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Ronnie Dunn Reveals Release Date for Upcoming ‘100 PROOF NEON’ Album

Country music superstar singer Ronnie Dunn finally announced a release date for his highly anticipated solo effort 100 Proof Neon. The Brooks & Dunn veteran and budding publishing executive tweeted a photo of himself clad in black with sunglasses, a beard, and a shot of dark liquor in his hand. In the caption, Dunn announced that the album will officially hit shelves on July 29th, and that preorder customers will receive two songs instantly.

Back in February, Dunn let slip that the album will feature a few duets, including one with budding country music star Parker McCollum.

“There are a couple of new guys on [the album]. Parker McCollum came over and sang one with me,” Dunn said in a radio interview. He also added that the album will embrace both contemporary styles of music as well as his traditional country roots. In other words, like the album artwork suggests, good music to enjoy at a honky tonk bar.

“It’s just all that stuff that I played coming through the bars, you know, in Oklahoma and Texas. Music that if you were to look at the song, you would go, it’s got a good beat; I can dance to it,” Dunn said.

The veteran hitmaker credited his wife as the one always encouraging him to step out of his comfort zone as a musician. According to Dunn, he would have simply stuck to his favorite “neon” riffs if his wife hadn’t have pushed him towards some contemporary styles.

Ronnie Dunn tapped a new songwriter on the scene for his first single off 100 Proof Neon

“It’s funny,” the singer said recently. “We wrote an entire album and I took it home and played it for my wife. And she was like, ‘Every other song is ‘neon,’ and told me I can’t do that.”

“I told her, actually, I can,” he laughed. “Because I love the music and the beer joints and the bars and I miss that world, musically.”

The first single from the new album, “Broken Neon Hearts,” comes from one of Dunn’s newest creative signings to his burgeoning publishing shingle. Songwriter Thomas Perkins penned the single upon arriving at Dunn’s company Perfect Pitch Publishing. According to Dunn, himself, the personal publishing venture allows him to sign and mentor new artists and writers under a watchful eye. In addition to Perkins, Hayden Baker, Dakota Striplin, and Ariel Boetel round out the remaining four inaugural writers signed to Perfect Pitch.

“Kix and I have talked for years about starting a publishing company but didn’t have the time,” Dunn said. “We were traveling and putting all the time we had into Brooks & Dunn to really do it right.”

Former Big Machine exec Braden Carney signed on as EVP of operations; and Dunn’s daughter, Haley, is VP of artist relations. “We’re bare bones on purpose,” Dunn said. “I don’t want to have all that overhead and stuff involved. At the end of the day, I can pick the songs. I can afford to pay the writers and we can pitch them. It’s pretty much just Braden and a couple other young ones running through here.”