Merry Christmas 2011!

Christmas Religious Graphics


Merry Christmas! 

Is it wrong that instead of listening to Christmas music, many of us are listening to 90 second clips of "Home" over and over?  I am sure we would have loved to open a present this morning and find the hard copy of Dierks' new CD, right?  We only have 6 weeks to wait, with the album concert at The Ryman on February 2 and the CD release date of 2/7/2012.

Back to Christmas day.  Happy birthday Jesus and happy birthday baby Jordan!  That's right, Dierks Bentley's youngest daughter is one today!  Here's what Dierks had to say according to American Country Countdown:

"Capitol Records Dierks Bentley was at the hospital in Nashville welcoming his daughter Jordan into the world on Christmas Day 2010. That means this Christmas is also Jordan's first birthday. Says Dierks, "Some people tend to think that's like a really bad day to have as a birthday, because you've got to share it with Jesus and share it with Christmas and all the other presents, but I think it's great."

Even if Jordan gets upset her birthday is on Christmas when she gets older, Dierks has a plan. "She could have my birthday," he says. "She can take the 20th of November, and I'll take Christmas as a birthday. Everyone will forget! I'll never get older!"
Dierks and his wife Cassidy also have a three year old daughter named Evie."

And CMT's Alison Bonaguro tells us what Christmas was like for Dierks growing up:

"There were no white Christmases for Dierks Bentley. As a kid in Arizona, his were more like dirty, dusty, sandy Christmases. "I grew up in the desert, so we would always have Christmas out in the middle of the desert. We'd go out and take four wheelers and horses and motorcycles, dirt bikes and stuff and just have Christmas in the desert," he said in a recent radio interview. "You know, wrap tin foil around the cactus and ... have Christmas in the middle of the desert.""
-Alison Bonaguro, CMT.com

To all the DB Congress representatives around the world, and Dierks, Cassidy, Evie, Jordan, and the band and all the crew (Steve Misamore, Dan Hochhalter, Cassady Feasby, Tim Sergent, Brian Layson, Brit, Chris A., Chris R., Ryan, Jay and Mary & Tyne), we wish you and your families the merriest of Christmases today, and that next year brings you lots of happiness and success!

~Ronna
DB Congress Chair

Country Weekly Permanently Links To Dierks!

From the Vault is a special section on countryweekly.com and the "Dierks Bentley: Friends For A Lifetime" story is a featured vault article!  Not only that, but the story about Larissa and the friendships DB Congress reps have formed through Dierks, originally appeared in the October 10, 2011 magazine and links to even more Dierks content in the Country Weekly archives!

"In order to give Larissa's story a permanent place to reside, we're posting it here on this page, which is dedicated to Larissa's memory." 

-Your fellow Dierks fans at Country Weekly

CW also thanks the fans for the comments, tweets and letters.  One such letter appeared in the Oct. 31 issue from DBC Iowa rep, Mona:

Check it all out here.

~Ronna


Related blogs:
http://dbcongress.blogspot.com/search?q=larissa+tragedy
http://dbcongress.blogspot.com/search?q=DB+Congress+Reps+Have+Big+Hearts+

Listen to Snippets of Home by Dierks Bentley

Thanks to amazon.com, you can now hear samples of all 12 tracks (listed below) from Dierks Bentley's forthcoming album, Home, set for a February 7, 2012 release.  Go to Amazon to listen to snippets from each new song. 

In addition to the #1 smash, Am I The Only One, and the second single, Home, spiraling up the charts, the CD includes some of the tunes Dierks has been testing on the Jagermeister and Country & Cold Cans tours such as Diamonds Make Babies and 5150.  Surprisingly absent is his last tour's title.  Let's hope it gets added as a bonus track!

We want to know what you think!  Come back here and comment!

1. Am I The Only One
2. Gonna Die Young
3. Tip It On Back
4. Home
5. Diamonds Make Babies
6. In My Head
7. Breathe You In
8. The Woods
9. When You Gonna Come Around
10. 5-1-5-0 
11. Heart Of A Lonely Girl
12. Thinking Of You

Don't forget to leave a comment after you listen!

You can still pre-order your copy at dierks.com and the album release concert at The Ryman in Nashville, Tennessee is February 2, 2012.  Are you going?

Dierks Bentley's Free and Easy, Takes Fan Melissa Martin "Home"

I am sorry to have to bring you sad news today, but we have lost another member of the Dierks Bentley Congress family. Today we honor Melissa Blackard Martin, DBC rep from Cordova, TN, who died Tuesday after a three and a half year battle with cancer.

"Dierks was her favorite," Melissa's Aunt, Lora Moore, told me.  "She loved going to see him and always went if he was near. She would be so happy to know you were doing this [blog].  It also makes me feel so good that you are doing this for her!"

I never met Melissa in person, but after reading Lora's stories about Dierks and Melissa below, I wish I had:

"Melissa and I were very close. I don't know how to describe our relationship. I thought of her as a daughter, sister and good friend.  We would go together to as many Dierks shows that were possible! She won her first Meet and Greet at the Huntsville, AL show in May 2009. She was in remission at the time and was so happy to share her news that she was a cancer survivor! Dierks was sincerely happy for her and that brought her joy!

