Randy Travis hit a home run almost 30 years ago with “Forever and Ever, Amen,” winning 1987’s Grammy for “Best Country Song” and what worked for Randy Travis then seems to be working for singer/songwriter Dierks Bentley, now.
Travis’ “Forever and Ever, Amen” and Bentley’s latest, “Woman, Amen,” are both an homage to marriage as an institution, to the traditional vows, and to the wife who offers succor, salvation, inspiration and more.
Travis married Lib Hatcher, his manager, who was twice his age when they hooked up (he was 18, she was 36), so we won’t even go there; Bentley, a rugged and virile 42 years old, is married to a gorgeous woman who has been “the one” since they met in the 8th grade, back home in Arizona. He reflects on the ways she has brought him happiness. And he gets quite sentimental:
Every night I should be on my knees
Lord know how lucky I am
I’ll never say near enough
‘Thank God for this woman, Amen.'”
Both songs are slow and drawly, easy to listen to.
…which just adds to the “life is good” department for Bentley, because not only is “Woman, Amen” climbing the Country chart, he’s launched a new clothing line called “Desert Son,” and in June he’ll release his ninth studio album.