Holly Dunn Credits ‘Divine Guidance’

Country music singer Holly Dunn offers these reasons why she recently had nine straight Top 10 hits: “It was a miracle. Divine guidance.”

It was the kind of explanation you’d expect to hear from the daughter of a minister. Dunn also has less heavenly ideas why her music is played so often on the nation’s 2,100 country music radio stations.

“I hope it’s because our music is good and has integrity,” she said. “We don’t put something out just to be putting it out. We labor over the writing, the producing and the singing.”

Dunn’s versatility, hard work and clean living have made her one of country music’s steadiest and most popular performers during the past four years.

Her poignant 1986 hit, “Daddy’s Hands,” is destined to become a country music classic. Since then, she has won the Country Music Assn.’s Horizon Award as the most promising newcomer. And she has affirmed that honor with No. 1 country hits such as “Are You Ever Gonna Love Me,” “Only When I Love” and “Love Someone Like Me.”

She teamed with Michael Martin Murphey on the duet “A Face in the Crowd,” which earned them a Grammy nomination. She also recorded the duet “Maybe” with Kenny Rogers and has sung on albums with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris.

Last October, she became the 64th regular cast member of the Grand Ole Opry.

Dunn, 33, was born and reared in San Antonio. She has created her niche like many other country stars: singing about love and family. But she offers much more.

“I’m a little unique in a lot of ways,” she said.

“I’m the only one, as far as I know on the female side, who writes, produces and sings the material. I think this gives me a real legitimacy, a genuineness. I’m not just up there standing where they tell me to stand, singing what they tell me to sing.

“I ‘feel’ what I do. I think there’s a sensitivity in a lot of my music, a lot of me in there. I think people appreciate that. This is what I try for, anyway.”

She wrote “Daddy’s Hands,” a touching tune about a child’s memories of her father, as a Father’s Day gift to her dad, a Church of Christ minister in San Antonio. It found its way onto record and into country music lore.

“It’s become one of the most requested songs in country music of all time,” Dunn said. “It’s right up there with ‘Forever and Ever, Amen’ and all those standards.”

Some people believe it may follow the pattern of “Wind Beneath My Wings,” which was a country hit by Gary Morris and crossed over to the pop charts years later to become a hit for Bette Midler.

Dunn isn’t sure.

“It’s so country--the melody, the feel, all of it. I don’t know how anybody would change that, but it would be fine with me if they want to try,” she said.

“Daddy’s Hands,” her best-known record, came early in her career.

“I guess it’s kind of strange to have it happen so quickly,” Dunn said. “In a way, it created sort of a false energy. We had to level off somewhere, and now we’ve kicked back in. We had such a big surge because of that one song.”

She has been in Nashville since graduation from Abilene Christian University. She worked as a clerk in a bookstore and as a travel agent before becoming a full-time performer.

She worked as a staff songwriter for four years before signing with MTM Records to pursue a singing career. When MTM folded, she quickly signed with Warner Bros.

Along the way, she sang “Most of All, Why” with Parton. Harris was guest vocalist on Dunn’s “Cornerstone” LP. Then there was work with Rogers, whom she describes as one of the nicest people in music.

“He thanked me for helping his career, and I’m sure I didn’t. That’s the kind of person he is--very generous,” she said. “I also got to work the road with him some, and that fulfilled some fantasies of mine.”