Dierks Bentley is one of the country singers that if you asked me, “Do you like him?” my gut reaction would be no because I don’t own any of his albums and he’s not my go to artist.
Then I realized I know a majority of his work. Word for word. And I now own the songs I know.
Isn’t his name the best? It’s so to the point. It’s a statement, a commentary. Final. Who is he? Dierks. Sounds like when he was little he was asked his name by a teacher at school and the Georgia drawl weighted the middle of “Derrick” down so it came out “Dierks”. (A little research would reveal his name is Frederick, but hey…) A football player I went to school with was known as Beef for this reason. His name was Keith but when he was asked his name when he was little it came out Beef. Didn’t help he was built like a side of beef.
Some people went to Country Thunder just for Dierks Bentley. They paid for all four day but only stayed for the one. Just to see him perform.
It was a good show. Opened with “Sideways” which is one of my favorites, really gets trapped in my head. It was playing in the background over the speakers so we’re singing along and in flash of bright light he was onstage performing the song. That’s when I learned I knew most of his crowd pleasers and some of the second tier songs. I knew about his restaurant, impressing the guy so drunk he used the barrel to stand up.