Dierks Bentley releases his new album, The Mountain, on Friday (June 8th). He co-wrote 10 of the 13 new tracks that are unified by themes of presence and positivity, and range in style from textured rock to acoustic folk.
The Mountain‘s story begins in the Rocky Mountain resort town of Telluride, Colorado, which every summer plays host to a celebrated bluegrass festival. Owing to his well-documented love of the genre, Bentley has attended the festival multiple times over the years, always making a point to slow down and tune back in to the world around him. But after performing on the festival’s main stage in 2017, the idyllic surroundings became more than a much-needed getaway, it reflected where he is in life; his past, present and future.
“I was up in Wyoming with some friends, and we were just hanging out on the back deck and we were watching the sun go down over the Teton Mountains. It was beautiful, and I was with my producer, Ross Copperman, and our wives and kids, just all in a cabin up there. I’m not sure whose idea it was, but my wife actually said on the trip out there, she said, ‘I feel like the idea for the album is going to come out on this trip.’ She really said it,” recalls Dierks. “Maybe it was Ross. ‘A mountain. We’re looking at a mountain.’ Yeah, it just really clicked. It’s not the most clever title in the whole world. I’m sure it’s been used before, but it really was just like The Mountain. I loved the metaphor, but where we spent a lot of the summer was out there and where I’m from. I had a mountain in my backyard. I started climbing when I was four – Camelback Mountain – that I could walk to from my house. So, it’s always been a big part of my life, and it kind of resonated with my desire to something that reflected the West and that world that I loved so much.”
Dierks is currently poised to hit the top of the country charts with the lead single from the album, “Woman, Amen.”
The Mountain Track List:
Burning Man (Feat. Brothers Osborne)
The Mountain
Living
Woman, Amen
You Can’t Bring Me Down
Nothing On But The Stars
Goodbye In Telluride
My Religion
One Way
Son Of The Sun
Stranger To Myself
Travelin’ Light (Feat. Brandi Carlile)
How I’m Going Out
Audio / Dierks Bentley talks about coming up with the title for his new album, The Mountain.
DownloadDierks Bentley (idea for The Mountain) OC: …loved it. 1:10
“So, I was up in Wyoming with some friends, and we were just hanging out on the back deck and we were watching the sun go down over the Teton Mountains. It was beautiful, and I was with my producer, Ross Copperman, and our wives and kids, just all in a cabin up there. I’m not sure whose idea it was, but my wife actually said on the trip out there, she said, ‘I feel like the idea for the album is going to come out on this trip.’ She really said it. Maybe it was Ross. ‘A mountain. We’re looking at a mountain.’ Yeah, it just really clicked. It’s not the most clever title in the whole world. I’m sure it’s been used before, but it really was just like The Mountain. I loved the metaphor, but where we spent a lot of the summer was out there and where I’m from. I had a mountain in my backyard. I started climbing when I was four – Camelback Mountain – that I could walk to from my house. So, it’s always been a big part of my life, and it kind of resonated with my desire to something that reflected the West and that world that I loved so much. So that came first, and then when I got to Colorado – it would’ve only been about three weeks later – that title’s one of the titles I had. And Jon Randall Stewart and Luke Dick and Natalie Hemby started working on this song called ‘The Mountain,’ and I jumped in on it and I just loved it.”
Audio / Dierks Bentley says his career has been like climbing a mountain.
DownloadDierks Bentley (been surrounded by mountains) OC: …last five years. :41
“I mean, I’ve always been surrounded by ‘em. Growing up there’s always been one in my view. It’s an analogy I’ve never really made before, but it just really connected this time in my life for some reason. It’s funny before in my career, I kind of stalled out there in the mid-2000s, and I always thought if I wrote a book of my life it would’ve been a picture or a sketch of a mountain on the cover and it would’ve said ‘A View From Almost the Top,’ right? And there’d be a picture of me like climbing this mountain and someone’s parachuting in, and someone crawling over my back over here – it’s like all of us trying to get to the top of this country music mountain. Fortunately, if I wrote that book, I’d now have to write a whole back section ‘cause things have been really great the last five years.”
