Country Weekly Highlights Dierks' Jager Country Tour

Check out page 38-41 in the June 20, 2011 issue of Country Weekly! Our DB Congress prez (Dierks Bentley) is featured in "Meister Memories."  "If you can't have fun with Dierks Bentley on tour, then you simply have no taste for the good life."

DBTV - Episode 19: 2011 Jager Tour Highlights

Dierks Bentley and his tour mates have a lot of leavin', fishin', drummin', prankin' and golfin' left to do!  My favorite quote is from Miss Willie Brown: "Dierks' fans are amazing and they are so welcoming to us!"

Ringleaders of the Party: Team Dierks

Interesting @DierksBentley interview from soundspike.com:

Country star Dierks Bentley's Jagermeister Country Tour is the perfect place to preview songs from his as-yet unnamed forthcoming album.

"I play two to three songs off the new record," Bentley told SoundSpike. "[It's a] loud, rowdy tour. It's just fun. It's a great time. We're having a blast out here. We're doing a couple new songs, but for the most part it's the hits and up-tempo stuff. It's a big party and we want to do our job as the ringleaders of the party and do it right. We always feel like we do. We try to have more fun than anybody else in the room that seems to be the key to the success of the whole deal."

Included in that set list is the upbeat "Am I the Only One" from Bentley's new collection, which is due out before the end of the year. He said the song is going over very well live. Since his self-titled major-label debut in 2003, Bentley has scored plenty of raucous hits including "What Was I Thinkin'," "Settle for a Slowdown," "Feel That Fire" and "Sideways."

An Arizona native, Bentley spoke to SoundSpike about the tour, the upcoming record and the photo shoot he did with Esquire for its May music issue.

SoundSpike: How's the tour going so far?

Dierks Bentley: Tour's going great. It's just a fun tour. It's the Jagermeister Country Tour and it's a fun, amps cranked up, loud rowdy crowd kind of tour. We're having a good time.

How are the openers, Josh Thompson and Miss Willie Brown?

Josh Thompson is a great guy, a lot of energy and a lot of fun to be around. Puts on a good show. Miss Willie Brown is the other act, and they're also just a brand new band, a lot of great energy and they were rocking out every night. The girls are funny. They're exactly what you want to have as an opening act.

How is "Am I the Only One" going over live?

It's great. I've been off the radio for a little bit because I made more of a bluegrass-flavored album that didn't work as well for country radio. I had no expectations for it. I knew what I was doing. I really wanted to make that record. Now I'm on to this one. I wanted to get one out there that would be fun for our fans to have for the summer and something new that country music would love and something that would go over great in the live shows -- especially this Jagermeister tour. I play it early in the set list. It really gets the party rocking and people seem to be digging on it. It's been a lot of fun.

Do you have a name for the album?

I don't have a name for it yet. I'm still working on it. It probably won't come out until late summer, early fall. I'm still trying to figure it all out. I did most of the recording back [in], I guess it would have been February. Now that we're on the road, I'm going back and forth here and there trying to do the overdubs and fix it up a little bit.

I read that you recorded it in five days.

Yeah, I did the majority it of it in five days. There are still lots [of things] to do. We did the majority of the tracking. We just need to add a fiddle here and there, change some things up here and there. There are a lot of little tweaks that need to be done to make it just right. I did a lot of work going into that -- months of songwriting, months of listening to other people's material. Getting it all together. We kind of had the game plan. I hope for some magic and try to rock it out. It turned out pretty good.

Describe the songwriting process for your new album.

Just a lot of it. [Laughs] Just writing 50 to 60 songs and with some of the best songwriters in town. I tried to narrow those down and also listened to about 2,000 songs personally, and tried to whittle it all down to the top 20, 25 and take those in there and put out the top 11 or 12.

Wow, you wrote and listened to that many songs?

A lot. About a hundred days' worth of writing.

Do you write when you have to, or when you're inspired?

I get inspired when I have to. You come off tour and you come off the road and your brain changes into that mode. Then you're always thinking of a song title or an idea. I go into that mode.

You mentioned your last record, "Up on the Ridge." Did you always want to do a bluegrass record?

It's something I've always wanted to do. The time was right about two years ago to really think about doing it. I was able to make that record. Go out there and tour behind it last year. Have it be nominated for a CMA, ACM, Grammy Country Album of the Year. I'm really, really proud of that record.

Are nominations and awards important to you?

