Love Grows Wild in the Bentley Home: Baby #3 On The Way!

Dierks Bentley's family is growing.  This fall, the Bentley home will house seven (his lucky number that you'll find on the back of his Nashville Iceholes hockey jersey and guitar pick) -- two dogs, Jake and George; two daughters Evalyn "Evie" Day (4) Born October 4, 2008 and Jordan Catherine (2) born Christmas Day 2010; and mom Cassidy and daddy Dierks have another baby on the way!

In typical DB style, he announced the news with sports humor on Twitter:

Possibly hoping to tip the male-scale 4-3, Dierks hinted when a follower assumed the gender:

A reply from Tim McGraw gave Dierks some strategic advice from a father of three daughters:

Boy or girl,  Dierks will have to juggle a lot, with a new album due this fall as well as a new baby.  But he always seems to find a balance with career and family, and that only makes his music stronger and more meaningful.

The Tennessean shared this:

"It was just about three weeks ago when after a show in Las Vegas, Bentley was proudly showing off a cell phone picture of Evalyn perched on the back of a pony wearing a princess cape.  She was at a birthday party and he missed it because he was out of town. Last year the “Home” singer talked openly about how hard it was to be away from his family while he was out playing shows. 

“I’m always thinking about my girls and always missing them,” he said. “Now that the curtain’s been raised on that emotion and you can see what life is all about, it amplifies everything you do. It affects your soul in a weird way. Every moment away from my house has to be huge. I say a prayer every night with the band and I say at the end that we have to make this day worthwhile and not only for our fans but for the people who are at home missing us.”

Dierks and Cassidy have been married since December 14, 2005.

There’s a place where love grows wild
Where hearts can trust just like a child
A wild thing, it don’t need a lot
It just grows on what it’s got
It stills grows no matter what

-Julie and Buddy Miller (Love Grows Wild, sang by Dierks Bentley on his Up On The Ridge album)

We are so excited for Dierks!  We think he's a wonderful dad and are thrilled for him and Cass!

Dierks Will Miss His Buddy, George Jones

George Jones and Dierks Bentley were set to perform in Nashville on November 22 at the final show of George's farewell trek, The Grand Tour. But George said goodbye for good yesterday when he died at age 81.

Dierks is heartbroken.  He promptly changed his profile picture after DBC rep, Adrian Taylor, resent the picture he tweeted a while back, and shared his sadness on Twitter:

On Monday, Dierks tweeted get well wishes, proving how big a fan he was of George: "wearing this today in honor of @gjpossum. hope the possum gets well soon!"

But George died Friday at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville after being hospitalized with fever and irregular blood pressure.

"With one of the most golden voices of any genre, a clenched, precise, profoundly expressive baritone, Jones had No. 1 songs in five separate decades, 1950s to 1990s...his signature song was "He Stopped Loving Her Today," a weeper among weepers about a man who carries his love for a woman to his grave. The 1980 ballad, which Jones was sure would never be a hit, often appears on surveys as the most popular country song of all time." - Associated Press

Dierks paid tribute to George and the song on DB's self-titled album with his own song, "Forget About You:"

"I heard that old Jones song just the other day/ 'bout a man who took a broken heart to his grave/ but I'll be damned if a memory's gonna lay me down"

About four years ago, we told you about Dierks learning from George that it's "really about emotion in your voice and singing through a broken heart." That emotion is always evident in Bentley's vocals. He learned well from the "possum!"

At George's 75th birthday celebration at The Grand Ole Opry, Dierks honored his friend by singing, "Walk Through This World With Me."  

Watch here:

Dierks and George teamed up for the Songs of the Year album collaboration in 2006 with the classic, "Murder On Music Row." At the end of the song, the two friends banter about where to go for a drink after. George says, "Let's don't go down on murder...Music Row!" Listen here:

Our hearts are heavy and we pray for his family and friends to have strength and remember all the good times with George.

We're going to miss you, George! But we know our prez, Dierks will miss you more.  Somehow, we don't think he could ever forget about you.

Free & Easy...Across the US I Go

I truly dislike flying, but if there is one person that would get me to fly across the country for a show it would be Dierks Bentley. In fact, I have done it once before back in April of 2012 for two of his shows in California. So when I won tickets to Vegas for the ACMs, I put the fear aside again and booked a solo DRT flight. I mean, Dierks was playing the ACM Party For A Cause, so how could I not take advantage of the tickets? The whole Vegas experience was pretty amazing. If you love country music then you would be in heaven for three days. The real highlight, of course, was the show Saturday night at the ACM Party For A Cause at the Orleans Hotel where Dierks was the headliner.

