Ronnie Dunn Starts A Record Label. And Maybe, A Revolution.
Ronnie Dunn, one half of the now dissolved country music super duo Brooks & Dunn, has been up to some very interesting things over the past year. After parting ways with his record label Sony on June 8th, 2012, he’s been making bold moves in the music business, accompanied by inspired, breathy statements on his Facebook page that many times decry the current structure of the country music business, especially radio and distribution.
Yesterday (7-2-13), Dunn took to Facebook to announce he has formed a record label, “Little Will-E Records,” saying:
I hit some hurdles with the first RD solo cd. I asked to leave Sony in the middle of the project, for various reasons. I have recorded a second solo project (20) songs….it is due for release in November. In the mean time siriusxm radio’s The Highway is testing the first single contender…KISS YOU THERE. It is testing through the roof and selling on iTunes at an average of 5,000 per week and climbing !!!!
The next step is to move into mainstream radio. That is a very complicated and COSTLY endeavor. I know that some of you are traditional country music lovers. I am to. I realize that some of you are progressive country music fans. I am too. Mainstream radio is driven by “30 year old and younger artists”….no problem. I get it but there is room for “FREAKS LIKE ME” I have consulted with several of the most powerful and influential movers and shakers in the business and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM has agreed to support THE CAUSE. Many have gone out of their way to help facilitate the cause.
***MOST IMPORTANTLY, remember…. that what you hear on mainstream radio does NOT dictate the full flavor of a multi song cd !!!!
Songs are chosen for mainstream radio in the effort to meet specific criteria……IF RADIO DOESN’T PLAY YA, YA DON’T GET HEARD. Even the Rolling Stones and Willie complied. Radio is not a bad place !!!! I NEVER RECORD SONGS THAT I DON’T LIKE.We know from the siriusxm / THE HIGHWAY feedback, that KISS YOU THERE is a HIT !!! Now, comes the competitive BIG BIZ SHUFFLE.
I need to thank, John Esposito. I want to thank John Marks.
I’ve started a record label LITTLE WILL-E Records. We are fully staffed with very unique…. “out of the box” group of innovative thinkers. I think you are going to like what you see and hear. We are going to make music available to you in different and unique ways. Our goal is to create a MUSIC CULTURE, guided by a lifestyle philosophy. There are no rules.
This is going to be a journey. YOU ARE ALL CRITICAL AND KEY PLAYERS.
WE ARE NOT SO MUCH ABOUT THE WHAT AS WE ARE ABOUT THE WHY !!!!
Together WE can !!
PEACE LOVE AND COUNTRY MUSIC,
RD
Believe it or not, this type of rhetoric is common from Ronnie these days. Back in November of 2012, Dunn unleashed an impassioned speech about how older music consumers needed to learn to download music. And almost weekly, similar long, inspired dispatches are released through Ronnie’s Facebook.
Then the intriguing news came out that Ronnie was writing with Texas music legend Ray Wylie Hubbard, including a song called “Bad on Fords and Chevrolets” that incidentally has since been picked up by Sammy Hagar who recently played the song live and will be releasing it on an upcoming album.
Ronnie Dunn also pulled a Jack White-style stunt during CMA Fest in Nashville a few weeks ago. Right as the CMT Awards were letting out of Bridgestone Arena, Ronnie was on the rooftop of a nearby restaurant, performing two new songs, “Kiss You There” and “Country This.” The performance was projected on the walls of three downtown establishments: Rippy’s, Honky Tonk Central, and the famed Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, while a 200-person flash mob performed choreographed moves on 5th Avenue to the debut “Kiss You There” single. Ronnie finished up the set by shooting T-shirts out into the crowd.
The rhetoric, the gonzo style release of his songs, and the spirit that Ronnie Dunn has taken to this new lease on his music life has been enough to inspire Ronnie’s fans and new recruits on an endeavor to save country music….except for one thing.
