Dierks Bentley held court at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, calling the 20,000-seat venue “the biggest honky tonk on Lower Broadway.” He should know—he’s played many of Nashville’s tiny clubs early in his career, perhaps most notably the iconic bluegrass room The Station Inn, cultivating his mix of country, rock and bluegrass-tinged music, before breaking through with his 2003 debut single “What Was I Thinkin’.”
His comparison with Lower Broadway’s ever-growing slate of honky-tonks (including his own Whiskey Row, which opened in 2018) was apt, as the evening was filled with many of the hallmarks of any number of club-sized venues dotting downtown Nashville, including guest artists dropping by, ‘90s cover songs aplenty and even some karaoke moments.
Two decades into his career, Bentley has earned 18 Billboard Country Airplay No. 1s and 15 Grammy nominations. Veering along country music’s sonic sweep of sounds, encompassing rock, ‘90s and 2000s country and rock, and bluegrass, Bentley offered hits including “I Hold On,” “A Lot of Leavin’ Left to Do,” “5150,” “What Was I Thinkin’,” “Black,” and “Livin’.”
“My hope for the show is that you find a moment where you feel like you’re living,” Bentley told the crowd.
He’s also forged a concert style that blends hits, a genuine onstage ebullience that easily outpaces many of today’s newcomers, and intentional audience engagement (such as bringing one fan onstage for a beer-chugging challenge and offering another fan a karaoke moment). Bentley’s crack band, including Charlie Worsham, Ben Helson, Tim Sergent, Steve Misamore, and Cassady Feasby, provide a perfect foil for Bentley, not only musically, but they easily match his often goofball humor, such as their humorous, hockey-themed band intro video and when Bentley repeatedly jumped in front of bandmate Worsham during Worsham’s take on Garth Brooks’ “Callin’ Baton Rouge.”
The wide range of music in Bentley’s show–gobs of ’90s country covers, Bentley’s own two decades of 2000s hits and music from many of today’s buzziest newcomers–chronicled the evolution of country music’s soundscape.
Opening for Bentley was Bluegrass/Americana newcomer Bella White, who offered up songs from her album Among Other Things, including songs about fizzled relationships (“Break My Heart”) and dirtbag men (“Marilyn”), as well as a sterling version of Lucinda Williams’ “Concrete and Barbed Wire.,” which drew devoted applause from the concert’s early arrivals.
Meanwhile, fellow opener Chase Rice offered up a set filled with personal meaning for the singer-songwriter. The acoustic guitar he played was one his father had given him when Rice first started learning music. Noting that his father died two years after he was given the guitar, he honored his father’s memory by performing one of the first songs he played for his dad, John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” Rice was first known as a songwriter, contributing to the Florida Georgia Line’s “Cruise,” before he notched his own pop-country hits including “Ready Set Roll” and “Eyes on You.” He included all of those in his Bridgestone set, but best highlighting his talents were his newer songs, such as “Haw River,” that will be on his new album Goin’ Down Singin’ (out Sept. 20), showcasing his more roots-leaning, rawer sound and matured songwriting.
In his own set, Bentley welcomed The Red Clay Strays lead singer Brandon Coleman, as well as country singer-songwriter Zach Top.
Here, we look at 5 top moments:
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Dierks Bentley’s Decade-Old Hit Still Resonates
Bentley offered up plenty of his hits during the show, but one—the decade-plus old song “I Hold On”—seemed to particularly resonate with fans, as they raised cups and hands in the air. The song centers on holding fast to things that have personal meaning—a father’s truck, an old guitar and intangibles such as faith, love and freedom. As Bentley reached the line “These dents and scratches in the wood/ Yeah, that’s what makes it sound so good,” he flipped his guitar over, showing the crowd his axe’s own expanse of scrapes and cuts, proving that the song is one of the most personal of his catalog.
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Chase Rice Welcomes Man’s Best Friend
The old stage adage is to never follow babies and dogs—but Rice earned an instant standing ovation by welcoming his dog Jack, a black Labrador, onstage as he performed the tear-jerker, well-crafted ballad “Bench Seat,” written from the perspective of a dog who loses his human friend to addiction. Jack stayed by Rice’s side during the performance and when Rice performed his FGL collaboration “Drinkin’ Beer. Talkin’ God. Amen,” Rice pulled beverages from a small pack the dog was wearing, and tossed the drinks to fans in the audience. All the while, the screen flanking either side of the stage were trained on Jack for much of the performance, while audience members could be heard fawning over the beloved pooch.
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Hot Country Knights Continue the ‘90s Revival
Classic country covers of Alabama’s “Mountain Music” and Garth Brooks’ “Callin’ Baton Rouge” popped up during Bentley’s solo set, but those were just a taste of what was to come. After concluding with his own “Drunk on a Plane,” Bentley and his bandmates returned to the stage dressed their parody country band Hot Country Knights. Garbed in bright, patterned shirts, skin-tight jeans and feathered wigs, their show was equal parts chaotic rock star swagger and deep-seated love for ‘90s country music, as the musical energy cycled from stage to crowd and back, through a communal singing of ‘90s country hits including Travis Tritt’s “T-R-O-U-B-L-E,” Diamond Rio’s “Meet in the Middle,” Collin Raye’s “Little Rock” and Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!.”
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Bentley’s Bluegrass Revelry—and Zach Top Gets a Musical Showcase
Bentley’s band of musical brothers was solid throughout his set, but offered a mighty, fleet-fingered showcase of their virtuoso talents as they performed the title track to Bentley’s 2010 bluegrass-inspired album Up on the Ridge, followed by a Worsham-led rendition of the Garth Brooks classic “Callin’ Baton Rouge.” From there, they welcomed rising country singer-songwriter Zach Top, who drew instant cheers from the crowd as he launched into his own “Sounds Like the Radio” and followed with the bluegrass/country song “Freeborn Man.”
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Bentley Welcomes The Red Clay Strays’ Brandon Coleman
Earlier this year, longtime hard-gigging road band The Red Clay Strays saw their song “Wondering Why” go viral and a few nights ago, they headlined three nights at the Ryman Auditorium just up the road from the Bridgestone Arena. The Red Clay Strays lead singer Brandon Coleman joined Bentley for a turn at Waylon Jennings’s “Lonesome, On’ry and Mean.” Dressed in a white suit with his signature black pompadour, Coleman unleashed a raw rumble of a voice, instantly eliciting cheers, shouts and applause from the audience.
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