In a manner of speaking, it’s been 20 years in the making, but it was well worth the wait, as Kix Brooks delivers his first post-Brooks & Dunn solo album, titled New to This Town, set for release this coming Tuesday, September 11th! Kix co-wrote nine of the album’s dozen songs and also stepped behind the scenes as album producer, teaming with Rascal Flatts‘ Jay DeMarcus to co-produce the title track, “New to This Town.” Making the album has been a true labor of love for Kix, who says that after all the success he’s been blessed with in his career, the thing that’s most important to him isn’t really about him, it’s more about his hope that he’s made an album that fans will genuinely enjoy. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)

• You can check out Kix’s New to This Town album, with an exclusive online stream available on Amazon until the album’s release on September 11th! Check out the player on the top right of the Kix page here: amazon.com/kixbrooks. You can also pre-order the album right now, on this page, on Amazon.
• Look for Kix as he celebrates his album release week with a Wednesday, September 12th performance of “New to This Town” on ABC’s Good Morning America.
• There’s no shortage of tempo or funky fun in Kix’s new album, but Kix says that he sees New to This Town as very much a storyteller kind of collection. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• Kix took his time making his new album, but when he got started, he jumped in in a big way. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• Kix has gotten back on the road, playing some clubs this year, and Kix tells us that making an emotional connection with the fans is a huge part of what making music means to him. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• Recently, Kix told us that part of his approach to the new album is also about understanding the energy of a live show, and you can check out his comments in this story: http://prep.hearsomethingcountry.com/2012/08/30/kix-brooks-great-fun-great-music/.
• After hitting the radio earlier this year with the album title track, featuring Joe Walsh, Kix is brand new on the airwaves with his album’s very cool second single, “Bring It on Home.”
• Keep up with all things Kix online anytime at KixBrooks.com!

  Kix Brooks is grateful for the career he’s been given by the fans, and he hopes that his new solo album will be one that they truly enjoy. (:45)
“I mean, people would expect me to say this, and it may feel corny or trite or whatever, but I have been blessed with the most amazing life by the fans of country music. I mean, I’ve said it numerous times, they’ve paid my rent all these years, and I owe ’em. And you know, so for me, it’s real important that this music that I made makes ’em happy. And that’s…people go, you know, ‘What are you worried about?’ and ‘You’ve had this great career,’ and all that and everything. That’s what I’m worried about. I really hope that I’ve made some music that’s fun enough and special enough that it’ll move them, and when they listen to it, they’ll go, you know, ‘This is really good.’ That’s what’s important to me now.”

  Kix Brooks says that he looked to points and times throughout his life and surroundings to craft the songs on New to This Town. (:44)
“For me, this album probably is as much a songwriter album and a storyteller album as it is — and I don’t mean that from a balladeer standpoint, but I feel like on this record I kind of cull from all walks of my life and loves, tellin’ those stories again, and those stories may be too old for me, they may be too young for me, they may be some drunk, cheatin’ guy that my wife probably doesn’t want to be with this week (laughs), but you know, you don’t play music for your whole life and not live in the middle of and around those things. If they hadn’t happened to you at least once, you’re probably a liar.”

  Kix Brooks talks about making his new solo album, New to This Town. (1:09)
“When Ronnie [Dunn] and I came off the road, I made movies for about a year and a half, but I was writin’ songs the whole time — I just never had a chance to go in the studio ’cause I just didn’t have time. And so by the time I finally got to the studio, I had this huge stack of material, and instead of goin’ in one day and recordin’ four or five songs, I went in for three weeks with the same musicians with 40 or 50 songs. And the cool thing about it was that first couple of days was like a regular session where you’re all lookin’ at each other, and you’re goin’, ‘Okay, he’s playin’ that, should I play this?’ You know, kinda workin’ it out. Well, after a couple of days, it wasn’t a bunch of session players: we had a band together. And all of a sudden, everybody just came in, and they’d hear a song, and they knew what they were doin’. It wasn’t like everybody was kinda lookin’ at each other and dancin’ around. Everybody was grabbin’ their axes and just layin’ into it. And that’s, to me, why these songs are slingin’ like they are. It’s really fresh. They’re played with a lot of confidence, and it was a lot of hittin’ it hard, and it made it all fun. I think everybody rose to the occasion.”

  Kix Brooks says that performing and giving fans an escape through the music is at the heart of why this is what he does. (:50)
“I love lookin’ out there and realizin’ that I’m takin’ people away from a hard week and somethin’ that’s really been worryin’ ’em and some trouble at the job or whatever’s goin’ on in their lives, just to see their hearts lifted up and their eyes brighten up, and you realize that for a minute, the world goes away, and you get to share somethin’ that’s totally fantasy. You know, it’s just…this is all about, let’s just take ourselves out to a good time, and that’s…those are the moments on stage when, you know, it means somethin’ when you see a tear in somebody’s eye when you share an emotional moment, but man, those…for me, when you spend most of the night just lettin’ somebody let their cares and troubles go away, that’s why I do this.”