This Friday’s song is Brand New Man by Brooks and Dunn. This was the first song that Kik Brooks and Ronnie Dunn wrote and released together. It was released in August 1991 on the debut album with the same title. It was one of four number 1 hits on that album. Like many Brooks and Dunn songs, Brand New Man opens bold and strong. It pulls you to your feet to dance.
I saw the light, I’ve been baptized
from Brand New Man — Kik, Brooks, Ronnie Dunn, Don Cook
By the fire in your touch and the flame in your eyes
I’m born to love again
I’m a brand new man
In 1991, I was working in an enterprise software business at Texas Instruments. I was running operations in Asia Pacific and Latin America. Lots of things were happening in August 1991 when this song was released that set the stage for the next thirty years. On the political front, a conservative coup in the Soviet Union was stopped in the face of popular resistance led by Boris Yeltsin. Gorbachev resigned, the Communist Party collapsed, and new countries emerged from what was the U.S.S.R. Tim Berners-Lee released a paper about the “world-wide web” and WWW came to be. Linus Torvalds released the first version of the Linux operating systems.
I picked three version of Brand New Man to share this week. The first is the official original video shot in Texas from the Brooks and Dunn YouTube channel. The second is the version with Luke Combs from the new Reboot album that was shot in studio. The last is also with Luke Combs from the CMT Awards. They all are examples of the bold, engaging experience of Brooks and Dunn. Hope you enjoy.