Yeah. They've very important. TV time. They're huge. All that stuff is important, a big deal as far as making people aware of your music. As far as personally how important they are to me, nothing's more important than just getting the chance to play music and walk out on stage every night and have that audience there waiting for you. That's why we do what we do. They're extremely important. I'd be lying if I said it didn't feel great to have that album nominated for those three award shows. It's a great feeling to have that respect from your peers, especially as a songwriter. Yeah, they're important to me. It feels good.

What's your favorite song to play live?

I kind of love all of them for different reasons. The up-tempo ones like "What Was I Thinking," the new one, "Am I the Only One," see some fists and beers in the air. There are also songs that slow it down and I get to sing on. I love those, too. I think I've always picked songs that I know if, forever down the road, I always enjoy singing.

You did a photo shoot in Detroit for Esquire and wrote a song about the city. Tell me a bit about that.

I did. I did it about two months ago. It's just coming out. [The deal] is, you get a song title about a week in advance. You go up there, record a song and they do a photo shoot with four other artists, all different genres of music. It's a great hang. I wrote a song called "Line No. 7," inspired by a story I'd heard about a steel stamping assembly line plant that was completely disassembled and reassembled in different parts of the world. One line went to Mexico and one in Brazil. They make these same parts and send them back to Detroit. It's crazy, I guess, how much cheaper it is to make parts elsewhere. It's a sad story about Detroit. I wrote this song as part of that Esquire

Source: SoundSpikeStory by Christina Fuoco-Karasinski

Jager TV Episode 2 and 3

Watch the videos of Dierks Bentley on the Jagermeister Country Tour, including pre show prayers and rituals.

Dierks Bentley: A Man Possessed

Dierks Bentley plays Clear Lake, Iowa tonight, then continues his Jagermeister Country Tour in the midwest next week, with Wednesday's Salina, KS.  The Salina Journal posted this story:

"Don't be scared, but each time country singer Dierks Bentley goes on stage he becomes possessed.


"The rest of the day I'm pretty low-key, but once on stage I feed off the energy of the crowd," he said. "I get possessed. I can't believe I'm the same person at all."

Bentley's high-energy shows and radio-friendly songs have made him one of the more popular performers in country music.

Bentley, 35, is headlining the 2011 Jagermeister Country Tour, along with rising country stars Miss Willie Brown and Josh Thompson. They will perform at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Salina Bicentennial Center.

When people think of Jagermeister, a high-grade German liqueur, they think of partying, Bentley said.

"I'm here to fulfill that expectation," he said. "I want people to lose their voices from screaming and yelling."

Read the rest of the story here.

Video: Jager Country Tour - Dierks Bentley Checks In

Check out all the upcoming DB/Jager tour dates here.

Oh, and if you are reading this on the dbcongress blog page, find the blue chat box on the right and you'll see a link to order your very own DB/Jager tour poster! (while supplies last)

DBTV - Episode 10 - First Week of Jager Tour

Check out this week's DBTV episode where Dieks Bentley takes us along for the "free and easy" ride on his first week of the Jagermeister Country Tour.  Shows included "fist-pumping" crowds in Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania:

Dierks Debuts Lead Single "Am I The Only One" From Upcoming Album

Come on, come on, get your good time on! Check out Dierks Bentley in the video on dierks.com talking about his new single, 'Am I The Only One?', which shipped to radio today!  Let's go DB Congress! Request, Request, Request!

This article was posted on dierks.com today:

Dierks is introducing his sixth Capitol Nashville studio project with the rowdy sing-a-long party song “Am I The Only One,” shipping to radio today. Fans can stream the song this week through Dierks' social networks and will be able to purchase through iTunes beginning March 29.

“We just kicked off the Jager Tour this past weekend, and the song is already killing it out there,” says Dierks. “The fans are singing the second and third choruses with fists in the air. I decided to stage dive Sat. night and by Sun. night in Pittsburgh the fans were crowd surfing before I even hit the stage. They haven’t been shy about letting me know that I’m not the ‘only one!’ We recorded a lot of fun, uptempo songs for the new record, so we’re going to be rocking the whole year.”

Written by Dierks, Jim Beavers and Jon Randall, the new song was recorded at Echo Mountain Studio in Asheville, NC, where Dierks and the other musicians lived and recorded 15 songs for the new project in only five days. Over 35,000 fans tuned in and streamed the recording process that Dierks made available to them through a 24 hour web cam.

For a video about the making of “Am I The Only One,” click HERE.

Dierks will debut “Am I The Only One” on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno next Tues., March 29. He will also perform the new song the following day on CBS’ The Talk and the 46th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards live from Las Vegas on Sun., April 3 where he is nominated for “Album of the Year.”

