CMT Blog: Bluegrass

Dierks Bentley's latest album, Up on the Ridge, has quickly become a favorite among country fans. His music video for "Up on The Ridge" is also one of the most popular on CMT.com. Through his "Posted" page at CMT.com, Bentley took the time to answer fans' Twitter questions. Take a look.

@areyes03: Any new songs you're writing? I've been trying not to ... trying to just focus on and enjoy Up on the Ridge. But, I've had some ideas floating around up there for a while and I'm starting to think about getting back into it.

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Amid with a crowded field of superstar releases, quite a few indie country artists are returning with new albums this fall, too. The newest announcement comes from Joey & Rory, who have slated Album Number Two for Sept. 14 on Sugar Hill. I'm eager to hear "That's Important to Me" because I'm always charmed by its quiet and sincere message whenever they perform it. Plus, the duo partnered with Zac Brown Band on "This Song's for You," a heartfelt dedication to hard-working fans.

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I think if I were to describe my perfect summer music festival, it would include beautiful scenery, camping in an old-growth forest, an eclectic mix of roots music to discover and enough land to roam on should I feel the need to get away from the crowd. And beer gardens. And a Bigfoot band. Apparently such a heavenly happening already exists -- probably minus Bigfoot? -- at Pickathon, just outside of Portland, Ore. Featuring some of my favorites from country, bluegrass, indie rock, old-time and zydeco, 35 bands will take to the Northwestern woods on an 80-acre site that should make for some inspiring morning hikes/hangovers. Hayes Carll, Black Prairie, Woody Pines, Elliott Brood, Langhorne Slim, Red Stick Ramblers and the Punch Brothers are just a few artists that I've already come to love, and you can check them out while discovering new music on the festival's excellent website. Or get your imagination running with photo galleries from previous years. So if you're lucky enough to be in the area next weekend, consider exploring some awesome music at an environmentally minded festival (one of the stages runs on solar power), and mark me off a spot under some tall pines for next year. Here's an idea for a Bigfoot trap just in case.

If you love Jesus and Jimmy Martin, track down a brand new bluegrass gospel album called Old Friends Get Together. Released by Crossroads Music, the heavenly project unites bluegrass stalwarts J.D. Crowe, Doyle Lawson and Paul Williams for a harmonious tribute to their former boss, who died in 2005, thus leaving behind hundreds of colorful stories. For their first recording together, the three longtime friends focused on Martin's favorite gospel numbers, including a few he wrote. The praise-singing is just marvelous, and with Ron Stewart on fiddle and Cia Cherryholmes and Sonya Isaacs on high harmony, I just want to shout "Amen!" Part of the reason I like this album so much is because the tempo doesn't drag. You can almost "feel the spirit," as some might say, when the singers race through "Prayer Bells of Heaven" and "The Little White Church." The project has been in the works for a while, as Lawson writes in the liner notes that Martin was able to hear some of the tracks before his death. And I have to believe he's now somewhere on the sunny side of the mountain, smiling down on the final results.

When the band Alabama was just getting started in the early 1980s, I remember a lot of the older kids (and their parents) in my small town raving about their concerts at the Nebraska State Fair. I didn't know much about country music back then and I wasn't even old enough to drive up to the shows, but that memory has always stuck with me -- maybe because they were my first encounters with hardcore country music fans. Over the last few days, I've been listening to Alabama's Setlist, a brand new compilation largely recorded in the early 1980s, and it's obvious to me now why the band caught on with country fans -- a driving beat, relatable songs and the distinctive baritone that belongs to Randy Owen. He's still one of my favorite country singers. I chose "Love in the First Degree" to lead this playlist of new music, but the whole Setlist album will feel so right to their longtime fans. The Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson tracks below come from the same series, launched Tuesday (July 13). Here's hoping there will be an encore.

