Brooks & Dunn Split; New Releases; Oklahoma Hall Inducts Carrie Underwood;

I just said this over on the forum, but I think Ronnie Dunn is capable of making a better solo record than he made as a duo with Kix Brooks. Whether they’ll ever get into the Hall of Fame is a good question. Their sales and single numbers certainly merit it – and their contributions to the 90s country book, but with them splitting and disappearing from the public eye, it will likely be years and years before they get recognized.

It’s also nice to see a live performance video from Reba again. This is her first since 1995’s ‘Till You Love Me’. The full CMT Invitation Only concert airs 8/21 @ 9:00 ET if anyone is interested.

Second-round CMA Awards voting started today, so they’re now pretty much a lock to get at least one last Duo of the Year award.

Sara Evans co-writing a novel is incredibly lame. It’s one thing to get help with an autobiography, but it’s a whole other thing to enlist help on a novel as a celebrity and then add “novelist” to one’s list of accomplishments. She’s really losing my respect very quickly.

Whats so lame with her co-writing a novel? I think its a very creative idea that she had to write a fiction novel for her children…

I still can’t wait to get it =)

Sara Evans’ book comes out 9/15.

Lige,
I’m sure she will survive, but on what terms? I was a fan, so the opinion of people who are in my “former fan” position does matter. Otherwise, how much longer will she survive?

I have no dobut that B&D will be in the hall of fame, not next year or anytime soon, but definately down the line. They have the stats and figures to deserve it.
I can see them turning into the Judd’s and every few years at Fan Fair, or Stagcoach it will be, ‘Brooks & Dunn reunion after 10, 6, 3, years’ ect.

I Cannot express how excited I am for the new Corb Lund. I saw them preview the album in Nashville the day before they started recording. Mark my words….Only Long Rider I Know….that’s the song, up there with Roughest Neck Around

@LeeAnn Ward: So because novels aren’t typically jointly-written its automatically a bad idea? Sara Evans isn’t a writer, so she may have wanted help to make sure its perfect.

And I don’t see the problem with an artist branching out a little… Trisha Yearwood has released a cook book, Reba’s done a sitcom, and Dolly Parton’s done Broadway. Oh the horror in having multiple talents!

Generally speaking, yes, jointly written novels are bad.

Nicolas,
I know what a big Sara Evans fan you are. So, I know I won’t convince you of my position on this one. I’ll just say that even if Vince did this, I wouldn’t get behind it, so it’s nothing personal against Sara.

Maybe I’m crazy…maybe I’m just from that era…whatever, but to me, Kix and Ronnie are BY FAR the greatest Group/Duo since Alabama. Their longevity, their catalogue of hits, their albums sold mark – all contribute to my statement.

Love the Judds, no doubt, but what BnD accomplished far exceeds that.

And to the poster who compared this to the Restless Heart, Little Texas and Shenandoah break-ups, that’s an absurd comparison. None of those groups accomplished anything even NEAR what BnD did. This is, quite simply, one of the biggest and most important groups in Country music history.

Will they get into the hall?? God help us if they don’t.

I’m gonna take a wild guess that “Kerri” is a dedicated Sucky Covington Fangurl! (lol) Sucky was on tonight’s Opry and his vocal performance lived down to the name I use for this sonic wastrel. How Sucky has become so popular would be beyond comprehension were it not for his stint on American Idol…

Nicholas: All writers have someone to help them makes their books perfect–these people are called eidtors.

“At the risk of seeming too harsh, I believe it is the undying fans of country stars who contribute to these same stars feeling they can cut corners, or sacrifice their creative integrity, without any sort of evaluation from the public.

Someone like Sara Evans should — and maybe would — appreciate honest feedback from her truest fans instead of this degree of unquestioned fandom that, I’m suggesting, inevitably leads to the sense of shock some stars feel when they’re finally caught having strayed a little too far from what actually made them stars to begin with.”

Nail, meet head. Excellent point, Joe. We don’t do our favorite artists any favors by blindly following whatever they do. How many times do we hear fans say that “so and so could sing the phone book.” Well, if you expect and demand so little from your favorite artists, eventually that’s what you’re going to get. A little constructive criticism from the fans is not a bad thing by any means.

Sara Evans has never failed to deliver for me.

That’s because you don’t set the bar very high.

@Kerri: I totally agree

Kerri, I removed your comment for being crude and pointless. And now that I noticed it, I removed your first one as well.

Your speculation as to Rick’s popularity and affiliation with us is baseless. You have just as much “official” business here as he does, so feel free to participate, but please do it without resorting to calling other commenters names.

Sure, there are genuine collaborations out there, but when it comes to books ‘written by’ celebrities, ghostwriting is the automatic assumption. At least Sara is being fairly up front by crediting her collaborator/ghostwriter on the front cover (as with Brooks & Dunn and their book which I would also assume to be mainly written by the ‘collaborator’, I’m afraid). Sara’s ‘collaborator’ Rachel Hauck has managed to write several previous books in similar vein all by herself – if you check on Amazon there are some extensive excerpts and the writing style is remarkably (or unremarkably, imho) similar to that of the book credited to her with Sara, which really does make one sceptical about the nature of Sara’s contribution.

I’ll concede that, but an assumption based on fairly strong circumstantial evidence.

Dear Brady,

I will stop posting the name that rhymes with his when you delete the posts where he uses a rhyming name for my favorite artist. Go LOOK UP Brady. What’s good for the goose is also good for the gander and I see that his original post is still on. So in regards to your response to me which is quoted below,
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“Your speculation as to Rick’s popularity and affiliation with us is baseless. You have just as much “official” business here as he does, so feel free to participate, but please do it without resorting to calling other commentor’s names.”
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why don’t you tell him to leave comments without resorting to calling other ARTISTS names. Again, I’ve never seen you “shoot down” Rick. So if this is such a great blog, then remove all of the posts where HE uses a derogatory name that rhymes.

Looking back on B&D, the most surprising part is it took Ronnie Dunn 38 years old to hit. A guy with that kind of voice seemingly should have been a big star much earlier