DIERKS BENTLEY UNDER FIRE

I would be remiss if I always blogged the good without the bad, so here's a concerning post from Jacqueline Lewandowski, Buffalo Country Music Examiner,that was posted on examiner.com. Please let us know your thoughts on the topic after you read the entire article.


"Controversy is swirling around Nashville this week after Dierks Bentley’s interview with the American Songwriter Magazine was released.

The interview, released on Monday May 4th, was intended to showcase Bentley’s songwriting abilities, but instead has producers and country music enthusiasts in Nashville firing back.

Bentley, who is a native of Phoenix, AZ admitted to American Songwriter Magazine that he “can’t sing stuff that is overly country.” Bentley goes on to say “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.”

Record executives and fellow songwriters took offense to Bentley’s comments in the article and have fired back with their own responses. The general consensus coming out of Nashville is that Bentley was describing a stereotypical view of country music, which offends the fans of country music.

However, while Nashville is taking offense, Bentley’s fans are defending the artist. Many find nothing stereotypical and offensive in the artists’ comments and in fact are enthusiastic that he admitted what fans across this country already know, you don’t have to live in the south to be a fan of country music.
Bentley’s final comments in the interview claim that country music is “a lifestyle, a culture, and a mindset." Which could not be more on point."

I'm going to reserve my thoughts to give you all a chance to share yours.

~Ronna

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!

DIERKS HAS NERVE, LEARNS A LESSON

On March 21, I posted a blog about an American Songwriter magazine review of Feel That Fire. "Anonymous" commented that a little bird told them Dierks Bentley was going to be on the May-June Cover, and ended with the website address.

So I go check it out, and search on Dierks. No cover yet, but I did find an article from 2005 about his Modern Day Drifter album. I always look for interesting stories or quotes from D that I have never read before, and I thought this was a really cool story to share with you all. Enjoy!

“I remember the first time I had the nerve to play one of my songs for someone. I was working answering phones for a Nashville publishing company, and some of the songwriters invited me upstairs to have a drink. They were going to play some songs, and maybe I could play one I’d written too. So we all sat in a circle, and the guitar came around to me, and I played a song that had gotten a good response from my family and my friends. I thought it was pretty good. When I got done, one writer said ‘Man, I never really got the hook on that song.” Then another said, “It took you forever to get to the chorus.’ It was semi-devastating. In the end, one of the guys pulled me aside and told me to call him after I’d written 500 songs. I thought he was just being an a******, but he was just trying to help me. I learned that you’ve got to write them and throw them away. Don’t take them too personally and be ready to let go of them. Let them be beaten up, and just let them go where they need to go. That was a good lesson.”

Now I am really curious as to the name of the song he played for them! Did it get thrown away or did it get re-worked and become a cut on an album?

To read the entire article, click DIERKS BENTLEY: Modern Day Work Ethic

A NEW TWIST ON FEEL THAT FIRE

I know there are tons of raving reviews out there right now on Dierks' new Feel That Fire CD (and I for one am rightly pleased!), but this one had a little different spin. Enjoy!



Is Dierks Bentley trying for some pop crossover?
Published Saturday February 28th, 2009

Mainstream commercial country music has some shining stars, and one of them is Dierks Bentley. His fourth studio album Feel That Fire could be interpreted as his stab at some pop crossover as well.

For example, the album begins with a guitar effect straight out of Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love to kick into the lead track Life On The Run. As Bentley establishes a mid-tempo groove, it is above all else a mainstream pop tune. This is despite the country spices in the instrumentation and storyline of a solitary rambler.

This transition is a very east one for the Arizona-born Bentley. His early years were honed with country soil, and always conjured up images of the Merle Haggard/Waylon Jennings school. However, he has always managed to straddle on terrain outside those country roots.

At his best on this album, as in his career of the decade, Bentley is a songwriter in the broadest sense. His voice could safely fit in any genre, being the polar opposite of a trademark country twang.

That said, Bentley's ultimate foundation is the country genre itself. Spices are always there - steel guitar in the love anthem with a pop beat Feel That Fire and the mid-tempo groover You Hold Me Together, banjo at the end of the work-week tale Sideways, Tex Mex in the love lament I Can't Forget Her.

In all cases, his able lyrics match his melodies in basic country genre storylines.

The 12-song album has a few traditional country moments, and they are collaborations. One is in songwriting, as Bentley teamed up with Rodney Crowell to write the anthem Pray. Bentley also duets with Patty Griffin on the waltz Beautiful World. The album closer is Last Call, a bluegrass romp with Ronnie McCoury and his band.

Whether Bentley reaches beyond his considerable country fan base with this album remains to be seen. Regardless, he has delivered something that will keep his bread and butter audience rightly pleased.

Fredericton-based freelance writer Wilfred Langmaid has reviewed albums in The Daily Gleaner since 1981, and is a past judge for both the Junos and the East Coast Music Awards. His column appears each Saturday.

Source: http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/rss/article/587521