On this trip, I met up with fellow DBC reps that I met through twitter: Shannon Bunting and Meredith Mauer. We never met in person prior to Vegas, but from the minute we met, it felt like an old friendship. I owe many thanks to these terrific ladies who were able to secure me a gold band to be in the VIP area with them. We also got to catch up with DBC reps David Watts and his wife Jamie. The DB Congress was representing in full force.

Saturday we got in line at noon to wait for Dierks and the guys. They were not going on until about 8pm, but if you are in the Congress you know getting there early is normal behavior. During that time we got to see Love and Theft, EYB and Hunter Hayes perform. The crowd thinned out a bit after Hunter, but it was still crowded. After being in the sun all day, our enthusiasm was not waning. Our energy, though, was definitely brought back up when the guys finally emerged at dusk playing "Am I The Only One".  The songs we love continued with "5-1-5-0", "Sideways" and "Up On the Ridge". Even in a parking lot in Vegas, Dierks managed to interact with his fans like he always does by handing out high fives, fist pumps and even lying on the stage to reach out to fans.

Before the show, the announcer had said that Dierks would have a few surprises for us. Well, that he did. Dierks said he "had this song in his head all day". While he was strumming a few notes on the guitar, out walked Sheryl Crow! They sang "Picture", the duet she had originally performed with Kid Rock, together. Then she sang "If It Makes You Happy". You could tell from their interactions, the two are clearly friends. They looked like they were having a terrific time together, and their good time was contagious.

After a few more songs out came surprise #2: Tim McGraw. Tim did not sing, but rather came out to talk about Operation Homefront. This is a group that gives mortgage free homes to soldiers. A male soldier who just returned from Afghanistan was given a new home that night. In addition, they presented him and his family with a check for $10,000 from the ACM charity Lifting Lives to help get them started in their new home. Looking around during this ceremony, there did not seem to be a dry eye in the audience. All the while, Dierks was beaming. You could tell he was not only thankful for the military and their service, but also thrilled to be a part of such a wonderful moment.

The night ended appropriately with HOME. Although it was back to my home in NY the next day, I know this is one of those trips I'll never forget and also eagerly await the next one!

~Tara, DBC Rep NY

 

Happy Birthday To Us, DB Congress!

Happy birthday, DB Congress! Six years ago today, April 21, 2007, the Dierks Bentley Congress formed in "Dierksville" on the old dierks.com site, with just 12 fan club members. Now we're 756 representatives strong and growing every day!

In a November 2006 interview in DeKalb, IL, Dierks said that his fan club was like his "congress." Here's an excerpt:

"I try to keep that connection with the fan club as close as it can be. To me they're like the congress of the fans. They're the elected officials that actually pay money to be in your fan club and I really listen to them and I want them to feel like they're really part of this growth and all this stuff that's happening..."

In early April 2007, "Long Trip Alone" was hovering near the top of the CMT Top 20 Video Countdown, and half a dozen of us fan club members were voting daily on CMT.com. But that was not nearly enough people, and I realized it was going to take an "act of congress" to get the video to #1.  Remembering that interview, I started the official thread (DB Congress Headquarters) in Dierksville on dierks.com. to rally other fan club members to help. And it worked! LTA spent 3 consecutive weeks as the #1 video!

We are:  

We are die-hard and hard core Dierks Bentley Fan Club members who represent our state or country to support and promote Dierks every day in any way we can to make and keep him #1. We are from all 50 United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, England, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico and Switzerland.

Our mission:

Our mission is to promote Dierks daily, using every form of modern media--Blog, Twitter, Facebook, email, text and word-of-mouth. We call radio and request his songs. We vote for him on various websites. We wear his shirts and go to his concerts every chance we get! Click here for "Current Campaigns.

Our history:
When dierks.com was re-launched in 2009 we lost Dierksville.  So, we started our own website, dbcongress.com, on February 1, 2009 as a way to provide a place to list our reps and campaigns and help everyone keep up with all things Dierks! I had an opportunity to meet Dierks a few days later when the "Feel That Fire" album launched and he told me he could not believe how one little thing he said three years before had become this big thing (DB Congress). In March 2009, Dierks told us he liked the name so much, he wanted to make it the name of the fan club, and asked our permission!  Of course we were honored!

We've even been published in Country Weekly a few times!

It’s an honor to serve as a member of the DB Congress and to be a Dierks supporter for life -- with no term limits! With DB as our President, there’s no tellin' what we might do, no!