Later that month, she got the news that the cancer had come back and metastasized to her lungs. Even though she was sick, she wanted to go to Miles and Music For Kids in October 2009, so we did. It turned out to be a beautiful day! Melissa was so excited to meet Dierks at the Harley Davidson dealership! It was a perfect day with friends and the concert was fantastic!

After the concert, walking down Broadway, she spotted Dierks coming out of The Stage. He stopped and talked to us for several minutes. He remembered her and asked how she was doing. As she shared the news that the cancer was back, he expressed his sorrow and said he’d keep her in his prayers. It was a day she never forgot and I am forever thankful to Dierks for making her so happy that day!
 
She was too sick to make it to the ‘Up on the Ridge’ show at the Ryman, so her mom, Rita and I went and she listened on the phone to the show.
 
We were able to meet him one more time together at a Meet and Greet in June, 2010 in Tunica, MS and as always, she had a big smile as he asked how she was doing.
 
In August 2010, she was in remission again and made it to another Miles and Music For Kids event in October with myself and her mom. In December 2010, we got the news the cancer was back in her lungs and brain. She underwent brain surgery to remove tumors, and had full brain radiation and chemotherapy this past year. This past summer, she heard he was playing the Opry and wanted to go, so we surprised her with a front row seat. She could barely walk on a cane, but she pushed and went to see him one last time.

Her favorite song was ‘Free and Easy (Down The Road I Go). With heart and soul, she would sing, Someday I know it’s gonna take me home, so Free and Easy down the road I go!

We are so thankful to have had Melissa in our lives and will miss her so much!  Thank you, Dierks, for the memories!"

Melissa was 40 years old when she passed away on Tuesday, December 6, 2011, after a courageous fight with breast cancer, which she chronicled in her Caring Bridge site from the beginning of her diagnosis to the end. By doing this she had one wish: that by sharing her experiences, both good and bad, it might help someone else who was facing this terrible disease or other hardships.

Visitation will be Friday, December 9 from 6 - 9 pm at Shackelford's Funeral Home, Bolivar, Tennessee. Services will be Saturday, December 10 at 11:00 am in the chapel at Shackelford's. Burial will be in the Shandy Cemetery, Bolivar. A fund (Melissa Martin Fund) has been set up for Melissa's children at First South Bank, 809 West Market Street, Bolivar, Tennessee 38008, care of Lora Moore.

A fellow DB Congress rep, Takara (MO), remembers meeting Melissa for the first time at the Dierks show in Tunica, MS.  On behalf of the DB Congress, Takara has volunteered to collect money for flowers and/or donations for the Melissa Martin Fund. 
God bless you, Melissa! You're finally home!

~Ronna (DBC Chair, FL)

Video Interview with Dierks Bentley's Mom & Dad at Home

Dierks Bentley's new single will be the official song of Arizona's Centennial Celebration in February 2012.  It's appropriate since AZ is where he grew up.  Watch as his mom talks about Dierks' humbleness:



For the whole story, click here.

Finding a "Home" in Top 20

Photo Courtesy Carrie Srebro (ACC Fanfest 12/3/2011)

In its 10th week on the charts, the title track and second single from Dierks Bentley's upcoming album "Home" jumped 4 spots on Billboard to come in at #16! On Mediabase, "Home" is up to #18. Although audience isn't the deciding factor for Mediabase, it's the only place you can track audience gains and "Home" had some huge days this past week: on two different days it was the #1 audience gainer, one day with a pickup of 585,000 and one day with a pickup of 757,000. Those are pretty stealthy numbers!

"Home" hit the charts the same week as the new singles from Kenny Chesney ("Reality") and Brad Paisley ("Camouflage"). Kenny easily pulled away from Brad and Dierks in the weeks following (as many expected, I'm sure), but in recent weeks, Brad and Dierks have been engaged in a healthy battle, which Dierks is winning quite handily on Billboard ("Camouflage" is at #19) and poised to win on Mediabase (Brad is at #17, with Dierks less than 100 points behind). Not only that, but with "Home" sitting at #16 on Billboard, it's just two spots behind Kenny's "Reality." It's great to see our Prez hanging with the titans of the charts! 

In the upcoming weeks, holiday music will start to become more prevalent, and many assume the charts "freeze" during this time. It's not exactly the case. The charts will still publish and Mediabase's daily information will still update, however the majority of the songs will see a significant loss in spins and audience, primarily in the week before Christmas. Some years, the charts remain fairly active, as was the case last year (for the top of the charts - it didn't help "Draw Me a Map" any. Hmph!). The chart that publishes on 1/2/2012 (the 1/14 chart) will likely see many songs with significant gains. On December 19th and December 26th, I won't have access to the Billboard information on those nights. Instead, I'll see the updates on Wednesday. All that being said, "Home" is in a great position heading into the holidays, and I still think it will fare well against the holiday music, or at least better than some of the other songs around it on the charts. Regardless, don't be alarmed if it loses a spot or two during the next few weeks; it will rebound and looks to be close to peaking right around album release the first week in February! 

~ Carrie S. (DBC Rep/Chart Reporter ~ NC)