Dierks' new album follows in the footsteps of his critically acclaimed UP ON THE RIDGE, which earned Album of the Year nominations at the ACM, CMA and GRAMMY Awards this year. His previous five albums have sold over five million copies, earned 10 GRAMMY nominations, have spawned seven No. one hits (What Was I Thinkin,” “Come A Little Closer,” “Settle For A Slowdown,” “Every Mile A Memory,” “Free and Easy (Down The Road I Go),” “Feel That Fire,” “Sideways”) and 12 Top 10 hits.

Dierks is testing the new music for fans on the road while headlining the 30-city 2011 JÄGERMEISTER COUNTRY TOUR which treks to Lewiston, ME, Poughkeepsie, NY, Reading, PA and Westbury, NY this week. The tour runs through mid-May and features special guest Josh Thompson and Miss Willie Brown.

Dierks Announces Next Single: Am I The Only One?

Dierks Bentley announces his next single will be, "Am I the Only One?" in this interview:

Dierks Bentley Ready to Rock: Country star leads Jagermeister tour into House of Blues
By ROBERT DiGIACOMO, For At The Shore pressofAtlanticCity.com

Dierks Bentley is planning a party for Atlantic City. "My goal with every show is to leave everyone in the room without any voice," says Bentley, who headlines this year's Jagermeister Country Tour, which makes a stop this weekend at the House of Blues, inside the Showboat Casino-Hotel.

"I want them to scream and yell. I want it to be the most fun time of the year for the fans who come to these shows. When you're sponsored by Jagermeister, you might as well throw it all out there."

Bentley, who is one of the most popular Nashville artists to emerge during the past decade, arrives in Atlantic City following last year's well-received all-acoustic record, "Up on the Ridge" (Capitol Records).

He plans to include some of that material in a special set, as well as preview his new single - "Am I the Only One?" - from his forthcoming album.

Ahead of the show, he talks about his surprising New Jersey connection and why he never aspired to be the next Garth Brooks.

Question: Not many Nashville stars attend high school in New Jersey. How did you land at The Lawrenceville School?

Answer: I grew up in Phoenix, and lived there for the first 14 years of my life. I had troubles in my younger adolescence, and my parents decided to send me away to boarding school.

If I hadn't gone there, I would never have discovered country music. I made some great friends - and had a love of Jersey girls - but country reminded me of home and Arizona.

Q: Did being a kid from the Southwest, by way of Jersey, make it harder to break into Nashville?

A: It's weird, growing up in Arizona, I thought country music was Western music. When I got to Nashville, I realized it's a big Southwestern thing. I grew up where Waylon Jennings got his start, and Marty Robbins.

Q: What was it like when you moved to Nashville at age 19?

A: I didn't know anybody. I had to start from the ground up. It was a classic story of persistence and determination paying off in the end. I worked nonstop, pounding on doors and playing bars for tips.  It took about eight years to get a record deal.

Q: Unlike many fledgling country artists in the mid-'90s, though, you didn't want to be the next Garth Brooks. Why not?

A: I wasn't in love with the music coming out at the time. Everyone was trying to be Garth Brooks. I love Garth Brooks, but it wasn't my thing to wear a cowboy hat.

Q: Instead, you learned a lot from the bluegrass artists who played at Nashville's Station Inn, and came full circle with your last album, "Up on the Ridge." What inspired you to go unplugged now?

A: I'd been on the road for about six years. I realized I was losing creativity. I wanted to make a heavily bluegrass, country music record.

That meant I was stepping away from the game a bit. I made a record I poured my heart into.

Q: For your next project, you're changing direction again?

A: I spent the last five months working on a record coming out in August. It's electric country, with a lot of bass and drums.

The first song is a big party song. It's called "Am I the Only One?" and it's a song about trying to drag your buddies out to have a good time.

Q: Is there anything else on your mind before we go?

A: If The Boss is reading this, I would love to have him get out to the show.

Q: You must have crossed paths with Bruce Springsteen at some point?

A: I haven't met him, but several people close to him told me was a fan of "Up on the Ridge." That means a lot to me.

Happy Dierksday St. Patrick's Day Thursday!

Today is March 17, 2011--the first official day of Dierks Bentley's Jagermeister Country Tour! Good luck and safe travels to our president (Dierks), Tim, Steve, Cassady, Brian, Dan, Chris and Brittany, and crew, and all the DRT (Dierks Road Trip) DB Congress reps traveling to the show tonight in Wallingford, CT!

