Peace Love and Country Music

After ending a 20-year tenure on Arista that began with his hitmaking duo Brooks & Dunn, Ronnie Dunn released his most personal album ever, *Peace Love and Country Music*. While his self-titled debut solo outing hewed a bit closer to the sound he\'d established with his old partner Kix Brooks, the follow-up, though not wildly divergent, gets simultaneously rougher around the edges and more introspective. On his first release as a sexagenarian, Dunn shows that maturity means a lot more than just getting older, especially on the anthemic \"Grown Damn Man\" and the wistful \"I Wish I Still Smoked Cigarettes.\" He also happens to rock harder than ever, on \"Country This,\" a long-overdue takedown of country artists who try too hard to play the down-home card. On \"Let\'s Get the Beer Joint Rockin\'\" and \"Country Music in Texas,\" Dunn shows off his own honky-tonking barroom bona fides, and his cover of the classic \"You Don\'t Know Me\" tellingly taps into not only the old-school country roots of the Eddy Arnold original but also the soulful splendor of the famous Ray Charles version.