Those two new Ronnie Dunn songs? “Kiss You There” and “Country This”? They might be ideal specimens of how to use the formula approach to songwriting in the country music format. Each one really deserves its own in-depth diagramming, but “Country This,” which starts off almost seeming to make fun of laundry list country songs, slowly reveals itself to be fully died in that formulaic wool, while “Kiss You There” takes it a step further, featuring Ronnie pseudo-rapping over an electronic beat. After reading all of Ronnie’s impassioned communiqués about the state of country music, it is quite shocking to hear these songs, though they’re certainly catchy tunes.
Does this make Ronnie a turncoat? Is he trying to play both sides? I honestly have absolutely no idea what is going on here, and that’s probably the way Ronnie wants it. Maybe Ronnie is sitting on some excellent, more traditional or better-written material, and these singles are simply created for radio appeal. He seems to allude to that in his statement when he says, “Mainstream radio does not dictate the full flavor of a multi-song CD.” Maybe he is trying to prove a point. Maybe the songs are Trojan horses of some sort. He seems to allude to that in his statement as well, but he also says, “I never record songs that I don’t like.” So maybe these songs are sincere expressions, or maybe they are pleas from an aging superstar trying to stay relevant.
Either way, I’m sure Ronnie will clue us all in soon enough, and probably in some unique way.
July 3, 2013 @ 8:37 am
I’m really curious about all of this. Hopefully he doesn’t dissapoint me. I don’t care much for these 2 songs, but Country This definately has a Ray Wylie Hubbard feel to it. I actually thought it was Wylie Lama singing at first.
July 3, 2013 @ 9:14 am
As much as I hate to say it, it seems like Ronnie is talking out of both sides of his mouth and trying to cover it up by blaming radio. These two new songs and his participation in the awful Celebrity Remix of “Boys Round Here” make me a tad suspicious. Still, I like the man and his music and I hope he can step outside of the shadow of Brooks & Dunn at some point. On a side note, wasn’t he on the Arista label? Or is that owned by Sony?
July 3, 2013 @ 9:35 am
Artista is a subsidiary of Sony, just as pretty much every major record label is when you boil it down, except Big Machine and Curb, and they suck too.
July 3, 2013 @ 12:23 pm
And Big Machine is pretty much a major label, especially after they partnered with the biggest label in the world, Universal.
There’s just 3 major labels and each has many sublabels
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Record_label
Like radio, the huge labels have merged into just 3 and that’s probably a reason for the monogenre. One or a few labels controlling most of the music and radio + centralized radio owning pop and country stations = more pop.
July 3, 2013 @ 9:16 am
I’m older. I download music. It’s easy.
Having listened to it here, I definitely won’t be downloading “country this”
Not much of a tune at all, no real melody to speak of, and the singing is average at best. In fact it sounds like he’s trying to be completely in line with mainstream pop country.
July 3, 2013 @ 9:40 am
Don’t like the songs here BUT Ronnie at least is doing his own thing and i’ll bet there is a little something in the upcoming 20 song colection that I’ll like. Only time will tell. If nothing else maybe he can blaze a path that artists from all the various “scenes” can use to get some much needed pub for their music.
July 3, 2013 @ 9:54 am
Love Brooks and Dunn, love Ronnie Dunn. Red Dirt Road one of my favorite mainstream country music albums of all time (hard to believe it’s been 10 years ago)! However, I don’t understand Ronnie Dunn’s obsession with still being relevant on mainstream radio. The proof is in the sound. We got an album and two singles to determine Dunn’s priorities and that’s fine – it’s his career. But, I can’t figure out his ramblings and excuses.
These two songs aren’t for me and I wish Dunn would stop talking about making good country music and just make some.
July 3, 2013 @ 10:06 am
His comments sum up what most mainstream artists main goals, get on the radio. There are so many great artists that aren’t even played on the radio yet they still sell millions of records and still sell out so many shows. So the question for artists, what’s your goal, radio AirPlay with cookie cutter sound or little to no airplay but quality writing and sound. These two songs don’t appeal to me and sound not much different than what’s out on radio now. I understand browsing your sound and songs but don’t waver to far from your roots.
July 3, 2013 @ 10:27 am
Maybe he should cover, “Money, Money, Money” by the OJ’s?
