Dierks Bentley Hosts Tige and Daniel's Second Annual Birthday Bash

Dierks Bentley Hosts Tige and Daniel's Birthday Bash 

by  Guest Blogger Adrian Taylor

When it comes to hosting a birthday party, who makes the best host? Dierks Bentley does! On June 23, 2014, Dierks Bentley literally flew himself to Winston Salem, North Carolina to host 104.1 WTQR morning show radio DJs Tige and Daniel’s second annual Birthday Bash. 

Now I don’t know what Tige and Daniel did to get Dierks to host their party, but as a diehard Dierks fan, I am so glad that they were able to get him.

The stage was set up with four stools for the acoustic performance. In the front was Brian Layson (lead guitar), Dierks Bentley (guitar/host), Dan Hochhalter (fiddle/banjo) and hiding behind Brian was Cassady Feasby (bass guitar). I must say I was sad when I didn’t see Steve Misamore or Tim Sergent, but Dierks, Cassady, Brian and Dan did an amazing job on stage. And before I go on, it was good to see Jay & Carlos running back and forth from backstage to the stage.

Dierks took the center stool and began by talking to the audience. He first thanked Tige and Daniel for allowing him to perform at their birthday and thanked all of us for attending (granted the majority of the people there won tickets via the radio station). Dierks, being the jokester that he can be, told a few jokes and changed Tige & Daniel’s name so many times I lost count. A few times during  the set, Dierks would be telling stories, and getting the crowd laughing so much, that he had to look to Brian and say, “what key does this song begin in?” And Brian would have to say “dude, how many times have we done this song?”

About half way through the performance, Tige & Daniel’s birthday cake was brought out and Dierks led the crowd in singing “happy birthday” to them. Afterwards, Dierks took a picture with Tige and Daniel and he put his backside to the audience, and said he was going to pull a LukeBryan. With us being in North Carolina, the first thought I had was “no Dierks, don’t fall off the stage!” Instead, Dierks said, he wore the tightest jeans he owned. 

Dierks performed a few more songs, then talked about how he was honored to be at the birthday bash this year, and that he didn’t know how Tige and Daniel got the hosts they did, but that since they had Luke Bryan last year, and him this year, it would be hard to top next year, but if they couldn’t find anyone next year, that he would come back. Personally I think that is a great idea!  

After performing 10 songs, Dierks finished the night off with Home. He dedicated it to all the service men and women. When Dierks finished Home, he looked at me and tossed me one of his new guitar picks. Afterwards, the radio station thanked Dierks again for coming out, and invited everyone to celebrate with the cake and other food. 

As everyone was walking away, I yelled up at Brian, and asked for his set list. He picked it up, and said “here ya go.” I told him thanks, and my friend Jessica and I began to walk away. Several other people there tried to get the other set lists from Dierks, Dan and Cassady, but they had no luck. So I have to say I was happy I got one. Several people then asked me how I knew the band, and before I could say much, my friend Jessica replied, those guys are like her extended family. And I have to agree with her. 

So after getting my set list and guitar pick, Jessica and I were on two missions. One of which was to get our own individual photos with Tige and Daniel (we got pictures with them together as we walked in) but we wanted solo pictures. And mission number two was to try to say hey to Dierks and the guys and try to chat with them for a few minutes. We found out that Dierks was having to jet off to another show for the next day, and wasn’t going to be able to meet with anyone after the show. Of course this made me sad, but I know that Dierks has a very busy schedule. 

Jessica and I left the venue, and walked down the sidewalk in hopes of getting a picture of Dierks leaving. We saw his jeep and the tour bus (unfortunately it was not Goldie). Then we saw the guys get into a white SUV. As they were pulling out, they exited through a gate that was near where Jessica and I was standing. I had brought Dierks a card, and he had the driver stop and he reached for it. He told Jessica and I both hey. And said, see y’all girls again soon. 

So despite not getting to hang with Dierks and the guys after the show, it was amazing to have been there and get to see the guys perform literally five minutes from my house.

