CAN YOU FEEL ME?

The first part of the Dierks Bentley, "Can You Feel Me?" article is now up on the American Songwriter website. It will hook you and reel you in, and you'll have no choice but to get the magazine to read the rest!

My three favorite quotes from the Craig Shelburne interview with Dierks:

“I can’t sing stuff that is overly ‘country,’” he says. “I wasn’t raised on a farm and I’m not really comfortable singing stuff that’s not who I am. But I’ve traveled and I’ve been all over this country, and I’ve found that country music isn’t about wearing a cowboy hat and growing up on a farm. It’s a lifestyle, it’s a culture, and it’s a mindset.”

"All I ever wanted was a publishing deal…before a record deal, before anything else. I thought I wanted a record deal, but when I moved to town, I realized what you really want is a publishing deal, because a publishing deal allows you to quit all your day jobs and just hang in the music community. A record deal? You don’t want that. Jeez, that’s awful. That’s a lot of work. The publishing deal, though, yeah, I’m writing songs. What does that mean exactly? Well, that means I’m working on my career, in my mind."

"I have a playlist of about 100 pieces [of songs] like that on my iPod and Cassidy, my wife, likes to take my iPod and go jogging to it. That’s how she found “Free and Easy,” which was a Garage Band thing I had done, and she said that was pretty cool. And the same with “Pray.” She said, “This is an amazing song. You guys have got to finish this.”

I find it ironic that he says he didn't want a record deal because that seemed like a lot of work. In reality, nobody works harder than Dierks.

Order your very own Dierks-on-the-cover copy at the AS Store on the website for just $6.95 and free shipping! What a relishing, rare piece for any DB collection!

EVERY STYLE A MEMORY

For those of you following Mom and son Bud in the MOM NOS blog, this is really cool! Here's an excerpt:

"We spent the whole afternoon on a long hike in the woods, the sun shining through the branches, the breeze blowing through our hair, and not a bug in sight. And though I wore shorts and Bud wore pants, we were both comfortable and we didn't spend another minute discussing wardrobe. Instead, we hiked and climbed, while Bud listened to Dierks Bentley on his iPod and I listened to Bud sing along. Then we played a game that Bud developed that I like to call "Every Style a Memory," in which Bud names a Dierks Bentley track and I have to guess whether Dierks originally sang it with long hair or short hair - which may sound tedious, but was actually a welcome relief given the conflict of the day before."

I think we oughta play that game at Last Call Ball! What do you think, DB Congress?