{"id":3800,"date":"2012-02-29T08:56:19","date_gmt":"2012-02-29T14:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=3800"},"modified":"2012-02-29T08:56:19","modified_gmt":"2012-02-29T14:56:19","slug":"hillbilly-highway-fun-night-with-dierks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2012\/02\/29\/hillbilly-highway-fun-night-with-dierks\/","title":{"rendered":"Hillbilly Highway – Fun night with Dierks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

by Sheldon Birnie<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last Thursday I went to see the Dierks Bentley<\/a> show at the Burt. Boy, was it something else.<\/p>\n

Babes out-numbered good ol\u2019 boys two to one; plaid shirts outnumbered westerns\u2019 three or four to one; back-wards ballcaps to Stetsons ten to one, at least. The place was full, but not bursting. The tops of some of the ladies in the front row, screeching for Dierks the whole time, sure were though.<\/p>\n

Everyone was double-fisting Budweisers or rye & cokes. Bathrooms were filled with piss. I didn\u2019t smell marijuana on anyone, only Axe body spray and too much hair-product. I recognized only one guy in the crowd, and he was being paid to work security.<\/p>\n

Oh well, I figured. Buy the ticket, take the ride. Only this ticket I hadn\u2019t bought, but received as a distinguished member of the press. Same difference, right?<\/p>\n

Right. Now, I\u2019m not big on modern country. Sure, I\u2019ll cruise the FM dials if I\u2019m out on the Highway, but beyond a passing familiarity with big shots like Kenny Chesney<\/a> or Brad Paisley<\/a>, I couldn\u2019t tell the difference between almost any of these stars. Sure, I knew Dierks Bentley\u2019s name, but that was about all, beyond one interesting allegation that popped up recently online.<\/p>\n

A songwriter and guitar-slinger that I\u2019m partial to, Jason Isbell<\/a>, noted that the chorus of Dierks\u2019 latest hit, the heartwrencher \u201cHome,\u201d<\/a> shares a remarkable similarity to the chorus of his own track \u201cRazor Town\u201d<\/a> from Isbell\u2019s 2007 album Sirens of the Ditch<\/em>. Upon listening to the two myself, there was an undeniable similarity. In fact, the melodies are identical. Intentional or no, now that\u2019s another story. Dierks operates on the higher commercial plane of the Nashville establishment, while Isbell is still slugging it out on the relatively independent \u201calt\u201d-country circuit, releasing his own excellent albums, and guesting on guitar for pals of his like Justin Townes Earle<\/a> and Ryan Adams<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One prominent Americana blogger<\/a> made the astute observation that, intentional or not, this latest \u201ccoincidence\u201d fuels a theory of his that independent operators in the country field are consistently acting like Research & Development branches of the Nashville Establishment. In short, interesting ideas, sounds, arrangements, etc are tested at this \u201clower\u201d level, where greater attention to songwriting as a craft is paid than as a means to an economic hit; where performance is more of a means of communicating and sharing craft than as spectacle.<\/p>\n

And Dierks show was certainly a spectacle. Impressive light show, tight band, and well developed stage show and personality made the whole thing downright enjoyable. I was grinning like all the other drunk fools by the end, my initial trepidation washed away by my third trip to the bar.<\/p>\n

The ladies loved it, the good ol\u2019 boys dug it. I doubt there were more than a handful in the crowd who left unsatisfied with the evening. I won\u2019t go so far as to say that Dierks\u2019 Country and Cold Cans<\/em> show made a believer out of me, but I can\u2019t deny that I had some fun that night<\/a>. Maybe a little too much, even. And why the hell not?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Sheldon Birnie Last Thursday I went to see the Dierks Bentley show at the Burt. Boy, was it something else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[214,432],"class_list":["post-3800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","tag-country-music","tag-hillbilly-highway"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3800\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}