Dierks Bentley - Gravel & Gold

 

Double LP!

Tenth studio album from country star Dierks Bentley

14 tracks including the hit single "Gold"

Featuring duets with Ashley McBryde and Billy Strings

Dierks Bentley revives his country roots and sonic identity with new album!

Forty-seven-year-old Phoenix native Dierks Bentley's been in Nashville for three decades, achieved a No. 1 hit to match each year of his two-decade-long mainstream country music career, plus toured almost nonstop for 15 of the past 20 years.

His latest album, the Feb. 24, 2023-arriving Gravel & Gold, can rest upon and expand that standard, writes Nashville's The Tennessean.

The story of how that almost didn't happen and how the Grand Ole Opry member snatched victory from the jaws of accepting retreat — intersects every major issue of intrigue in mainstream country music at present.

From March 2020-August 2021, Bentley — like the rest of the world — was quarantined due to COVID-19. Nearly five years had passed since he was in the studio to record his ninth album, The Mountain, released in 2017. He twice attempted to record a new album, but failed each time.

"I was done. I almost rode my bike into the sunset and became a barista at a coffee shop in Colorado Springs or something," he jokes.

He cites feeling unable to create "anything new" as his main issue regarding why he was ready to retire.

Creating "something new" — in a streaming-led environment where roughly 100 different songs (including "Beers on Me," Bentley's duet with BRELAND and HARDY) have rung the bell at the top of country's radio charts feels daunting.

Bentley had released 109 songs over 20 years. Perhaps it was enough that he had won three Country Music Association Awards and four Academy of Country Music Awards while being an Opry member and a bluegrass revivalist that seamlessly blended country music's foundational genre into the more rock-aimed pop aspirations of the genre.

COVID-19's quarantine allowed him the ability to recharge himself via his favorite pastimes, including spending time with his family, and spending time in the air as a private pilot. He spent time in Western Colorado, finding it beneficial to his work.

Gravel & Gold arrives at a time in Nashville's history when streaming's rise in country music has created unprecedented sonic depth and scope in the city's chief export.

As a self-produced product reflecting Bentley holing up at Music Row's Ocean Way Studios with a hand-selected group of musicians and songs, Gravel & Gold reflects the 20-time country radio chart-topper, in his own words, turning "great-written songs" into "fantastic, well-produced live country music with limited tracks played with acoustic guitars, banjos and fiddles."

 

Same Ol' Me

Sun Sets In Colorado

Heartbreaking Drinking Tour

Something Real

Still

Beer At My Funeral

Cowboy Boots

Gold

Walking Each Other Home

Roll On

All The Right Places

Ain't All Bad

Old Pickup

High Note

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