So Dierks may have been hosting Tige and Daniel’s birthday party, but it felt like another great Dierks concert!

If you want to see photos from the event, check out the album here:

Watch the tiny couch interview with Dierks, Tige and Daniel below.

Adrian Taylor

NC-DBC

Welcome New DB Congress Reps!

Logo created by Stephanie Lanham, MO Rep

Welcome to all our newest Dierks Bentley Congress Members!

♪ Dyanna, Florida
♪ Holli, Nebraska
♪ Lisa and Kimberly, New York
♪ Kyleen, North Carolina
♪ Stevie, South Carolilna

We're nearing 650 DB Congress members, who represent all 50 United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Europe, and Asia!  At 639, our goal is to reach 650 by Valentine's Day!  Can we do it?  Yes, and you can help!  Just tell all your friends who are Dierks Bentley fans to join the fan club (only $9.99 right now on dierks.com) and then join our DB family of reps who support him daily and be listed for free on the Representatives page here on dbcongress.com!

As soon as the new single is released we'll be updating the Current Campaigns page, but for now just spread the word and let's grow our family!

If any of you who have been a member of the DB Congress less than a year and would like to be considered for a "Featured New Rep of the Week" blog story, please email me at Ronna@dbcongress.com.

CHOPPER GIRL RECAPS NORTH CAROLINA DRT'S

Angie, Choppergirl, is a DB Congress rep in South Carolina, but North Carolina was her destination last weekend....

Friday afternoon me and Keesh hit the road in her famous "Dierks Mobile" decorated and ready for our DRT. We are on the road to Charlotte where we meet my friend Kim(also a Congress member) in Gaffney and we continue on our way to the venue. We get there and get our tickets and all of a sudden Keesh spots Dierks jeep!! We run down to where he is hanging out tailgating with fans - got to talk to him as he got back to the jeep to go get ready for the show. We took a few pics before he left, and seeing him had us even more excited and ready for the show! It starts to rain and we ended up getting soaked before going into the show, but it didn't matter to any of us because we had just seen Dierks Bentley!

Jimmy Wayne opened the show and was awesome! Next our man was on the stage and he came out and rocked the place starting out with singing "Sideways!" He was so full of energy and him and the band were awesome as always. He sang a variety of songs like "What Was I Thinking", "I Wanna Make You Close Your Eyes", "Feel That Fire" and a amazing bluegrass version of "Come A Little Closer"! It was awesome! Dierks sang some more and kept the crowd on their feet! We were all sad to see his set come to an end, and we were very disappointed because the man from the venue wouldn't let us use flash on cameras so my pics didn't turn out very well. I was glad I had my pic from outside though! Brad put on a good show! After it was over we ran into some more Congress members who I had never met, but we talked for a while (I wish I could remember all their names!). I saw a couple of DB Congress shirts in the crowd! Kims friend, Gina, had joined us at the show and it was her first DB experience - she left there being a new fan!!

As we were walking out, we saw Rod and talked to him and all got pics with him. He is such a sweetheart!!!

It was an amazing night, but me and Keesh were so pumped up because we were headed to Raleigh to be there for the Saturday night show!! We drove up that night and went to the venue early the next morning. We had planned to tailgate, meet friends and hang out all day, but we were told that we had to leave because the parking lot was closed until 4pm. A little before 4pm, we headed back and got our tickets. As we were parking there was the awesome jeep that belongs to Mr. Bentley!! He actually wasn't in it at that time, but later came riding back out into the crowd. Me, Keesh and Misty (all Congress members) got our pic made with him! He's so sweet for taking the time for us fans! We headed to get in line, and after that we were anxious to see him perform again! The Raleigh show was great also, and we met some new fanclub members - Carrie, Ashley and some that I didn't get their names. I saw Haley, whom I had not seen since the Greenville, North Carolina show last September. When Dierks took the stage he rocked the place once again, and had everybody on their feet singing along!! Our seats at this show weren't as awesome as the Charlotte show. In Charlotte we on front row, but in Raleigh we were way back in section 5. It was still awesome to see Dierks run from one side of the stage to the other and sing all our favorite songs!!


