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Brooks & Dunn's CMA Awards Power Pair ACM Entertainers of the Year
Score Entertainer, Duo of the Year Nods
LaGuardia, NY: Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn were changing planes when
the reigning Academy of Country Music Entertainers of the Year heard
they had been recognized for that category, as well as Duo of the Year,
at the 36th annual Country Music Association Awards. En route to yet
another sold-out show in Hartford, Connecticut, the freewheeling pair
took the news with their usual aplomb -- and failed to call their
publicist until nearly closing time.
"The Chicks got those little chick things on their ankles, and we have
matching tattoos, too...," said rockin' Ronnie Dunn from the airport in
Hartford, Connecticut, where the duo had finally landed after massive
travel delays. "Don't ask me where they are, though, because you don't
want to know. Instead of 'Mama' or 'Born to Ride,' they say 'Born to
Entertain.'
"No matter who wins on CMA Awards night," adds the seek-and-destroy
vocalist mock-menacingly, " that baby belongs to us..."
"What my partner meant to say," interjects the ever-patient, always
high-spirited Kix Brooks, of the lost luggage and longer day with a
quixotic laugh, "was we're so honored to be included with such a great
bunch. Oh, what the hell... what HE said!"
With the second Neon Circus & Wild West Show -- this year featuring
progressive traditionalist Dwight Yoakam, neo-cowboy Gary Allan, ACM Top
New Duo or Group Trick Pony and fan-voted CMT: Flameworthy Breakthrough
Artist Chris Cagle -- behind them, the catalysts for the only country
entry in the Pollstar Awards' competitive Most Creative Tour Package
last year are maintaining their fierce road pace. Though no freaks,
geeks, trick ropers or stilt walkers continue with the duo whose tour
was the subject of a full-page photo essay in USA Today, the greatest
show beyond hooves was the largest grossing country tour-per-date out
there.
The Chicago Sun Times raved in a comparison to the verve of late outlaw
icon Waylon Jennings, "they were playing a brand of amped-up honky tonk
that the country legend helped to pioneer and popularize" and The
Minneapolis Star Tribune proclaimed, "the Neon Circus is the only major
country tour of the year" of the only mechanical bull-sporting,
fire-breathing, stilt-walking carnival and country show starts the roll
across America.
With three consecutive #1s with Billboard's Most Played Country Song of
2001 and six week #1 "There Ain't Nothing 'Bout You," the hard-charging
jolt of patriotism "Only In America" and Paul Brady's ardent heartbreak
ballad "The Long Good-Bye," it's the first time the 4-time Entertainers
of the Year pulled off that rope trick since their Brand New Man debut.
And the Latin-tinged "My Heart Is Lost To You," debuted with Shiela E.
on this year's ACM Awards, hit the Top 5 in very heavy traffic.
With It Won't Be Christmas Without You giving the holidays a decidedly
amped up Brooks & Dunn revving on Oct. 22 and pre-production under way
for the next B&D album, there will be no break in the momentum. What
they have up their sleeve next is anybody's guess, but knowing these two
high jinksters, it's all pretty much fair game.
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