Country star far from end of the road

A couple of years ago, country singer Ronnie Dunn was at his good friend Reba McEntire’s home in Mexico, enjoying the peace and quiet after a multi-decade career as one half of Brooks & Dunn, the bestselling duo in country music history. He realized, “I could just chill out here until the end of the road.”

Dunn, 63, wasn’t sure whether he wanted to completely leave country music. He had released two solo albums since Brooks & Dunn split in 2010, although he faced challenges in the competitive market. Either way, he barely had time to think it over: Soon after the Mexico trip, he got an offer to reunite with his old bandmate, Kix Brooks, for a joint Las Vegas residency with McEntire at Caesars Palace. How could he say no? Around the same time, Dunn also signed a new record deal with Nash Icon Records, an imprint of Big Machine Label Group. Launched in 2014, Nash Icon serves as a place where veteran country singers have major label resources without the pressure to chase contemporary trends. Suddenly, Dunn went from pondering full-time beach living to a regular Vegas performing gig and working on a new album, Tattooed Heart, recently released.

Now, Dunn has to walk the line between satisfying his longtime fan base and trying to evolve — he admits “it’s a slippery slope.” Dunn’s new album has classic country songs about broken hearts and small towns, although he experimented with small changes. When he first heard the demo of That’s Why They Make Jack Daniels that included a keyboard synthesizer, he assumed they would lose the sound in the studio version. But his producer, Jay DeMarcus of Rascal Flatts, convinced him to try it out. “You can’t run from innovation,” Dunn said.

He compared it to when he and Brooks recorded My Maria in 1996, which was considered “a bit too progressive for the marketplace at the time,” but became a gigantic hit.

Oh, and there’s the fact Dunn covers a song from 23-year-old pop star Ariana Grande. Dunn’s daughter, a college senior, made him listen to Grande’s music — as he scrolled through the playlist, he stopped at the ballad Tattooed Heart because he liked the name. He was impressed by the tune and thought it could be a great country song.

He sneaked into the studio with friends, figuring his countrified version would “crash and burn,” yet he loved the final result so much it became the title track.

— The Washington Post