Dierks Holds On to Hosting Duties, Honors Keith Whitley

Holding on to a second consecutive year of hosting duties for the ACM Honors, Dierks Bentley was "blending informality and irreverence made possible by the lack of network television cameras with a genuine appreciation of the night's award winners," according to USA Today. 

September 9, 2013 - Source: Rick Diamond/Getty Images North America

Tuesday night's seventh annual event at The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville was sold out and featured a mix of live music, historical video retrospectives and current video tributes and interviews with industry veterans honoring Special Awards recipients. 

DB Congress Reps were in the audience and shared their impressions of the evening:

Kelsey Hodges - TN
Dierks was so great Tuesday night, he definitely needs to host more shows! He said he was going to join Blake and Luke with the ACMs next year as "Blierks!" haha. He opened the show with "I Hold On," then a performance with Ricky Skaggs to honor Keith Whitley which was out of this world. It was an amazing night, and, it was also cool to share the night with other Congress members!

Mariana Bowring - GA
Dierks was such an awesome host! He opened singing "I Hold On" which really set the mood for the rest of the night in a great way! He kept the show moving right along delivering all his lines strongly and always throwing in some humor whether it was poking fun at Lady A or how much beer he'd been drinking! Later in the night he sang an awesome duet with Ricky Skaggs and then sang a song in tribute Keith Whitley which was beautiful! After the show was able to catch him as he was headed to his truck and got him to sign my hat! Awesome night!

Cecia Guidry Benoit - LA
I had a wonderful night! Dierks really started the show off with a bang by playing "I hold On" and also sang a duet with Ricky Skaggs, "Don't Cheat In My Hometown" AND the BIGGEST highlight was when Dierks sang "I'm Over You" as a tribute to the great Keith Whitley!
Cecia drove right back home so she could see Dierks in Mississippi Wednesday night!

Among the honorees were Blake Shelton and Lady A, and both had tweets for Dierks afterward:

Dierks was equally excited and tweeted a pre-show prep photo:

And Ricky Scaggs had kinds words for Dierks too!

Honorees included a few studio musicians who have played on several of Dierks' album cuts:  Aubrey Haynie (Fiddle Player of the Year) and Guitarist of the Year J.T. Corenflos.

For a complete list of performers, presenters and honorees, click here.

VIDEO: Dierks Bentley and Joe Nichols Duet

Dierks Bentley was a guest performer at Joe Nichols fan club party at the Country Music Hall of Fame June 12th during CMA Fest week in Nashville. Watch the video of their duet of Keith Whitley's, "I'm Over You."

Photo credit: Kerri McKeehan Houlihan/Blondeink.com.

DIERKS BENTLEY'S 7th RADIO SHOW SPOTLIGHTS KEITH WHITLEY

In a few weeks, Dierks Bentley and the rest of the country music community will be remembering a special day--MAY 9, 1989--as the day Keith Whitley passed away.

Although they never met, Dierks dedicated an hour of his radio show today to Keith and told us how much he appreciates his music, and wondered what kind of music he'd be playing today.

Dierks' told the story of his steel player, Tim Sergent, who had gotten a Keith Whitley gig back in 1989, to be Keith's steel guitar player and was driving down from Kentucky when he got the call that morning that Keith had passed away.

"Some great music was left behind," reflects Dierks. "

"I don't want this to be a sad show, I want it to be happy, to be celebrating the great music that Keith Whitley made, and the huge influence he's had on so many young country singers and continues to have on them. A lot of people try to sing like Keith but no one has done it since then. He had his own sound, his own way with words...he sure was somethin'."

Dierks used to work at TNN and one of his most treasured possessions is a VHS tape of Keith singing Miami, My Amy on the Opry.

Keith Whitley started in the bluegrass world with Ricky Scaggs, when they were discovered at the age of 15 by the Stanley Brothers. He went from bluegrass to JD Crow, and Keith's tenture with JD had a huge influence on Keith becoming a country star.

"His records are so a part of my weekly listening...a big part of 'the thread' of country music," admits Dierks. I remember a few years ago reading one of D's journals on dierks.com...it was late one night, he was on his tour bus and listening to Keith on his ipod and writing a journal to us--his fan club--to let us know how much Keith Whitley's music means to him. I sure wish we still had those dierks.com journal archives, and we really miss those personal journals that seem to be a thing of the past.