"Love in the First Degree (live)," Alabama
Recorded live at Winston-Salem, N.C. -- April 1983
"What Is Truth (live)," Johnny Cash
Recorded live at the White House, Washington D.C. -- April 17, 1970
"Medley: The Last Letter/Half a Man (live)," Willie Nelson
Recorded live at Panther Hall, Fort Worth, Texas -- July 9, 1966

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I showed up a little late Monday night (July 12) and in the middle of a thunderstorm to see Rose's Pawn Shop at the Basement in Nashville. Unfortunately, that meant I didn't get the chance to hear my favorite new song -- and one that would have been fitting for the weather -- "Danger Behind the Wheel." (Check it out on the band's MySpace.) It's a clever comparison between bad driving and a reckless approach to love. Haven't we all wanted to ignore a few warning signs for somebody we're attracted to? With a happy-to-play-the-fool melody, this L.A. based rock/bluegrass band always has a way of finding the bright spot in an otherwise dreary situation, or at least making it sound that way. I enjoyed last year's album, The Arsonist, for that reason, and so far it seems like most of the new one, Dancing on the Gallows, follows the same line. Here's an interview from the 9513 that gives some insight into the band and the new album. As for last night, I made sure to take it nice and easy on the way home.

Usually when there's a celebrity interview on CNN, it's very CNN. The hushed interviewer lets the star do all the talking. But in this clip of Dierks Bentley showing CNN's Denise Quan around his dressing room, they left in her gut reaction to his boots. "Dierks! You're a platinum artist! And you have duct tape holding your boots together," she sort of yells at him. But he humbly laughs it off and explains the "lucky" tape by telling her, "I like old things. Old things have memories attached to them. Old guitars, old trucks, old boots." Then as a way of explaining the passion behind his new-with-an-old-twist album, Up on the Ridge, he says, "Paying homage to the older stuff makes country music what it is."

Everybody's been asking me lately what I think about Dierks Bentley's new album, Up on the Ridge. And I always reply that I'm proud of him for making it -- and that's true. But it's been a challenge for me to describe it, except to say that it's a compelling combination of bluegrass and contemporary country music, and that it cuts right to the chase. By that, I mean the music is right there in front of you -- not hiding behind any veil of gimmicks or technology. I really dig it. The tracks I keep returning to are "Fiddlin' Around," because that melody always perks me up, and "Love Grows Wild," with its sweet, mature lyrics. But my favorite one is "Draw Me a Map," because its message of forgiveness is well-matched to the tempo -- brooding but still a sense of urgency.

For this playlist, I'll let "Draw Me a Map" lead the way, followed by several other new tunes from country, rock, R&B, Americana and bluegrass that caught my attention over the last few weeks.

"Draw Me a Map," Dierks Bentley
"Journey On," Ty Herndon
"Lovin' Her Was Easier," Mark Chesnutt
"Running Man's Bible," Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
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When I saw Dierks Bentley perform "Up on the Ridge" a couple of weeks ago, he talked about how the song was all about taking your instruments that don't require electricity and gettin' away and doing some pickin'. And he had the chance to do just that last night (June 21) when he was taping a Jimmy Kimmel Live show. The power went out, shutting down the control room, broadcast transmission center and tape operations. As a result, Kimmel had to record the show on his laptop through his webcam. Bentley had just a few minutes to get an acoustic take on the song ready. It was so acoustic they didn't even have microphones. Kimmel later said to Bentley, "Man, 99 percent of the bands we have on our show would have never been able to pull that off musically ... that was incredible." Well, that's how they live up on the ridge. The show airs tonight (June 22) on ABC.

About a mile from the razzmatazz of CMA Music Festival on Thursday night (June 10), deep in the deepest darkest gulch of Nashville, the legendary Station Inn hosted the legendary bluegrass band, Hot Rize. Featuring Tim O'Brien, Nick Forster, Pete Wernick and newest member Bryan Sutton (the band came out of a 10-year retirement in 2002), the band turned in a silky smooth show to a packed house.

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