Departing Style The Country Duo Is Trying Something A Little Different With Their New Album ‘Borderline’

For their first-ever cover song, Brooks & Dunn came up with a real sleeper - B.W. Stevenson’s “My Maria,” a pop hit from 1973.

That’s the first single from their fourth album, “Borderline,” in stores this week. The single is No. 8 on this week’s Billboard country chart.

“I didn’t want to do the song at first,” says Ronnie Dunn, who sings lead on the single. “I didn’t want to start doing cover songs, because we didn’t play cover songs when we were a bar band.”

“We always prided ourselves on that,” says Kix Brooks.

“The bar owners want you to play covers, but once we got a toehold in the business, we said we’d never play covers again,” Dunn says.

So, how did this happen? “(Producer) Don Cook brought the song in,” says Dunn. “He said, ‘Listen to this.’ We did, and I said, ‘No way am I going to cut that song. It’s too high profile a song to cover.’ Then (Arista Nashville president) Tim DuBois came in saying, ‘Man, this is the reason I came to Nashville.’ So I said, ‘Great, Tim, you sing it.’ They finally worked me over ‘til I went in and cut it. It’s a pretty easy song. It’s not all that hard to sing, but the falsetto thing throws people off.”

“One thing about that song,” Brooks adds, “a lot of people will remember it, but there’s a whole new young audience that’s never heard it.”

DuBois says he’s “tremendously excited by the album and the single. This album is a real step up for the guys. You know, their first three albums are still on the Billboard (Top Country Albums) chart. ‘Brand New Man’ has been on there 235 weeks, but I think ‘Borderline’ can outdo that. I could almost become evangelical. There’s ballads here and the necessary honky-tonk songs, but this shows off their writing skills as well as the fact that they’ve mastered the studio. And ‘My Maria’ - it sounds like B.W. wrote it for Ronnie.”

Besides “My Maria,” the album contains two other covers: “My Love Will Follow You” by Buddy Miller and Julie Miller and “I Am That Man” by Terry McBride and Monty Powell.

Of the latter, Dunn says, “It was a demo that I pulled out of the pile when we were almost finished. Terry (formerly of McBride & the Ride) sang the demo, and I loved it. It’s a terrific ballad.”

“My Love Will Follow You,” says Brooks, who sings lead on it, was one they had been listening to for a long time. “It’s just a great song.” They wrote or co-wrote the other eight cuts.

Of the album as a whole, Dunn says, “It didn’t really feel like a departure for us, but I guess it is. We made a conscious effort to pick outside material and give it a bit of a turn. We wanted to get away from every CD sounding the same.”

“Still,” says Brooks, “we’re scared to death of alienating the people who like us. When I buy a Clapton album, I expect to hear some guitar playing. People started buying our records for a reason and if you go full-tilt in the opposite direction - as some artists have done - you can just kill it. I think at this point we’re still into the music we started with, but we’re getting more of a focus.”

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: New album offers much If you’ll overlook its cliched bumper-sticker mentality lyrics - primarily beers, babes and Broncos (haven’t these dudes heard that country has advanced thematically?) - Brooks & Dunn’s fourth CD offers distinctive pleasures. Such as a punchy cover of the late B.W. Stevenson’s 1973 pop hit, “My Maria,” which tops the original. Or the driving honky-tonker “White Line Casanova.” Also, “A Man This Lonely.” Despite an intro sounding a bit like The Eagles’ recent “Love Will Keep Us Alive,” it’s as fine a country ballad as you’ll hear on the radio, and considering this duo’s popularity, you will hear this stuff ad nauseum all year. Be grateful it’s well-crafted and catchy and that the vocally solid Ronnie Dunn handles most of the leads rather than partner Kix Brooks, whose singing is as flat as Kansas. Howard Cohen Miami Herald