July 3, 2013 @ 11:36 am
“Kiss You There” is more than “psuedo-rap” – it is more rap than “Boys Round Here” or “1994” and just as awful. Ronnie Dunn is a major sellout!
July 3, 2013 @ 12:01 pm
Ronnie too? A long list of talent has left Sony in recent years. Martina left Sony for Big Machine, then left Big Machine. I like Ronnie but hate synthesized beats. That’s pop, not country. A main thing that makes country music unique and outstanding is that it proudly uses real instruments. The beat on Kiss You There is generic and I heard about the same beat on other songs hitting radio. Makes me wanna puke. It’s worse than when rock added synthesizers. Synthesized music should be banned from country music and radio.
July 3, 2013 @ 1:53 pm
I think he’s made it very clear what he means, actually. He’s said he likes traditional country and ‘progressive’ country, and mainstream country is a key to actually getting awareness. At the same time, he is saying he does like the ‘mainstream’ singles.
I take that to mean that he has a some ‘radio-friendly’ singles, which he does enjoy and was not coerced into recording, and then the rest of the album is devoted more towards traditional and ‘progressive’ country.
July 3, 2013 @ 2:15 pm
Trig, I haven’t listened to the songs yet, but I think you’re being too hard on the guy. Some of the best songs in the world follow a formula in one way or the other – hell, our scale is a formula.
He’s trying. I dont’ see this as playing both sides.
July 3, 2013 @ 2:33 pm
Listen to the songs LT. There’s formula, and then there’s FORMULA.
I get what you’re saying though. There are traditional modes in music that help people identify with it, and that’s not always a bad thing.
July 3, 2013 @ 3:19 pm
I’ll listen. I’ve got to be honest: 99% of self-identified “country music” bores me to straitjackets. Old acoustic Merle and Willie, Townes – those are songs. Forged in honest furnaces. The rest of the crap reflects not only dishonest intentions, but dull minds not able to think past the fog they’ve accepted as existence.
Brooks and Dunn – they weren’t exactly out-of-the-formula writers ever, werd they? Just especially gifted sonically, at least in songs like “Maria.” (They wrote “Boot Scootin’ Boogie”? Fuuuuuuck.)
July 3, 2013 @ 3:23 pm
Just listened to the intro up to the first “country this” and guitar riff – that’s feckin hilarious. Hats off for that.
July 3, 2013 @ 3:29 pm
Dude. No. No no no no NO.
That is a hilarious and rocking little song. Shows off all of Dunn’s sonic and productions skills, and manages to kick every dumbass pickup truck and hay bail idiot in the teeth a dozen or more times while doing it. I hate most country music like this, but I actually like that song. Cracked me up, and the guitar riff – simple – but it just works.
Repent! Repent!
July 3, 2013 @ 8:47 pm
Seems like he is hanging from a cliff.
July 4, 2013 @ 10:12 am
I get what he’s saying, but still, “Kiss You There” is just an awful, awful song, down there with the other most awful songs that have come out in the last couple years.
July 5, 2013 @ 6:35 am
I don’t understand. WHY do these few talented people think they need radio to help them be successful? (Possibly even worse, most think they need a record deal.) Is the commercial mainstream fame how they measure success? Ronnie, of all people, should know better! How long ago was it that everybody was saying radio wasn’t going to last much longer anyway?
I can’t wait for the day people start making fun of country music for the right reasons again.
BTW – I think he really does like both of those songs. That’s fine. It just seems he would acknowledge (for lack of a better word) the fact that people expect more depth from what he’s playing.
July 5, 2013 @ 1:47 pm
I listened to radio for about an hour. Most of the songs were ho hum weak pop etc. then it went down the shitter when 1994 came on. That really is one of the worst songs ever and I can’t believe radio plays it. That crap hit #14 and some much better songs don’t hit top 20-30. The quality of songs radio plays has really gone downhill in just the past year. I used to listen all the time and now can’t bear it. Meanwhile radio people are scratching heads wondering why they are losing listeners to Pandora, ipods, etc.
