After struggling as solo acts, Kix Brooks, left, and Ronnie Dunn came together 15 years ago — and they haven't looked back since.

Courtesy of Arista Nashville

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Kix Brooks caught a glimpse of Ronnie Dunn across the room last Thursday night, and he could tell what his partner was thinking:

Time to make some music.

The veteran country music hitmakers and consummate entertainers had been off the road a week, and they were restless.

"Man, I like being at home, but once I get the socks all in a row it's like, dang, let's play some music," Brooks said last week, hours before he and Dunn hopped on a plane for a concert in Niagara Falls, N.Y., last Friday night.

Brooks & Dunn, country music's most decorated duo, spend most of their time on the road, including two trips out our way: Sunday at Casino del Sol's AVA and April 8 at Country Thunder USA in Florence.

"We never got off the road. We took a couple weeks at Christmas," Brooks, 50, said in a conversation sprinkled with infectious giggling. "We like to do it. If we could do what we do and get paid for it, we'd be going down to Broadway (downtown Nashville) and just playing for anybody that would listen to us. Both of us still like singing. It's in your blood; it's what you do."

The pair have been doing it most of their adult lives, and been doing it best together the past 15 years.

Brooks and Dunn, 52, were struggling songwriters and solo artists, then were paired as a writing team. The magic was instant, the hits were immediate, and for the first time in their professional lives both men saw hope in their future.

"All of a sudden, bang, we're putting this music out and that one's a hit, and that one's a hit and that one," Brooks said.

Their manager could tell the pair had struck on a winning formula, and he wanted them to sit down and discuss a three-year plan.

"Three years? The chance of us being together three years from now was slim to none," Brooks recalled. "We never thought of ourselves in terms of longevity. It's always been kind of putting one foot in front of the other and trying to write better songs.

"Nobody is as surprised as we are. If you had told us we'd be together 15 years from now, we would have told you to get a room, buy yourself a straitjacket, you're going down fast."

Then Brooks giggles and it feels like a conversation with an old friend noting the ironies of an enviable career.

Brooks & Dunn have released a dozen albums since the 1991 multiplatinum debut "Brand New Man." Every album has gone least platinum (1 million); several have sold into the millions.

Their latest album, last fall's "Hillbilly Deluxe," marked gold sales (500,000) about two months after it was released; it's closing in on platinum.

The album has earned critical acclaim for its stripped-down rawness. The Philadelphia Inquirer called it a lean and muscular album. "The songs are more than just cliché-ridden exercises in crowd-pleasing spectacle. Make no mistake, though, there are plenty of new crowd-pleasers here."

Entertainment Weekly said the album "merges classic jukebox country with Brooks & Dunn's jacked-up take on modern sounds" to create a "slightly ragged, fairly organic take on what Saturday nights are made of."

The record includes several songs ("Play Something Country," "Just Another Neon Night" and the stirring gospel "Believe") that are sure to join the pair's string of chart-topping hits: "Boot Scootin' Boogie," "Neon Moon," "Brand New Man," "Ain't Nothing 'Bout You," "Only in America," "Rock My World (Little Country Girl)."

Every night, you can expect to hear the pair rip into "Boot Scootin' " with the same enthusiasm they had when they released it 15 years ago. Brooks insists he never tires of the old songs, then he tells about hearing the Rolling Stones sing "Satisfaction" at this year's Super Bowl.

"How many times have I heard 'Satisfaction'? But as soon as they went" — and he mimics the famous intro guitar licks — "I'm like, this is awesome!

"This sounds so trite, but the reason is the audience. If Ronnie and I had to sing 'Neon Moon' back and forth to each other every day, we'd be completely insane. But when you start those songs and you see people light up like a birthday cake that they're fixin' to blow the candles out on, it immediately comes back to you."