Dierks Bentley revives his country roots, sonic identity with 'Gravel & Gold'
Forty-seven-year-old Phoenix native Dierks Bentley's been in Nashville for three decades, achieved a No. 1 hit to match each year of his two-decade-long mainstream country music career, plus toured almost nonstop for 15 of the past 20 years.
His latest album, the Feb. 24, 2023-arriving "Gravel & Gold," can rest upon and expand that standard.
The story of how that almost didn't happen and how the Grand Ole Opry member snatched victory from the jaws of accepting retreat -- intersects every major issue of intrigue in mainstream country music at present.
From March 2020-August 2021, Bentley -- like the rest of the world -- was quarantined due to COVID-19. Nearly five years had passed since he was in the studio to record his ninth album, "The Mountain," released in 2017.
Maturity and exhaustion set in for the artist who arrived in town, achieved stardom and has worked and lived a superstar life long enough to be a bachelor tooling around town in a '67 Chevrolet Camaro to being a husband and father of three driving an 11-year-old Chevrolet Tahoe SUV who listens to Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs' bluegrass hits while working out at the YMCA.
He attempted on two separate occasions to record a new album.
He failed.
"I was done. I almost rode my bike into the sunset and became a barista at a coffee shop in Colorado Springs or something," he jokes.
He cites feeling unable to create "anything new" as his main issue regarding why he was ready to retire.
Creating "something new" -- in a streaming-led environment where roughly 100 different songs (including "Beers on Me," Bentley's duet with BRELAND and HARDY) have rung the bell at the top of country's radio charts feels daunting.
Even deeper, thinking that Nashville in 2023 again mirrors the Music City he arrived in 30 years ago proves frustrating for the performer.
"Learning that people were all dressing the same way and not keeping their best songs for themselves on Music Row -- that didn't fit me," Bentley remembers.
Bentley had released 109 songs over 20 years. Perhaps it was enough that he had won three Country Music Association Awards and four Academy of Country Music Awards while being an Opry member and a bluegrass revivalist that seamlessly blended country music's foundational genre into the more rock-aimed pop aspirations of the genre.
COVID-19's quarantine allowed him the ability to recharge himself via his favorite pastimes, including spending time with his family, "living his best life with [his] guitar in [its] case."
Bentley's best songs come from "endorphins and memories from adventures," he says. Look back through his catalog and songs like 2012's "5-1-5-0" and 2014's pair "Drunk On A Plane" and "I Hold On" prove this true.
He holds a private pilot license, owns a Cirrus SR22T and flies a Cessna Citation CJ4. Plus, Bentley's an avid outdoorsman who has found spending time in Western Colorado to be beneficial to his work.
"The road owned most of my life and beat me up pretty badly for the past 20 years," offers Bentley. "I gave every last ounce of my emotional and physical energy to my fans and show. You can't recharge that with a Red Bull and vodka."
"I had someone tell me I needed to revive my chi," the artist states.
Upon reviving what Webster's Dictionary calls his "life force, the energy that flows through you and through everything," he's back for his tenth album.
"Gravel & Gold" arrives at a time in Nashville's history when streaming's rise in country music has created unprecedented sonic depth and scope in the city's chief export.
Thus, for an artist like Bentley -- whose broad tastes in country music precede this development -- the idea that rock-defined country artists like Ashley McBryde, bluegrass-adoring and thus, unlikely arena-headlining pop-country stars like Billy Strings ("I'm excited to live in the same era where someone who plays three-chord bluegrass can sell out Bridgestone Arena on multiple nights"), plus charismatic entertainers like Elle King and studied virtuoso instrumentalists like guitarist Charlie Worsham are now growing in acclaim plays well into his redefining artistic wheelhouse.
To wit, the album's lead single, "High Note," features Strings alongside Jerry Douglas on dobro, Sam Bush on mandolin, Charlie Worsham (who now plays in Bentley's touring band) on guitar and Bryan Sutton on guitar and banjo. Likewise, dusty, 90s pop-ready country rocker "Cowboy Boots" boasts a pairing with McBryde and a video recorded during a slow afternoon at iconic, classic country-adored Lower Broadway outpost Robert's Western World.
"Life's a river that changes course," says Bentley. Thus, for as much as his album is dipped in mid-90s nights watching country rock band BR549 at Robert's or recording the video for gritty country jam "Same Ol' Me" as one of the last acts in the pre-AJ Capital-owned EXIT IN, it also revels in new-to-country fans discovering Billy Strings via "High Note," or "Still" meditating on the value of remaining spiritually grounded by staying connected to nature.
The album also highlights Bentley feeling refreshed, revived and back with his family, living part-time in downtown Nashville's neighborly, increasingly popular and walkable 12 South neighborhood.
"Gold," the album's title track," feels as much like one of fourteen tracks on Bentley's album as it does a commercial for the benefits of living in "new Nashville."
"I got some rust on my Chevy, but it's ready to roll / I got a rhinestone sky and a song in my soul / It ain't a smooth ride, life; it's a winding road / Yeah, it might be gravel, but it feels like gold," he sings, over a driving rock groove hearkening back to late 80s era vibes similar to the work of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers.
"I live in a place where there are no fences, no gates, my family is comfortable and I'm surrounded by a community of friendly neighbors -- that changed my perspective on wanting to continue my career," Bentley says.
As a self-produced product reflecting Bentley holing up at Music Row's Ocean Way Studios with a hand-selected group of musicians and songs, "Gravel & Gold" reflects the 20-time country radio chart-topper, in his own words, turning "great-written songs" into "fantastic, well-produced live country music with limited tracks played with acoustic guitars, banjos and fiddles."
"I've made all the albums and been successful on all of the tours. I want my fans to appreciate that I could've made any album possible at this point in my career," says Bentley.
"But with a fresh perspective on everything, it was the full-circle moment of rediscovering the kid who moved here to be a country singer chasing after the type of success that artists like Clint Black and Alan Jackson were having, then discovered bluegrass -- that has, and still leads to [my most cherished] authentic, exciting experiences in my music and life.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Dierks Bentley revives his country roots with 'Gravel & Gold'
