Nashville, TN. (Brooks & Dunn Official Website) - Having just won Favorite Country Duo or Group at the American
Music Awards and picked up their 13th Country
Music Association Duo of the Year trophy, the kudos keep following
Ronnie Dunn and Kix Brooks who received a pair of Grammy nominations this morning. Along with their No 1 "
Play Something Country" garnering a Best Country Performance By A Duo or Group nod, "Building Bridges," a track from their nearly platinum Hillbilly
Deluxe that features
Sheryl Crow and Vince Gill, scored in the Best Country Vocal Collaboration.
"Because they're voted on by artists in all genres, it's always cool hearing your name called out for the Grammy Awards," says Brooks, the high-energy, low-flying guitarslinger/songwriter. "Knowing 'Play Something Country,' which is pretty hardcore and revved up, struck a nerve makes me smile 'cause that's some full-tilt stuff now. It's great, too, that something that was such a treat to record... that let us team up with Sheryl and Vince... got this kind of recognition. It's like winning the lottery, buying another ticket with the money - and winning again!"
"Building Bridges" is the Larry Willoughby/Hank DeVito classic that first appeared on Willoughby's Atlantic album of the same name - and was a song Dunn sang in the honky tonks of Tulsa, while waiting on his dream. For the Tony Brown-produced Hillbilly Deluxe, the obvious sentimental favorite got a very special updating as the two-time Grammy winners enlisted mutual favorites Crow and Gill.
"I'm a Sheryl Crow fanatic. I think she's the best singer/songwriter there is," enthuses Dunn. "Vince Gill's voice works with anything. He's flawless. Nothing could be cooler to me than to hear those two voices, with mine, on 'Building Bridges.'"
Dunn, who cut his juke joint teeth behind chicken wire, continues.
"Anything and everything Rodney Crowell did back then, I was all about it; and at first, I thought this was a Rodney Crowell song! Then I came to find out it was by his cousin, but it didn't matter; the song was so good, if we did 4 sets on a Saturday night, I'd find a way to sneak it into 3."
With their second hosting stint at the "39th Annual Country Music Association Awards" - broadcast live from Madison Square Garden on CBS, along with a standing room only play at iconic New York City rock venue Irving Plaza and a midday streets of Manhattan play on the marquis of Madison Square Garden behind them, and a show Saturday night at the Coliseum at Caesar's Palace ahead, Brooks & Dunn have been keeping plenty busy as 2005 winds down.
"Believe," which was debuted on "The CMA Awards" telecast with an all-star cast of musicians, is being called "Brooks & Dunn's most reactive single" by radio insiders. The Dunn/Craig Wiseman song of faith transcending generations, lifestyles and even reason is an incredibly powerful vocal performance about life lived and the faith that carries people through the here and everafter from the man Entertainment Weekly called "arguably country music's finest male vocalist."
