Brooks & Dunn Reboot II Review
With a cumulative total of fifty wins across the ACM, CMA and Grammy awards: Brooks & Dunn have a catalogue which supports their musical legacy as the best-selling country duo of all time. The musical career of Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn has spanned over thirty years and produced twenty number one songs to which the duo looked to try and reincarnate their back catalogue five years ago when they enlisted twelve of Nashville’s finest and emerging talents including the likes of Kane Brown, Luke Combs, Kacey Musgraves and Brett Young to reimagine a dozen of their greatest hits.
Following on from the success of their 2019 project “REBOOT” which featured twelve new collaborative reworking’s produced by Dan Huff, the duo have gone bigger and not just reinterpreted eighteen of their biggest hits with a diverse of artists but decided to really have some fun with them for “REBOOT II”
Following on from the success of their 2019 project “REBOOT” which featured twelve new collaborative reworking’s produced by Dan Huff, the duo have gone bigger and not just reinterpreted eighteen of their biggest hits with a diverse of artists but decided to really have some fun with them for “REBOOT II”
The project opens up with the most recent of the duo’s twenty number one singles as reigning Entertainer of the Year at both the CMA and ACM Awards: Lainey Wilson joins the duo for “Play Something Country” before Morgan Wallen is the first of six collaborators to reimagine a track for the album that also appears on the first REBOOT project but creates a very different and more reflective interpretation of the iconic “Neon Moon” to how Kacey Musgraves recorded (and co-produced) the song.
“The premise of the project was ‘No rules.' For this one, we purposely loosened the screws and turned ‘em loose to do whatever they wanted,” Dunn explains, “We actually went way off the rails, in a good way.”
“This project is a lot more out of bounds,” Brooks adds. “Artists were going, ‘Would it be okay if we did this?’ It was like ‘Yeah! Let’s do it.’ We dealt with rock bands and blues bands and all kinds of genres, all over the place.”
“Rock My World (Little Country Girl)” shows songs starting to go down a different track and is one of the few examples on the project of a track that originally saw Kix Brooks on lead vocals, yet for the albums third track, he vacates this for the beautiful sound of Marcus King to unleash a slick blend of blues and southern rock filled with the signature Marcus King Band dose of unmatched guitar prowess.
Whilst the album heavily features members of Nashville’s elite and emerging performers in the realms of contemporary country music, King and his South Carolina formed collective are not the only performers to bring a different musical perspective to the project. Christone “Kingfish” Ingram brings further blues energy for an incredible version of “Hard Workin’ Man” where his voice compliments Dunn so perfectly whilst Jerry Douglas’s bluegrass ensemble: The Earls of Leicester transform the heartbreaking “How Long Gone” into a proper toe-tapping little ditty.
The other leftfield or unexpected artist to appear on the project take “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” to a very different and much louder place than the Honky-Tonks where the original and Midland’s interpretation on the first REBOOT release, feel most at home. When you talk about genuine rock music in this millennium, Lzzy Hale is the undisputed Queen and this Halestorm version of one of country music’s most renowned line dance songs is the track which stands out most on the project and it stands out for all of the right reasons! To give a very British perspective on this track, it will undeniably be Marmite as people will either hate it or like me, absolutely love it (for clarity I love the song, not the yeast extract) yet it epitomises what Brooks & Dunn wanted to achieve when they enlisted artists to collaborate with on REBOOT II as their simple direction was to reimagine the song to fit their own taste and style from the ground up, which the Pennsylvania rockers thought Hell Yeah! This can be a metal song too!
“The premise of the project was ‘No rules.' For this one, we purposely loosened the screws and turned ‘em loose to do whatever they wanted,” Dunn explains, “We actually went way off the rails, in a good way.”
“This project is a lot more out of bounds,” Brooks adds. “Artists were going, ‘Would it be okay if we did this?’ It was like ‘Yeah! Let’s do it.’ We dealt with rock bands and blues bands and all kinds of genres, all over the place.”
“Rock My World (Little Country Girl)” shows songs starting to go down a different track and is one of the few examples on the project of a track that originally saw Kix Brooks on lead vocals, yet for the albums third track, he vacates this for the beautiful sound of Marcus King to unleash a slick blend of blues and southern rock filled with the signature Marcus King Band dose of unmatched guitar prowess.
Whilst the album heavily features members of Nashville’s elite and emerging performers in the realms of contemporary country music, King and his South Carolina formed collective are not the only performers to bring a different musical perspective to the project. Christone “Kingfish” Ingram brings further blues energy for an incredible version of “Hard Workin’ Man” where his voice compliments Dunn so perfectly whilst Jerry Douglas’s bluegrass ensemble: The Earls of Leicester transform the heartbreaking “How Long Gone” into a proper toe-tapping little ditty.
