{"id":8467,"date":"2014-01-30T16:02:18","date_gmt":"2014-01-30T16:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=8467"},"modified":"2014-01-30T16:02:18","modified_gmt":"2014-01-30T16:02:18","slug":"ridley-bent-wild-card-up-his-sleeve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2014\/01\/30\/ridley-bent-wild-card-up-his-sleeve\/","title":{"rendered":"Ridley Bent :: Wild Card up his sleeve"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"up-Ridley_Bent_\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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

\u201cI\u2019m a little card player,\u201d Ridley Bent says with a laugh. \u201c I wouldn\u2019t consider myself a very good card player or a gambler at all. But my characters are.\u201d<\/p>\n

With two critically acclaimed full length records under his silver buckled belt, and an underground hick-hop classic in his back pocket, Ridley Bent is preparing to release his third country record, Wild Card<\/em>, in January. Bent\u2019s albums are full of toe-tapping tales of gamblers, drifters, hard working, hard boozing, hard rocking characters, and his latest is no exception.<\/p>\n

Wild Card<\/em>, recorded early in 2013 in Abbotsford, features essentially the same cracker jack band that recorded 2010\u2019s Rabbit on My Wheel<\/em>. But don\u2019t expect to hear a carbon copy of Rabbit<\/em> on Wild Card<\/em>. Far from it. This time around, Bent took a rather deliberate approach to writing the material on this one.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was thinking about my set and my live show, like thinking \u2018What does my live show need?\u2019\u201d he explained. \u201cI was throwing down some grooves that I don\u2019t have yet, basically, and writing to those grooves. It is country, but it is also pretty rock n roll and southern. I think it has that kind of vibe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bent told Stylus<\/em> that many of the tunes were co-written with his guitar player Chris Dunn, while a couple were penned with his longtime pal Dustin Bentall. Over a beer earlier this year at Dauphin\u2019s Countryfest, he had also told Stylus about an unlikely influence on the vibe to Wild Card<\/em>: Little Feat.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou won\u2019t listen to this record and go, \u2018Oh, he\u2019s been listening to Little Feat!\u2019 Bent chuckled. \u201cBut there are a few songs for sure that I was kind of going for that swampy\u2026 just that funk that they have. There\u2019s a really cool tune called \u2018Brooklyn, TX\u2019 that I think we really nailed that vibe on that one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the release of 2005\u2019s hick-hop classic Blam!<\/em>, Bent has been making a name for himself on the Canadian country music scene for his smart songwriting and his slick recordings. He\u2019s been in the running for Roots Artist or Group of the Year with the Canadian Country Music Association every year since 2009, an honour he hopes to lock down once Wild Card<\/em> hits the highways and dirt streets in January. He\u2019s also got some plans up his sleeve for a follow up to Blam!<\/em>, but he\u2019s playing those cards pretty close to his vest at present.<\/p>\n

With a national release for Wild Card<\/em> date set for late January, Bent and his crackerjack band are preparing for a long year of touring. Before that, though, Bent and the boys are looking to celebrate with a local release show at the Park Theatre. While plans, as of printing, are still being confirmed, Ridley\u2019s hoping for something special to commemorate this one, including an all in poker tourney.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Because] there\u2019s a lot of card playing tunes on this one, we\u2019re hoping to throw a little poker tournament to go along with the release party,\u201d says Bent, clearly keen on the idea. So get your poker faces ready, Winnipeg, and shine up your boots: Ridley Bent\u2019s got a Wild Card<\/em> up his sleeve.<\/p>\n

Wild Card will be released soon across Canada, with a release show to come in April at the Park Theatre.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Sheldon Birnie \u201cI\u2019m a little card player,\u201d Ridley Bent says with a laugh. \u201c I wouldn\u2019t consider myself a very good card player or a gambler at all. But my characters are.\u201d With two critically acclaimed full length records under his silver buckled belt, and an underground hick-hop classic in his back pocket, Ridley […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[432,563],"class_list":["post-8467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-hillbilly-highway","tag-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8467","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=8467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8467\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}