BROOKS & DUNN

In popular music, the successful duos have been few -- Loggins & Messina, Hall & Oates.

In country music, Radney Foster and Bill Lloyd had a few hits as Foster & Lloyd. But when Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn teamed up at the behest of a record company executive, they created a country music phenomenon that shows no sign of fading.

Brooks & Dunn, along with the Tractors, will perform at 8 p.m. Friday at the Show Me Center.

"Little Miss Honky Tonk," the new single off their third disc, "Waitin' for Sundown," currently is in the Top 10, and may become their eighth number one.

This is good time, boot scootin' country music with the tang of rock 'n' roll. "Boot Scootin' Boogie" was the song that put them on the country music radar, but hits like "My Next Broken Heart," "Rock My World" and "That Ain't No Way to Go" have proven this is a group that's in it for the long haul.

Chemistry is the ingredient that sets Brooks & Dunn apart. You can't get people on their feet without chemistry.

"For one reason or another, Ronnie and I have a good time working together," Brooks said in a phone call from the road, where ZZ Topp, the Steve Miller Band and Counting Crows are heard on the bus.

Dunn is the bearded, trailer-park Okie with the straight-ahead country voice. Brooks, who earned his first name by his behavior in the womb, first is the hat-wearing, hell-raising half.

"I come from a half-wild Louisiana background where the stage is the playground," Brooks said.

Brooks calls the duo "hillbillies with attitude."

He had been kicking around the Nashville scene as a songwriter since about 1980 when the suggestion came that he write some songs with Dunn, who'd once studied for the Baptist ministry and more recently had won a star search contest.

"We were both real tentative," Brooks said, "and basically we've just continued our casual approach. Before we knew it we had something."

They went from playing bars to coliseums, and Brooks much prefers the latter.

"I've played in a lot of bars where people could care less about whether you are up there or not," he said.

Their most recent stage set was built by the same team that builds stages for Pink Floyd and the Rolling Stones.

Brooks has been married 14 years and has two children. Dunn is the father of three and is married for the second time.

They live only two blocks from each other in Nashville.

What to expect from Brooks & Dunn in the future? More of the same.

"We're not going to throw any real curveball out there," Brooks says. "We're not going unplugged or going to make a folk album."

Also on the bill is the Tractors, a relatively new band composed of veteran musicians from mostly rock 'n' roll backgrounds.

Drummer Steve Ripley has played with Bob Dylan and Leon Russell, keyboardist Walt Richmond has played with Bonnie Raitt, and guitarist Ron Getman is a veteran of Janis Ian and Leonard Cohen bands.

Bassist Casey Van Beek has played with Linda Ronstadt and the Righteous Brothers, and drummer Jamie Oldaker was with Eric Clapton.

The Tractors have had hits with "Baby Likes to Rock It" and "Blue Collar Rock."