Ronnie Dunn

Ronnie Dunn, ‘Bleed Red’ – Song Spotlight

By: Matthew Wilkening
January 30, 2011
tasteofcountry.com


Ronnie Dunn, formerly half of the mega-successful, recently disbanded Brooks & Dunn, has just unveiled ‘Bleed Red,’ the uplifting first single from his upcoming debut solo album.

Despite the title, the song is neither a polarizing political statement nor a romantic poem. Instead, ‘Bleed Red’ is an unexpectedly inspirational, piano-heavy plea for understanding a unit that Dunn himself admits sounds more like a song by politically-minded Irish rock legends U2, both musically and lyrically:

“We all bleed red / We all taste rain / We all fall down / Lose our way / We all say words we regret / We all cry tears / We all bleed red / Sometimes we’re strong / Sometimes we’re weak / We’re all the same / We all bleed red.”

Dunn surprised himself by choosing the song as his solo debut: “It wasn’t necessarily the suit that I was planning on wearing to the dance, so to speak. I said, ‘I’m gonna have to beat Bono to the punch. what if Conway Twitty was going to come in and put in the vocal on this one?’ And that’s what we did.”

‘Bleed Red’ will be available through digital outlets on Feb. 8. Neither a release date nor a title for Dunn’s upcoming solo album have been announced yet. He also recently covered Gary Stewart’s ‘She’s Acting Single (I’m Drinking Double)’ for the ‘Country Strong‘ soundtrack, and will team up with Miranda Lambert on Feb. 1 to announce the nominees for the 46th annual Academy of Country Music Awards.

Ronnie Dunn Gets Advice From Garth Brooks


Ronnie Dunn made his first major appearance as a solo artist reading the nominations for The 46th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards yesterday morning along with Miranda Lambert. Ronnie is going to perform his new single “Bleed Red,” and he’s expecting to experience the same feelings he always does on an awards night:

(Ronnie Dunn) {Slight background noise} “Nothing new… pressure, you know? I feel it every time I walk up there to do it, hoping that I can deliver that vocal. I’m doing an event the night before – I was told not to say – but that’s gonna have a bearing out there in that desert air… gonna do a full-blown concert the night prior, too, so hey, if I squeak, I’ve done it before.”

Although he’s not up for any ACM honors this year, Dunn, formerly of famed duo Brooks & Dunn, knows a lot about being a nominee and a winner. He tells CMT, “I don’t think there’s a definitive process where you go about making it into an awards show or get nominations. You just do what you do, and you do it to the best of your ability. And everything else seems to take care of itself.” Ronnie also reveals some advice he once got in an email from Garth Brooks, noting, “He was wishing me well with the solo thing and he said, ‘Just remember this: Be nice to people and do good music, and this business will take care of you.’”

Source: Dial global
Contact: jerry@nashville.com
February 2nd, 2011

Ronnie Dunn Album Cover & Track List Revealed -- Exclusive

Apr 22nd 2011
by Erin Duvall
theboot.com


Arista Records


The Boot has your exclusive first look at the cover art and track list for Ronnie Dunn's self-titled album, which hits shelves June 7. The project is Ronnie's first solo music in 25 years and comes less than a year after his amicable split from musical partner Kix Brooks.

Ronnie wrote or co-wrote nine of the album's 12 tracks, with a who's-who list of famed co-writers including Craig Wiseman, Dallas Davidson, Terry McBride and Bobby Pinson.

'Bleed Red,' the album's first single, is already in the Top 15 on the country charts. It's one of the few on the CD that Ronnie did not have a hand in writing. "This song picked me," he tells The Boot. "I had the record, it was finished. I was good to go."

All that changed after a friend emailed the singer. "I thought I was headed to the honky-tonks and beer joints to kick out a few lights, and it drops out of the sky at the last moment," he continues. "I'm thinking, 'Just for the sake of some silly competition, I've got to beat [U2's] Bono to the punch,' because he has that big Red campaign going on. [laughs] A lot of crazy things went through my mind. But lo and behold, this is the single they picked to come out first."

Watch an exclusive video of Ronnie talking about 'Bleed Red' at the boot.com

Ronnie is currently on the road, with his next tour stop April 30 in Live Oak, Fla. Get his concert and ticket information here.


