ronnie-dunn-upcoming-100-proof-neon-album-to-feature-parker-mccollum-duet

Ronnie Dunn Upcoming ‘100 Proof Neon’ Album to Feature Parker McCollum Duet

Brooks & Dunn hitmaker Ronnie Dunn is preparing for a big year. The legendary vocalist recently started a music publishing company that he will use to shepherd new artists and writers into the industry. He will release his fifth solo studio album this spring, titled 100 Proof Neon, as an ode to his roots coming up in honky-tonks and dive bars. Dunn also let slip that the album will feature a few duets, including one with superstar-in-the-making 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 although the album tries out some contemporary styles, its truest themes derive from traditional country music.

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

Dunn chose a young voice with a traditional style in McCollum

McCollum, a Texas native himself, certainly qualifies as a modern influence. But the young artist is one of country’s most traditional-leaning in terms of sound and style — at least for now. So his presence shouldn’t take away from Dunn’s overall vision of the album; and hopefully it enhances it with a dose of youth and enthusiasm.

100 Proof Neon‘s first single, “Broken Neon Hearts,” just dropped last week on streaming services.

Dunn said his wife is the one always trying to get him to step out of his comfort zone stylistically. According to Dunn, he would have simply recorded a whole album full of neon if his wife hadn’t have reeled him in a bit.

“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.” It sounds like a healthy compromise was made in the end.

A singer starts his own publishing company

Dunn recently founded his own small publishing company called Perfect Pitch Publishing, which will allow him to mentor and develop young, talented writers. He said he wanted to launch a personal venture like this for a while, but didn’t want to sacrifice the time it takes to build a superstar brand like Brooks & Dunn.

“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.”

The duo won 28 ACM Awards, 19 CMA Awards, and two Grammys as a headline act. They will also continue touring this summer despite a few “retirements” through the years.