Music Review: Dierks Bentley rocks hard on new CDBy MICHAEL McCALL, For The Associated Press
Few contemporary country stars rock as ferociously as Dierks Bentley, as he proves on "Life On The Run," the introductory song of the singer's fifth album, "Feel That Fire."
Bentley recruited Pearl Jam's Mike McCready to play on the tune, and he opens the album with a slide guitar run that sounds like a motorcycle revving its engine. Likewise, few current Nashville country rockers would close an album with a bluegrass song, "Last Call," with help from mandolinist Ronnie McCoury. No other country star out today could pull off such wildly diverse arrangements and sound so authentic — and so engaging.
The tension between rock's restless freedom and country's time-honored values emerges in Bentley's songwriting, too. The songs on "Feel That Fire" vary from spirited party anthem "Sideways" to steamy romanticism of "I Wanna Make You Close Your Eyes" to spiritual reckoning on "Better Believer." Bentley manages to make them all ring true.
What Bentley smartly avoids is the middle-of-the-road pop so many other young country singers rely on to reach a radio audience. Bentley is more progressively modern and more grounded in tradition than most of his young peers; it's why "Feel That Fire" will continue to make him one of the few country performers who score well with both fans and critics.
CHECK THIS OUT: The ballad "Pray," co-written by Bentley and Rodney Crowell, is a particularly adult assessment of a break-up that downplays melodrama in favor of a compassionate wish that his former lover find peace and joy as she moves on in life.
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