Dierks Bentley has had 17 #1 Country hits.
Obviously talented, he’s also ruggedly handsome, projects a bit of an outsider image, and sounds very “Country.”
If you like modern Country music, or Country music in general, or are just curious, then you’ll probably want to take a listen, but if an Arizonan who sports an ersatz, quasi-Tex-OK/Southern drawl registers as “corny” to you, than maybe not so much.
On the other hand, if you totally get Steve Earle’s “Copperhead Road,” that hard driving, pounding sound that jumped out of the speakers and into your bones 30-years ago, than re-consider.
Dierks Bentley isn’t nearly as ballsy as Steve Earle–but consider the times: In 1988, a testosterone driven Country singer with a bleak point of view worked it out in his songs. Dierks Bentley‘s world is politically correct and bro-Country in a #metoo world, well reflected in his latest hit, “Burning Man” which is over a dozen ways to hedge your bets:
Yeah I always look for highway
I just don’t run it as fast
I’m still go wherever the wind blows me
But I always find my way back
And I still don’t get it right sometimes
And I just don’t it as wrong
I still go a little bit crazy sometimes, yeah
But now I don’t stay here as long
I’m a little bit steady but still little bit rollin’ stone
I’m a little bit heaven but still a little bit flesh and bone
It’s the music, not the lyrics, that communicate the pent up energy, again, not at the Steve Earle level, which was explosive–this is today’s equivalent.
‘Burning Man” gets super charged even more, thanks to a vocal assist by fellow Country stars Brothers Osborne who are currently on Bentley’s “Mountain High Tour.”