The other leftfield or unexpected artist to appear on the project take “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” to a very different and much louder place than the Honky-Tonks where the original and Midland’s interpretation on the first REBOOT release, feel most at home. When you talk about genuine rock music in this millennium, Lzzy Hale is the undisputed Queen and this Halestorm version of one of country music’s most renowned line dance songs is the track which stands out most on the project and it stands out for all of the right reasons! To give a very British perspective on this track, it will undeniably be Marmite as people will either hate it or like me, absolutely love it (for clarity I love the song, not the yeast extract) yet it epitomises what Brooks & Dunn wanted to achieve when they enlisted artists to collaborate with on REBOOT II as their simple direction was to reimagine the song to fit their own taste and style from the ground up, which the Pennsylvania rockers thought Hell Yeah! This can be a metal song too!
Other highlights on the eighteen track recording include Hardy showcasing the strength of both his mockingbird and crow sides through “Hillbilly Deluxe” and a much more stripped back interpretation of “Only In America” with Corey Kent to close out the album, whilst a personal favourite is the stunning orchestral accompanied version of “Believe” where Jelly Roll’s voice is so perfect for this song and tells this story so majestically.
For REBOOT II, These classic songs have been bent a long way in some cases but the fundamental thing is that that none of them have been broken and the result is a true reflection of the power of these songs but also what can be achieved in adding a great song to a blank canvas and then totally throwing out the rule book. With the array of talent joining Brooks and Dunn on the project it presents a really fun way for people to explore their back catalogue and also introduce their own fans to an abundance of wonderful artists so fingers crossed we don’t wait too long for a part III of this fascinating and creative project.
REBOOT II Track List:
1. “Play Something Country” with Lainey Wilson
2. “Neon Moon” with Morgan Wallen
3. “Rock My World (Little Country Girl)” with Marcus King Band
4. “Ain’t Nothing ‘Bout You” with Megan Moroney
5. “Brand New Man” with Warren Zeiders
6. “Believe” with Jelly Roll
7. “She Used to Be Mine” with Riley Green
8. “She Likes to Get Out of Town” with The Cadillac Three
9. “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” with Halestorm
10. “Ain’t No Way To Go” with Mitchell Tenpenny
11. “How Long Gone” with The Earls of Leicester
12. “I’ll Never Forgive My Heart” with Jake Worthington
13. “She’s Not the Cheatin’ Kind” with Hailey Whitters
14. “Hard Workin’ Man” with Christone “Kingfish” Ingram
15. “Hillbilly Deluxe” with HARDY
16. “Indian Summer” with ERNEST
17. “Drop in the Bucket” with Thousand Horses
18. “Only In America” with Corey Kent
The new album “REBOOT II” from Brooks & Dunn will be released on November 15th via Sony Music Nashville and is available to pre-order/pre-save HERE. The duo head out on the road across the United States in 2025 for the NEON MOON TOUR with full dates and ticket details available on their WEBSITE whilst you can also see what they are up to socially on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK X & FACEBOOK.
For REBOOT II, These classic songs have been bent a long way in some cases but the fundamental thing is that that none of them have been broken and the result is a true reflection of the power of these songs but also what can be achieved in adding a great song to a blank canvas and then totally throwing out the rule book. With the array of talent joining Brooks and Dunn on the project it presents a really fun way for people to explore their back catalogue and also introduce their own fans to an abundance of wonderful artists so fingers crossed we don’t wait too long for a part III of this fascinating and creative project.
REBOOT II Track List:
1. “Play Something Country” with Lainey Wilson
2. “Neon Moon” with Morgan Wallen
3. “Rock My World (Little Country Girl)” with Marcus King Band
4. “Ain’t Nothing ‘Bout You” with Megan Moroney
5. “Brand New Man” with Warren Zeiders
6. “Believe” with Jelly Roll
7. “She Used to Be Mine” with Riley Green
8. “She Likes to Get Out of Town” with The Cadillac Three
9. “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” with Halestorm
10. “Ain’t No Way To Go” with Mitchell Tenpenny
11. “How Long Gone” with The Earls of Leicester
12. “I’ll Never Forgive My Heart” with Jake Worthington
13. “She’s Not the Cheatin’ Kind” with Hailey Whitters
14. “Hard Workin’ Man” with Christone “Kingfish” Ingram
15. “Hillbilly Deluxe” with HARDY
16. “Indian Summer” with ERNEST
17. “Drop in the Bucket” with Thousand Horses
18. “Only In America” with Corey Kent
The new album “REBOOT II” from Brooks & Dunn will be released on November 15th via Sony Music Nashville and is available to pre-order/pre-save HERE. The duo head out on the road across the United States in 2025 for the NEON MOON TOUR with full dates and ticket details available on their WEBSITE whilst you can also see what they are up to socially on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK X & FACEBOOK.
