Why Brooks and Dunn’s Latest Album Title is ‘Reboot II’
In 2019, the country music duo, Brooks and Dunn released Reboot, an album with re-recordings of their songs. This year, they followed it up with Reboot II, a collection of their reimagined songs. However, as shared with Backstage Country’s Kelly Ford, the similarities between the two albums ended at the title.
Why Brooks and Dunn Called Their Latest Album Reboot II
Ronnie Dunn explained the difference, “It’s different because with Reboot we had a way to run. Keep things between the line, not like radically, but close to it. So, everyone kind of honored the original one to an extent but removed all holes. It’s like if you walk in here, you do your creative thing and Ronnie and Kix [Brooks] will fall in line if we can.”
Aside from having more creative liberties with Reboot II, the Grammy award-winning duo also collaborated with artists from different genres, not just country. Marcus King’s music is mostly R&B, blues, and southern rock. The Cadillac Three and Halestorm are rock bands, The Earls of Leicester is a bluegrass group while Christone “Kingfish” Ingram is a blues guitarist and singer.
Ford asked how the duo worked with their collaborators—whether they took a hands-off approach and let the artists do their thing, and what the experience was like. Brooks talked about working with Halestorm, “She’d do a track like that [“Boot Scootin’ Boogie”] and talk to you. Her voice is clear as a bell. And her band even said she can do this, 6 or 8 weeks in a row with two nights off. And the whole time she never gets hoarse. She never loses her voice.”
Reimagined Versions vs. Original Tracks
Ford said she got excited listening to the new album and how the songs are different from the OGs, how every song is an ear candy and has something of interest to offer. Dunn gave credit to their audio engineers, and producers. “I don’t think we ever may have made records yet that sounded this good.” He added, “An artist with cutting-edge engineers on a sonic level coming from the rock world. I mean just the best in the business, the best studios, the most talented producers. And the players they brought in changed the sound.”
Brooks also considered the advancement in technology now compared to when they were starting, “We started analog.” He chuckled. Dunn agreed, “CDs were just coming in to play. That’s shocking for me to say that.” He continued, “Things on a song, a sonic in that I don’t know. 1 or 2 guys in town can make it happen and dig parts out and place them in the right place where you’ll hear that guitar lick and it’ll stand out. A lot of times they’ll just kind of throw everything in and it gets all linear which is pretty, pretty cool.”
Reboot II Track list
- “Play Something Country” – Lainey Wilson
- “Neon Moon” – Morgan Wallen
- “Rock My World (Little Country Girl)” – Marcus King
- “Ain’t Nothing ‘Bout You” – Megan Moroney
- “Brand New Man” – Warren Zeiders
- “Believe” – Jelly Roll
- “She Used to Be Mine” – Riley Green
- “She Likes to Get Out of Town” – The Cadillac Three
- “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” – Halestorm
- “Ain’t No Way To Go” – Mitchell Tenpenny
- “How Long Gone” – The Earls of Leicester
- “I’ll Never Forgive My Heart” – Jake Worthington
- “She’s Not the Cheatin’ Kind” – Hailey Whitters
- “Hard Workin’ Man” – Christone “Kingfish” Ingram
- “Hillbilly Deluxe” – Hardy
- “Indian Summer” – ERNEST
- “Drop in the Bucket” – Thousand Horses
- “Only In America” – Corey Kent
From November 18-22, Brooks and Dunn will be Kelly Ford’s co-host sharing all the exciting news about their latest album.
