The Roadhouse Voice — Ronnie Dunn

• Family: Country music.
• Genus: Roadhouse.
• Species: Brawl Bar.

What does it take to “get over” in that environment?

First thing: Gotta be real. Somehow in the delivery of the song, the singer must convey, “I’ve been there. Hell, still am.” Presuming to this role and failing could prove very risky.

Next: Gotta cut through. If you’ve ever spent a night of “research” in a roadhouse, you know all too well the milieu. If you need a primer, watch the original Blues Brothers, or Patrick Swayze in Roadhouse. Neither ranks high on the literature scale, but both faithfully capture the particulars:

• Visually — smoke- and beer-hazed breath filters all light, which comes primarily from the garish POS beer signs, the red-lettered and all-too-necessary exit signs, and the occasional muzzle-flash.
• Audibly — a remarkable din — yelled greetings, whoops of bonhomie or rage, and the music that gets louder and fiercer as the night matures.
• Emotionally — everything from the simple mating barnyard ballet to the final settling of a long-standing blood feud.

All feelings inside these walls are true-to-the-moment, uncolored by the complex social conventions of the wider world. Again, musically faking it here won’t get you to closing time.

Through it all, the voice has to make music. That means it has to carry its primal poetry and whipsaw phrasing with heartfelt emotion and tangible dignity. (All the while keeping one eye open for the stray beer bottle that manages to get through the chicken wire guarding the front of the stage.)

Frankly — and I can say this with uncommon passion — Ronnie Dunn of Brooks and Dunn is The Best-Roadhouse-Voice-That-Ever-Moved-Air-Particles-on-This-Planet. Period.

Don’t come up with your argument to that without a lot of careful research and consideration.

These videos are dated and not helped by whatever the PR folks of the time thought they ought to show.

But, just shut your eyes and…listen to the voice!