CMT Blog: Archive

Dierks Bentley's new album, Up on the Ridge, comes out a week from today, on June 8. I got an advance copy a couple weeks ago and I have to say that before I even slid that CD into the player, I knew I was going to love it. That's because with every CD I get, I immerse myself in the liner notes 100 percent. I read every lyric to every song, then all the stuff at the end. That's usually just a few paragraphs of gratitude, and Bentley definitely gets around to all those thanks, but first he shares his epiphany about finding what he calls "the musical foundation" he'd been hoping to find when he moved to Nashville 15 years ago.

In all lowercase, he writes, "with the help of a fake id, i walked thru the door of the station inn at nineteen years old and discovered the world of bluegrass music ... a moment that forever changed my life. the band on stage, the sidemen, were playing bill monroe and flatt & scruggs songs i'd never heard of, but also george jones and merle haggard songs that I had. the combined power of a mandolin, fiddle, banjo, dobro, acoustic guitar, upright bass, and three part harmony singing was the coolest thing i'd ever heard in my life. i knew i'd found the musical foundation i'd been hoping to find ... and i also saw just how much i had to learn if i wanted to be a true musician like them. sixteen years later i'm still working on it ... "

Honesty like that, about the fake ID and how he's still working on becoming a true musician, is so refreshing in the music business. For Bentley to admit that he didn't stroll into Nashville with a record deal and years of vocal training in his back pocket makes him kind of a hero to everyone who has country music dreams of their own. And I think aspiring country stars should learn from Bentley's humble start. If you want to follow in his duct-taped-boot footsteps, spend some time at the Station Inn and soak up the music and make some friends and don't be in too big of a hurry to make it big.