After spending the past 20 years performing as half of Brooks & Dunn, the Country duo's lead singer Ronnie Dunn is striking out on his own with his debut solo album.

Ronnie Dunn recorded three singles in the early 1980s, but none garnered enough success to get his solo career off the ground. In 1990, he teamed with Kix Brooks to form Brooks & Dunn. The duo's popularity was immediate. Beginning with their 1991 debut single, "Brand New Man," Brooks & Dunn topped the Country chart 26 times and sold more than 30 million albums worldwide. Between 1992 and 2006, Brooks & Dunn won the Country Music Association's Vocal Duo of the Year Award 14 times. They've collected over 60 industry honors, including three Entertainer of the Year Awards from the Academy of Country Music.

Although he had two decades of success behind him, Ronnie Dunn told "Billboard" he was "scared to death" about launching a solo career.

He said, "I think fear and insecurity are great motivators. I look at the length of time that we were in the market place with Brooks & Dunn, and I don't know how people are going to accept me and I don't assume in any way they're gonna come running to this project." At the same time, Ronnie says it was liberating to have complete control over his solo project.

Ronnie's fans and Country radio showed their support for his new solo career by making its first single "Bleed Red" a Top 10 hit. The album debuted at Number One on the Country chart and at Number Five on the Billboard 200.

Ronnie recently kicked off a US concert tour that will keep him on the road through mid-September.

Dunn wrote or co-wrote nine of the 12 songs and also produced the album. His new single, "Cost of Livin'," deals with a war veteran who returns home and becomes a victim of the current economic downfall.

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（來源：VOA 編輯：崔旭燕）