St Patricks Day Graphics

Video: Dierks Moves On To A New Partner

In this week's DBTV episode, Dierks Bentley talks about moving from Bud Light to Jagermeister on his new headlining tour for 2011.  Pre sale tickets for many dates went on sale today for DB Congress members on dierks.com.

Warm Those Winter Blues With Some Spring Tour Dates

Yup, you heard right! Dierks Bentley's spring tour has officially been announced. Get those calendars out and start planning your spring DRTs!

Multiple GRAMMY nominee and chart-topping country music star Dierks Bentley is slated to headline the 2011 JÄGERMEISTER COUNTRY TOUR kicking off March 17. The 30-city tour runs through mid-May and will feature special guest Columbia Nashville road warrior Josh Thompson and brand new A&M/Octone duo Miss Willie Brown. Each concert will also feature a local Jägermeister sponsored country act.

Pre-sale tickets are available to fan club members through www.dierks.com, while the general public will be able to purchase tickets beginning Jan. 21 and Jan. 28 through Ticketmaster. The remaining cities will go on sale over the coming weeks.

“It’s a good thing we’ve got a video crew on the road with us capturing everything that goes down,” laughed Bentley. “Putting my band, Josh Thompson, the Miss Willie Brown girls and a few thousand fans in a Jägermeister sponsored room with loud country music sounds like a pretty solid recipe for a great night!”

“For the brand’s 20th music tour, Jägermeister is bringing top country star Dierks Bentley to the stage to show our dedication and loyalty to country music,” says Bill Henderson, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Advertising at Sidney Frank Importing Company, Inc. “In addition to this great line-up, Jägermeister is sponsoring over 25 country music acts to open the shows and is looking for more.”

2011 Jägermeister Country Tour Dates:
3/17 Wallingford, CT *
3/18 Sayreville, NJ **
3/19 Atlantic City, NJ **
3/20 Pittsburgh PA **
3/24 Lewiston, ME **
3/25 Poughkeepsie, NY
3/26 Reading, PA **
3/27 Westbury, NY **
4/1 Los Angeles, CA **
4/2 Las Vegas, NV **
4/6 Houston, TX **
4/7 Mescalero, NM **
4/13 Asheville, NC
4/14 North Myrtle Beach, SC **
4/15 Melbourne, FL
4/16 Boca Raton, FL
4/21 Mankato, MN
4/22 Sioux Falls, SD
4/23 Clear Lake, IA
4/27 Salina, KS
4/28 Bloomington, IL
4/29 Saint Charles, MO
5/5 Akron, OH
5/6 Detroit, MI
5/7 Indianapolis, IN
5/11 Augusta, GA
5/12 Charleston, SC
5/13 Norfolk, VA

* Tickets On Sale Jan. 21
** Tickets On Sale Jan. 28

Bentley is currently in Nashville working on material for his next album. Fans can expect the first single this spring and will be able to get glimpses of the recording process along the way through www.dierks.com. The new album will follow in the footsteps of Bentley’s artistically daring and critically acclaimed UP ON THE RIDGE, which recently received three GRAMMY nominations. The Phoenix-native has won countless awards, headlined arena tours, sold over five million albums, and celebrated seven No. one hits (“What Was I Thinkin,” “Come A Little Closer,” “Settle For A Slowdown,” “Every Mile A Memory,” “Free and Easy (Down The Road I Go),” “Feel That Fire,” “Sideways”) since being signed to Capitol Records Nashville.

Columbia Nashville recording artist Josh Thompson stormed onto the country music scene with his debut album WAY OUT HERE – debuting in the Top 10 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums Chart and earning praise from countless critics, including NPR’s Fresh Air, Billboard and People. Thompson wrote or co-wrote all 10 tracks on the album including his current single, “Won’t Be Lonely Long,” which follows previous hits “Way Out Here” and “Beer On The Table.” The blue-collar road warrior played over 240 shows last year ranging from headlining club dates to sold-out arenas with Brad Paisley.

A&M/Octone’s first country release is the vibrant new female duo Miss Willie Brown, comprised of Amanda Watkins from West Virginia and Texas native Kasey Buckley. The two girls met in California waiting tables, instantly bonded over a deep love of country music and have been writing and singing together ever since. Now living in Nashville, the duo is recording their debut album with award winning producer Keith Stegall (Zac Brown Band, Alan Jackson) and will release the lead single in the coming months. Miss Willie Brown has been busy honing their live performance chops opening shows for artists including Dwight Yoakam and Billy Currington. They are also the only unsigned band to ever perform on Jimmy Kimmel Live.