Recommendation XXVIII: Brooks & Dunn (double-shot)

Oh yes, time for another dose of double-shot. This one was tough, tough, TOUGH, to decide for, but eventually, I made my decision.  But, let me get to that in the third paragraph.  Since I like to take some time before my recommendations to give you a slight update on myself, here it goes: some serious news was broken to me some days back – I would not be able to return to college for my fall semester this year (or possibly, ever again).  With the economy these days and the job market, it’s a tough world to make it in, and it hit my family hard.  Thank God I still have a roof over my head.

I was kinda expecting it as a possibility (even last summer, I was a bit iffy on if I’d return last year), so I was not too taken back.  I’m a positive guy, and I believe God makes everything happen for a reason, whether or not you can see it at the moment, even if it looks bad.  In a way, I’m kinda relieved because it gives me more time to relax and take my mind off school stuff, but the thing that bothers me most is not being able to spend time with my very good friends back there, so it’ll take a while to adjust to not see them for some time.  I’m hoping I can return in the Spring semester in 2009, so I’m doing O.K.  That’s one reason I’m working so much right now.  Anyway, onto the double-shot feature…

My twenty-eighth recommendation is: Brooks & Dunn’s “Don’t Look Back Now” from their 1999 Tight Rope album AND “Caroline” from their 2003 Red Dirt Road album.  I chose to do a double-shot with them because of the obviousness that they’re a duo.  Also, because while they’re considered a duo, their songs usually switch off with either, Kix Brooks, or Ronnie Dunn, singing lead vocal, and rarely these days, do they sing together in a studio-recorded song (except in concert).  I really wish they’d switch off lead vocals in their songs, like Montgomery Gentry does, and pushed their radio singles that way (though Kix and Ronnie’s music, IMO, is miles better).  Brooks & Dunn rarely fail to impress me with their work.  I’ve been a fan of their’s since the ’90s when I was a young kid, and I can remember hearing their music along with many great memories.  Though, they have moved quite a bit from their more honky-tonk traditional country sound from then, they continue to prove how they’ve still got a lot to offer after all these years (but I have to comment, the fiddle has been lacking in their records after 2000- what’s up with that?).  I don’t own all their albums: I own the first Greatest Hits album and about everything else after that (I own seven of their CDs).  The cuts chosen for this recommendation confirmed to be one of my hardest choices, but I think these two songs are perfect for it.

iCF Music Blogroll…

For this entry, I wanted to highlight my side blog links (just because they inspire me so, and if you read this blog, I’m sure you’ll like these too!).  I am lovin’ how popular blogs are these days.

(the above pic was taken with my camera phone because I couldn’t find any pics online that I wanted to use for this entry, so I just took a pic of Country Universe – the Pam Tillis feature to be exact lol – and as you can see, and what I just realized, is that my room is not lighted too pleasantly haha and it’s messy, but just ignore that.  It may be the cheapest looking pic I’ve ever used on this site, but it works… I think.)

From my Blogroll:

> City Girl, Country Girl :

- I dunno what happened with the site.  Now it’s a protected blog, and you need to login to get access.  I really like it.  I’m going to keep it up, anyway, because hopefully someday it is open to the public again.

> CMT Blog :

- I really like CMT.com’s blog, because it has a lot of different viewpoints (though some of them, I strongly disagree with, and the “Link Ray” posts can be annoying because those ones seem to highlight the already overrated artists – how many times do we have to read about Taylor Swift, seriously? -  but there is interesting news in them, regardless).  Lots of cool stuff available there.

> Country Mike :

- This is Mike Sudhalter’s blog, a fellow country music fan, who shows a lot of enthusiasm for the music he likes, and offers cool insights on different things.  I usually agree with him, and he likes most of the same artists as me, so check his blog out (I wish there was a “comment” section to his posts though!).  His blog is part of Country Standard Time (I’ll get to them later).

> Country Music Central :

- All entries are written by “cowboybleau”, filled with plenty of detail and lots of reviews (so many that I don’t have enough time to read them all!).  He recently redid the look and format of his blog and it looks even better.  His most recent entry is about Ray Scott’s latest album.