Borderline (CD - 1996)

Additional personnel: Mark Casstevens (acoustic & hi-string acoustic guitars, mandolin); Brent Mason (electric guitar); Bruce C. Bouton (pedal steel, slide guitar); Rob Hajacos (fiddle); Dennis Burnside (keyboards, piano, Hammond B3 organ); Glenn Worf, David Hungate, Michael Rhodes (bass); Lonnie Wilson (drums, percussion); Tom Roady (percussion); Dennis Wilson, John Wesley Riles (background vocals).

Producers: Don Cook, Kix Brooks, Ronnie Dunn.

Recorded at The Soundshop Studios, Nashville, Tennessee.

Brooks & Dunn won the 1996 Country Music Association Award for Entertainer Of The Year. They also won the C.M.A. award for Vocal Duo Of The Year.

"My Maria" won a 1997 Grammy Award for Best Country Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal. BORDERLINE was nominated for a 1997 Grammy for Best Country Album.

Personnel: Mark Casstevens (guitar, acoustic guitar, mandolin); Brent Mason (electric guitar); Bruce Bouton (slide guitar); Rob Hajacos (fiddle); Dennis Burnside (piano, keyboards); Lonnie Wilson (drums, percussion); Tom Roady (percussion); Dennis Wilson , John Wesley Ryles, Kix Brooks, Ronnie Dunn (background vocals).

Audio Mixer: Mike Bradley.

Recording information: The Soundshop Studios, Nashville, TN.

Photographer: Russ Harrington.

Unknown Contributor Roles: Mark Casstevens; Brent Mason .

The superstar duo's fourth album, BORDERLINE, was a pop sensation, not only earning Brooks & Dunn the CMA's Entertainer Of The Year award, but also spending a good deal of 1996 among Billboard's top 10 pop albums. Starting off strong with the hit "My Maria," BORDERLINE quickly changes moods, sliding into mid-tempo heartbreak for the next two tracks, "A Man This Lonely" and "Why Would I Say Goodbye." But it's hard to keep these boys down for long. They bounce back in the hard-driving, hard-drinking honky-tonk stomper "Redneck Rhythm & Blues."

What ultimately survives on the BORDERLINE is the spirit of hopefulness that only true love can bring. It's the kind of love that is not bound by borders or distance. "My love will follow you/Down every highway of your soul," Brooks & Dunn sing in the Buddy and Julie Miller composition "My Love Will Follow You." This kind of love infuses not only the relationships they sing about, but the songs they sing, and helps makes both Brooks & Dunn and BORDERLINE such big winners. minimize