'Ronnie Dunn' Track List:


1. 'Singer in a Cowboy Band' -- Ronnie Dunn/Craig Wiseman
2. 'I Don't Dance' -- Ronnie Dunn/David Lee Murphy/Craig iseman
3. 'Your Kind of Love' -- Maile Misajon/Jeremy Stover
4. 'How Far to Waco' -- Ronnie Dunn/Terry McBride
5. 'Once' -- Jamie Floyd/Philip LaRue/Peter Sallis
6. 'Cost of Livin'' -- Phillip Coleman/Ronnie Dunn
7. 'Bleed Red' -- Andrew Dorff/Tommy Lee James
8. 'Last Love I'm Tryin'' -- Ronnie Dunn
9. 'Let the Cowboy Rock' -- Ronnie Dunn/Dallas Davidson
10. 'I Can't Help Myself' -- Ronnie Dunn/Terry McBride
11. 'I Just Get Lonely' -- Ronnie Dunn
12. 'Love Owes Me One' -- Ronnie Dunn/Terry McBride/Bobby Pinson

Common ground: Country star Ronnie Dunn shares his story at Tulsa Boys' Home

SAND SPRINGS — You can correctly assume Ronnie Dunn receives many requests to lend his presence to charity and humanitarian events.
The country music artist accepted an invitation to speak to Tulsa Boys’ Home residents Friday because he said Tulsa played a big part in his life.
Dunn wasn’t raised in Tulsa. Ask him where he went to school, and the answer — details later — could be everywhere.
But he moved to Tulsa in the mid-1970s to chase a dream, and he honky-tonked in this neck of the woods until 1989.
“It’s where I cut my teeth, doing live performances here, because the club scene was so healthy at the time that I was here,” he said. “It was a lucky time to be here. I have roots here.”
Dunn said two of his children were raised in Tulsa. He said his mother, two sisters and a brother live in Glenpool.
There’s one more reason this particular cause appealed to Dunn. He shared with residents that his father once lived in an orphanage. That, he said, had a lot to do with his Tulsa Boys’ Home visit.
“He had been placed in an orphanage with his two sisters, and he was the youngest,” Dunn said. “There is a long story that goes with it. It’s a book, I think, someday.”
Dunn will continue to raise awareness for the Tulsa Boys’ Home when he performs Saturday at a Run for the Roses Kentucky Derby party at the Expo Square Pavilion. The event is sold out, according to Tulsa Boys’ Home Executive Director Gregg Conway, but anyone wishing to donate to the home may do so by visiting tulsaboyshome.org.
The Tulsa Boys Home is in its 97th year of helping Oklahoma boys who combat mental, behavioral, emotional and substance abuse problems. Dunn toured the campus (“Killer facility,” he said) and met with a few students (one said he looked like Chuck Norris) before they assembled to hear him talk.
Dunn essentially recapped his life story — and found common ground with the audience — during a question-and-answer session.
Almost immediately, Dunn said it was his father’s dream to be a country singer and he followed that up by saying his dad once lived in a Kentucky orphanage.
“He wouldn’t talk to us about it,” Dunn said. “I never knew, like, half the stuff about it until, actually, after he died.”
Some things aren’t comfortable to talk about, acknowledged Dunn, but he wishes his father would have opened up about his experiences.
“I’m amazed at all the stuff that he went through and he was still able to raise a family,” he said.
Dunn told residents he grew up poor. His home was a trailer house, and he bounced around to 13 schools in 12 years.
Responding to a resident’s question, Dunn said he gravitated to music because it was “the only thing I was ever good at.” Some school subjects didn’t suit him, and he was the wrong subject for some suits — a football uniform, for instance.
“I was skinny,” he said. “I was too small for football. In the fifth grade, the coaches came down and said, ‘All you guys who want to play football, go down to the library.’” They saw Dunn and said this: “You need to go down to the band room.”
Dunn didn’t just want to play music. He wanted to make it big. Of course, folks told him he was crazy. The odds should have told him he was crazy.
“You didn’t dream like that, where I came from, and see it come to life,” he said. “It still seems like a fairy tale.”
Maybe, Dunn suggested, you are more determined to make it if you come out of a world where there seems to be no hope. He said it helped that he was hard-headed. There were times he got discouraged, but, hey, stick around long enough and you might catch a break. Or at least that’s what happened during his journey.
“It wouldn’t be, like, a big break,” he said. “But it would be just enough to keep you going for a day or two or a week or whatever.”
Dunn said he never wanted to be at the front of a band. He was a bass player for a band when he was in college, and the piano player/lead singer got sick. “From then on I was the lead singer,” he said.
In 1988, Dunn won the National Marlboro Talent Roundup. The only reason he entered was because a drummer friend noticed promotional material for the contest while in a convenience store and pestered Dunn into competing.
Speaking of breaks: Dunn said he came to Tulsa (instead of Nashville) to break into country music because, at the time, the biggest booking and management agency in the world was here.
“Oklahoma and Texas had great places to play,” he said. “So we would go call up all these clubs and just kind of go play. They would give us jobs on Friday and Saturday nights, and we would go up and hang out. The rest of it is kind of history.”
Dunn partnered with Kix Brooks to form Brooks & Dunn in 1990. They became the most successful duo in country music history with hits like “Boot Scootin’ Boogie,” “My Maria,” “Only in America” and “Believe.” Each has since gone the solo route, but they’ll reunite for a Las Vegas residency in June with Reba McEntire.
When a Tulsa Boys’ Home resident asked Dunn about life lessons he may have picked up along the way, he said this: “One thing I learned is it’s OK to dream. The sky is the limit. I’m a testimony to that.”

Ronnie is such a great guy.