I had several girls ask me about my Dierks bracelets and wanted to know where they could buy one. So, I gave the ones I had away and told them all to check out the fanclub website. After Dierks performed, we left because we wanted to beat the crowd and we had a long ride back home - at least 5 hrs to my house and a little further for Keesh! As we were leaving, I got to meet Jimmy Wayne - which was awesome! It was really awesome doing two Dierks shows back to back!! Can't wait to see him again this week at LCB and again in South Carolina in July! We had an awesome DRT!

THINKING "INSIDE" THE BOX

When I was in Nashville March 14, I met Kim from Kentucky. Like every DRT (Dierks Road Trip), we DBC reps always try to think of unique ways to promote Dierks Bentley to the concert crowd. Kim had a great idea to buy dozens of boxes of Cracker Jack and label them with a dierks.com and dbcongress.com fan club message! The local radio station allowed her to hand them out at their table outside the Sommet Center before the Dierks/Brad/Darius concert.
When the Feel That Fire CD was launched, I remember the promotion Capitol Records announced to send out CJ boxes to radio stations with various prizes inside, including a backyard party. But I never really heard if my local radio stations received one of the boxes or if anyone won any of the prizes.

Yesterday, americajr.com posted an article about the Cracker Jack promotion (see below). It says someone in Greensboro, North Carolina won the grand prize from WTQR radio. If you're a NC DBC rep, please post a comment and fill us in on the scoop!

Dierks Bentley Sweetens the Promo Pot with Cracker Jack

For record labels seeking to promote their artists, it often pays to think out of the box. But for Dierks Bentley and the team at Capitol Records Nashville, thinking inside the box has its rewards too.The box, in this case, is that familiar cardboard container whose festive colors and image of a smiling boy in a sailor suit identify its ingredients as Cracker Jack. This mélange of popcorn, peanuts and molasses has been a national phenomenon for more than a century - so long, in fact, that it was celebrated in the third line of the lyric to "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" ("Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack"), written by Jack Norworth in 1908 during an otherwise routine subway ride.

A century later, Bentley drew from the same well when he joined Brett Beavers, Brad Warren and Brett Warren to co-write the No. 1 song "Feel That Fire," whose second line reads: "She wants the toy in the Cracker Jacks." By the time he dropped by his label to play it for members of the staff, he believed enough in the song to suggest they release it as the first single from his upcoming album. (They agreed and decided to make it the album's title cut as well.)

Like candy on a hungry kid's fingers, the tune stuck in the mind of Cindy Mabe, VP Marketing, Capitol, after she left that meeting. "The Cracker Jack line is the one that hit me the most," she remembered. "The more we talked about it, the more we thought it would be cool to see if Cracker Jack would be interested in partnering with us."

A bit of research led to Mark Vitek, who was at the time Brand Manager for Cracker Jack at Frito-Lay, Inc. Fortunately, Vitek was also a Bentley fan, so the pieces were poised to fall into place. The only question was: What picture would the pieces form?

Vitek had the answer: a sweepstakes to promote the single by shipping 2,000 boxes of Cracker Jack to Country radio stations. Fifty-one of those boxes would include scratch-off prizes - 10 autographed guitars, merchandise, personal phone calls, personal station liners posted to the Web sites of winning stations and other items. One would come with a grand prize in the form of a free backyard concert by Bentley. Each station offered its prize to listeners through contests or drawings, after which it was determined that the grand prize had gone to WTQR/Greensboro, N.C., and from there to one of its lucky listeners.

The payoff was immediate. "It got Cracker Jack into Billboard, R&R and places they wouldn't ordinarily have been mentioned," Mabe said. "To be associated with music and cool, hip magazines isn't an everyday thing for them. And it was good for us too. The campaign was originally supposed to happen just after the single had gone to radio as a tease of more to come. Instead, because the single was racing up the chart so fast, we ended up moving the campaign closer to the album launch than planned and that helped spread the word that much faster too."

Somewhere, Norworth is smiling appreciatively.