"Some songs you just don't cover...I'd get requests for this song but I consider it sacriligeous, so I leave it alone. Don't touch it. 'Don't Close Your Eyes.' "I love hearing the original."

Partial Play List:
~It Ain't Nothin'
~Miami, My Amy (1986)
~Pick Me Up On Your Way Down (written by Harland Howard)
~Sad Songs and Waltzes
~When You Say Nothing At All (*heart melting!)
~Somewhere Between Your Heart And Mine
~Don't Close Your Eyes
~Homecoming '63
~Til A Tear Becomes A Rose (Duet with Lori Morgan; CMA Award for Best Vocal Collaboration)
~I'm Over You

"I used to write over at Sony/Tree where Keith wrote and a there's a bunch of little demos that got passed around from time to time...some really cool things that he did, that hopefully one day may see the light of day."

The last song that was released while he was alive--great guitar part almost impossible to do live - No Stranger To The Rain---January 1989.

It was apparent Dierks didn't want the show to end today. He has so much reverence, respect and appreciation for Keith Whitley and his music, we can't help but feel the same!

Best THREAD yet! Thanks, D!

~Ronna
DB Congress Chair

UPCOMING TOPICS ON DIERKS BENTLEY'S RADIO SHOW: THE THREAD

Imagine my surprise at getting a Facebook friend request from Dierks Bentley's radio show producer, Shannon McCombs. So, being the friendly person that I am, I accepted and sent a quick email in response:

"I heard/saw you on CMT Insider today! I'm sure you know from my profile that I am a HUGE DB supporter. I love his radio show and post a blog every week about it on dbcongress.com! I know it's pre-recorded, but sure wish there was a way to let fans call in! Thanks for helping make the show great!"

Never dreamed I'd get a reply, but sure enough:

"Thank you, Ronna. At some point if time permits, we want to do some "live shows", if that happens, you can bet the phones will be wide open! You do a really nice job with the blog and thank you for the mention, very sweet of you. With this new cd coming up - you are going to hear it on this show...definitely.

I am so impressed with Dierks. I've known him for years and anytime I've interviewed him, we would always talk about the legends of country music. He has a great knowledge of country music and truely loves it. He's inspiring to work with. (and you can quote me on that!)"

I believe I just did!

Shannon went on to tell me that she gives a description of the upcoming show to dierks.com every week, and wsmonline.com also posts what's coming up in future weeks. So I checked it out! Coming up this Monday, 4/19 is Marty Robbins, and the following week is one of my favorites, Keith Whitley!
Be sure to listen every Monday to Dierks' radio show, The Thread on WSM 650.

COUNTRY WEEKLY LOVES DIERKS!

I love my Country Weekly! Love it even more now that it's "weekly!" And they certainly have lots of love for our DB Congress president, Dierks Bentley--especially lately! The May 18 issue (Carrie on the cover) dotes on DB from the Letters page all the way to the last page where they ask him 7 interesting questions--wait unitl you read his answers!

~Letters - Hey Martha! Interested in becoming a DBC rep for North Carolina?


~Chillin' with the Stars - What's in Dierks' fridge?


~Tootsies - the world famous, historic Nashville honky-tonk CW page pictures Dierks, but I'm pretty positive that's NOT his band! hmmmmmm


~Stars Up Close - another well-crafted, touching story by Steve Morley, from one of our very own California DB Congress reps, Janet M.! For those of you in the DB Fan Club, here is Janet's original post on the fan club message board.

~7 Questions with Dierks Bentley - Read what just about made him gag and why he's glad he has a daughter--not a son! It's interesting they picked "7" questions, the same number on his IceHoles jersey!

One more page that didn't mention him, but made me think of Dierks is the David Scarlett story on Keith Whitley--20 Years Gone. It's been two decades since keith Whitley died, but his influence still lives on. Many of you may remember one of Dierk's fan club journals where he posted about his admiration and reverence for Whitley. And Bentley's sure to be next single (hopefully), I Wanna Make You Close Your Eyes, Dierks attests, is the opposite spin on Keith's first No. 1 single, "Don't Close Your Eyes."

OK, you know the drill, I've posted the pics, but it's your congressional duty to go buy the magazine! That's how we DBC dedicated Dierks fans say Thank You, Country Weekly!