Entertainment Weekly (No. 837, p.81) - "...{P]erfectly-drawn vignettes of Saturday-night sin and swagger....[Reinforces Brooks & Dunn's position as the premier practitioners of the sawdust serenade." - Grade: A-
Brooks & Dunn: Kix Brooks (vocals, harmonica); Ronnie Dunn (vocals).
Additional personnel include: Bryan Sutton (acoustic guitar, banjo); Kenny Greenberg (electric guitar, National guitar); J.T. Corenflos (electric guitar); Dan Dugmore (steel guitar); Stuart Duncan (mandolin); Hank Singer (fiddle); Glenn Worf, Michael Rhodes (bass guitar); Eddie Bayers Jr. (drums); Eric Darken (percussion).
Thanks to the newfound success of "real" country singers like Gretchen Wilson and Toby Keith, not to mention the neo-outlaw duo Big & Rich, Brooks & Dunn return to their Nashville roots on HILLBILLY DELUXE. After a string of increasingly pop-oriented albums, the change does them good. The first single, "Play Something Country," could be the best jukebox song since Alan Jackson's early-1990s hit "Don't Rock the Jukebox." From that opening track onwards, Ronnie Dunn and Kix Brooks stick to the basics: broken hearts ("Her West Was Wilder" and "I May Never Get Over You") and broken bottles (on the tough-guy "Whiskey Do My Talkin'" and the celebratory "Just Another Neon Night"). They don't abandon their rock flirtations entirely--Sheryl Crow drops by on "Building Bridges," and the stomping title track edges towards Big & Rich territory --but HILLBILLY DELUXE is the most purely country album Brooks & Dunn have released since 1993's HARD WORKIN' MAN, and it's one of their most entertaining ever.