Crooners create comic crime novel

Brooks and Dunn expand into publishing biz

By MICHAEL KOSSER

Don Cook, who produced many of Brooks & Dunn's biggest hits, notes the two are more writing collaborators than singing collaborators. Appropriately then, the two have expanded into literature, producing a novel last spring with the help of veteran humorist-novelist Bill Fitzhugh.

Over the years, the two discovered they shared a love for liner notes, those pithy comments that used to be an important feature of LP records. With the coming of CDs, the importance of liner notes largely faded, but Brooks and Dunn evolved a pair of fictitious characters, Slim and Howdy, to give theirs a distinctive feel. Slim was the Ronnie Dunn character, and Howdy was Kix Brooks' alter ego; eventually these characters evolved right out of their liner notes into a comic crime novel.

"The Adventures of Slim and Howdy," published by Center Street, was released in May to good reviews, and, according to Dunn, Sony Pictures has expressed interest in turning what he has called "this hodgepodge of fiascos" into a movie.