Reboot II

Few acts have influenced country music like Brooks & Dunn. The best-selling duo in the genre’s history, Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn helped define the ’90s country sound with landmark albums like their 1991 debut Brand New Man and 1993’s Hard Workin’ Man. It’s fitting, then, that the iconic duo would round up some of country and Americana music’s best and brightest artists for this collaborative record, which serves as a sequel to 2019’s Reboot. Where the first Reboot revisited the duo’s biggest hits, Reboot II lets featured artists—including Lainey Wilson, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, The Cadillac Three and more—choose deeper cuts, offering a fuller glimpse of the sheer breadth of the pair’s influence. Brooks tells Apple Music that compiling the project was loose and playful, with each artist free to conceive their track however they chose. “It's just turning everybody loose,” Brooks says. “Bring your own bands if you want. Bring your own producer if you want, whatever studio you want to work in. If you don't want to deal with that, you can use our stuff and we will be there. After that, pick a song and do it however you want.” Dunn enjoys the record’s break from the traditional album formula and relished the opportunity to reimagine songs that, in many cases, are several decades old. “People don’t like change,” he says. “And even on stage ourselves, if we change a little riff or a turnaround here in the middle of it, you might get a little bit of pushback from the fans, so we always try to adhere to that. Now, we've gone completely the other way with this record and just let the horses run.” Below, Brooks & Dunn share insight into several key tracks. “Rock My World (Little Country Girl)” (feat. Marcus King) Dunn: “Marcus is a guitar slinger. He gave that song a totally different vibe, which it was. He’s a legit blues player. Just a guitar slinger. Rips it.” Brooks: “He came in with his band… I went in his vocal booth and said, ‘Marcus, I don’t want to get in your