"It's been a long hard ride, got a ways to go

but this is still the place that we all call home."

"'cause same, no we're not the same, but that's what makes us strong."

(-Dierks Bentley, "Home")

  

~Ronna

DB Congress Chair (FL)

Dedicated Dierks Bentley Congress Rep Reflects On First Show, Meet & Greet

It's two in the morning and the house is quiet except for the sound of us Chatty Cathys whispering wildly about the amazing Dierks Bentley experience just a few hours before in Estero, Florida, March 15.  We're at the kitchen table, munching on McDonald's and trying not to wake up Sherrie Shamon's husband, mom or dog Lexi.  The alarm gets set for 6 am to get on the road to Jacksonville to do it all again. Such is the life of two long-time DRT (Dierks Road Trip) buddies, right?

Wrong.  Sherrie and I met on Twitter and Facebook over a year ago, but this was the first time we met in person.  To save on hotel expense, she opened her home to me.  Who does that?  Friends through Dierks--DB Congress friends!

And it's as if we've known each other for years--instantly.  We have a lot in common--around the same age, have grown kids, a love for Dierks and his music, but one thing was was not so common.  While I will hit my 50th DB show this year, Sherrie was a Dierks 'virgin' before that night!  Yes. After a year and a half of promoting him daily, this was Sherrie's first Dierks concert! He finally came a little closer to her in Florida --and she won a Meet and Greet!

"When Dierks first came into the meet and greet, he said "Hey, guys. How's everyone doing?" Then he walked over and stood next to me, put his arm around me, hugged me close to him, and said, "So, you've been waiting here all day?" I almost died right then and there! I was so surprised!


He then asked if anybody had any questions for him. Someone asked about Last Call Ball and he said it would be either Wednesday or Sunday [We now know it will be Sunday--details next week!] and might be during the day. He was sniffling and I asked him if he was getting sick, since we knew Brian had been sick (Brian Layson, lead guitar). He said no, he had allergies. Someone said something about his daughters and he said yes, they were with him. I said that I had seen them out on the stage earlier and he laughed and said that they were out there making sure everything was set up right!

When we got the one-on-one time with him, he was getting ready to sign my t-shirt that I had bought and he said, "It's Sherrie, right?" I was so shocked that he knew who I was and he said, "I know who you are. I see you on Twitter."

They had asked us to only have him sign one thing. But I also had on my DB Congress t-shirt and after he signed the t-shirt I bought for him to sign, he asked if I wanted him to sign my t-shirt that I had on.  I, of course, immediately said yes. So, he signed that, too!


He was so gracious and took his time with all of us. It was not rushed at all, even though there were a ton of other people waiting to meet him (he met with the fan club members first).

My favorite part of the concert? Hmmm....that's a hard one. I absolutely loved the Up On The Ridge part when they were up there on the elevated stage with the woods background. And I loved when they all came down to the end of the catwalk and played. I also loved how he interacts with the fans during the concert. He makes everyone feel like he's there just for them. It was just totally amazing."

-Sherrie Shamon, DBC Rep (FL)

Thanks for sharing your DB experience, your home and your friendship, Sherrie!

-Ronna Clark
DB Congress Chair (FL)

 

The Congress T-Shirts Are Coming to Dierks.com Next Week!

It's Almost Here! (from dierks.com)

"We know that you have been waiting forever, but good news...The New Exclusive Congress T-shirt will be available for purchase next week!! If you are itching to get your hands on this New Exclusive Congress T-shirt before the individual release next week, you can get it here with a Home Bundle!"

VIDEO: Dierks Bentley, Brad Paisley, Hunter Hayes Perform on The 2013 ACM Awards

Dierks Bentley performed on the ACM Awards last night with Brad Paisley and Hunter Hayes.  Singing, "Outstanding In Our Field" that they recorded on Brad's new album, the trio tore up the stage with the fast-paced, party song.

We ain't nothin' special, we ain't no big deal
But if you wanna throw a party in the middle of nowhere, 
we're outstanding in our field.



We'd say Dierks is very special and he's a very big deal!  Although not nominated for any  ACM Awards last night, the CBS cameras found him front row in the audience smiling and giving standing ovations after performances by Miranda Lambert and several others. Outstanding!

Dierks will perform again with Tim McGraw tonight on ACM PRESENTS: TIM McGRAW'S SUPERSTAR SUMMER NIGHT" taping at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.  The special will air on CBS on Sunday, May 19 at 9 pm (ET).