Brooks & Dunn: Kix Brooks, Ronnie Dunn (vocals, guitar)

Additional personnel: Larry Byrom, Mark Casstevens (acoustic guitar); Brent Mason, B. James Lowry (electric guitar); Bruce C. Bouton, Paul Fanklin (pedal & lap steel guitars); Aubrey Haynie, Rob Hajacos, Larry Franklin (fiddle); John Barlow Jarvis (piano, Hammond B-3 organ, keyboards); Steve Nathan (keyboards); Mike Brignardello, Glenn Worf (bass); Lonnie Wilson (drums, percussion); Robert Bailey, Kim Fleming, Vicki Hampton, John Wesley Ryles, Dennis Wilson, Curtis Young (background vocals).

Producers: Byron Gallimore, Don Cook, Kix Brooks, Ronnie Dunn.

Principally recorded at Ocean Way and The SoundShop Studio A, Nashville, Tennessee.

"You'll Always Be Loved By Me" was nominated for the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo Or Group With Vocal.

Six studio albums and one greatest-hits collection into their career, Brooks & Dunn have the formula down pat: a few revved-up honky-tonkers, a whole lotta heartbreak ballads, and the occasional story song. But on TIGHT ROPE, the two change their methods a bit. Instead of collaborating on songwriting, Kix and Ronnie split up to work with other writers. The difference is notable, with the clear winner being Kix Brooks. From the blues-rock groove of "Temptation #9," to the mournful "Can't Stop My Heart," to the brilliant "Texas and Norma Jean," Kix's songs--all of which he takes lead vocals on--run the gamut of emotions, and his voice has never sounded better. While Ronnie's vocals are always terrific, the soulful and weighty "Hurt Train" proves to be a better vehicle for his voice than the jokey "Goin' Under Gettin' Over You" or "Beer Thirty." But overall, TIGHT ROPE is the best evidence yet that Brooks & Dunn isn't simply Ronnie and the "other guy"--Brooks deserves major kudos for the job he's done here.

Entertainment Weekly (9/24/99, p.147) - "...when Ronnie Dunn launches into his three-minute soliloquies on relationships gone wrong...the world slows to the tempo of tears." - Rating: Bt