July 6, 2013 @ 2:54 am
I don’t think that some of you can understand that some people like really country music and what is being played on country radio now. I was deep in the “New Outlaw” movement before finding this web site and seeing the error of my ways (thank you Trig). But I still liked Cash, Hank, Willie, Waylon, Haggard, ext. at the same time.
July 6, 2013 @ 8:55 am
Many songs on country radio aren’t the least bit country, they are rock, pop and rap and nowhere near as good or country as Cash, Hank, Willie, Waylon, Haggard, Jones, Wynette, Lynn, Wells, Reba, etc. Radio overplays many weak, mediocre and bad songs and underplays many better songs. Just one current example, right now I Want Crazy is #34 at the bottom of the Callout listener poll and #7 and climbing to the top of radio. Polls aren’t everything but that’s a huge glaring difference and there are many similar examples every week. Most listeners can’t stand We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together yet some country stations still play it, and 1994 is almost as bad. Country radio even plays some pop artists more than some better country artists. In radio big promotion beats great songs.
I also understand that many people like whatever radio plays and repeat playing is good brainwashing. If they overplay everything an artist releases, naturally many people will get used to them and like everything they release. But I’ve even seen huge fans of some very popular artists complaining about their new music or certain singles being too pop, overproduced, weak or bad songs, etc.
July 7, 2013 @ 1:45 pm
It has become clear to me now from following various mainstream country radio stations on Facebook that artists such as Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line are marketed based solely on their physical appearance. These radio stations will post about an artist and in the message it will say things like ‘Sexy Luke Bryan tickets to caller ten’ or ‘Ladies, we have some exciting news to share about FL GA Line coming up at the bottom of the hour’. Then the comments section will be filled with pubescent, teenage girls and bored 40-something year old, overweight housewives slobbering all over themselves. This tells me all I need to know about the state of affairs of Nashville corporate pop country.
July 9, 2013 @ 9:16 am
Sorry Ronnie, but I’ve heard songs that were more “country” from Jason Aldean.
July 31, 2013 @ 9:16 am
The last titled album by Ronnie Dunn, titled “Ronnie Dunn” is one of the best albums I have heard in a long time. Every song is great. Not sure how a record label decides what or what not songs are released, but “I Don’t Dance” and “Your Kinda Love” are two of my favorite songs “EVER”. There is nobody in country music that has a voice like his. All of the young guns all have the same voice. Nothing that distinguishes one from the other.
Hands down, “HE IS THE BEST”
His Louisiana fan forever!!!
Shannon S
crossdariver@aol.com
July 31, 2013 @ 9:23 am
On another note, everybody wants to talk about old country. It don’t get no better than Jamey Johnson. He is another one of my favorites. RADIO will not play his music. I call radio and request his music all the time. THEY WON’T PLAY IT. He is GREAT!!!
January 29, 2014 @ 4:28 pm
I actually love “Country This” and I will be downloading! Love the screaming pounding guitars too… I think what Ronnie is doing is terrific. Nothing wrong with bringing in “two different sides.” It’s all music, rhythm and beats, no matter how you cut it. Love “Kiss You There” too. And I rarely buy any country music but Dunn is great.
January 29, 2014 @ 4:30 pm
I also read an article where it said something to the effect that “the ole gray beards should retire gracefully,” as “elder statesmen,” following Alan & Vince. I say “b.s.!” That’s ageism at it’s blatant worst. I thought people were past that a long time ago.
Good going Ronnie and anyone that wants to stay in the game and loves to perform. Keep ’em coming and thanks from all of us!
February 19, 2019 @ 10:17 am
Dearest Ronnie,
My name is Dana Moon owner of Luna Moon music. We are desperately trying to get my fiance’s career off the ground. He is a retired army veteran of 20years and currently employed by the United states postal service. He has recorded 5cds in Nashville. The first four were all cover songs but the most recent album is 5 original songs. The title track is “all those memories ” a song that he co wrote with his producer. The other 4 we purchased from established witers whom we are friends with. He sings a traditional country style. Please let us know if there is any way you can help us. Any advice you can give us would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for everything and persevering country roots.