and the Democrats now,” Brooks said. More »
After Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama finished his (terrific) speech last night, the twangy chords of Brooks & Dunn’s “Only In America” flooded Invesco Field, as well as the speakers of all those people watching at home. With its lyrics about big American dreams and how they sometimes fail, it was a natural fit with the “let’s make America great again” thrust of Obama’s speech. (Curiously, the track was also used by George W. Bush’s campaigns in 2004, although I’m going to chalk that up to another case of “campaign song choice that’s the result of only listening to the title being sung.”) But how did the song choice play out there? Let’s go to what is, for better or worse, a representative sampling of our citizenry: The comments section of the video’s official home on YouTube.
I championed “Put A Girl In It” in the Summer Jam contest, and for good reason: The song sounds tailor-made to be blared from pickup trucks parked close to lakes, and you can’t underestimate the appeal of that sort of thing. (Example A: Kid Rock’s latest hit.) More »
I generally assume that the biggest song of the summer–or, at very least, the one I’m going to remember–will come from the playlists of R&B/hip-hop stations. However, something about “Put A Girl In It” by Brooks & Dunn just screams out hanging out on the lake with a cooler full of beer. More »
As promised, our quest to find 2008’s official summer jam in a reader-determined tournament starts today; over the next few days we’ll roll out the rest of the nominees, which come from all over the radio map, including even those areas we aren’t very excited to be traveling through. (Hey, we have to acknowledge the inevitable, although you should know that the Katy Perry song has been disqualified on principle–especially since its “controversial even though it wasn’t all that controversial in 1995” subject matter is now garnering attention from the overly gullible media.) After the jump, our first two contenders–Brooks & Dunn’s “Put A Girl In It” and Alphabeat’s “Fascination”–duke it out, with accompanying commentary courtesy Dan Gibson and Kate Richardson, respectively.
