Borderline (Arista, 1996)

Ronnie Dunn has one of the best voices in country music, and the first cut on their fifth album should convince the nay sayers. "My Maria" - a hit for the late B.W. Stevenson from the pop side years ago - stops you dead in your tracks. He follows that with "A Man This Lonely." Country music just doesn't get better than this. Kix Brooks proves he can sing ballads, too, with "Why Would I Say Goodbye" and a little bit of the Twitty growl. It takes no imagination to see line dancers strutting their stuff to "Mama Don't Get Dressed Up For Nothing." B&D switch lanes with "More Than a Margarita" by mixing heartbreak with a Jimmy Buffett sound while "Redneck Rhythm & Blues" is a twin to "Boot Scootin' Boogie" and "White Line Casanova" hums down the highway at breakneck speed. From rockers to ballads, B&D find the right mix to keep their career on the right track - and that's not easy to do these days if you keep any traditional roots. While the boys have veered a little toward "new country," you can still hear their country roots. The twin fiddles opening "One Heartache At a Time" will erase all doubts. It's country, and this disc will add a few more million copies to their 12 million already sold. It's worth every penny.