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The other afternoon, "Lot of Leavin' Left to Do," the new video from rising country star Dierks Bentley, came on CMT. Just as Border Radio began to praise Bentley, our honey noticed the singer wears one of those W.W.J.D. bracelets. So, does the fact that Bentley publicizes his faith discreetly mean that Border Radio, a blue-state liberal fag, is transgressing by enjoying or promoting his music?
No. Border Radio uses the same yardstick to size up Christian artists that we use for gay ones. Which isn't to say impure thoughts about Dierks Bentley fill our mind while showering (although he is awfully cute, in a scruffy, Dukes of Hazzard way). But just as Border Radio refrains from lauding openly-queer acts if their music, um, sucks, we can't justify marginalizing Bentley, whose sophomore album, Modern Day Drifter, kicks ass, just because he ascribes to a different belief system.
Stranger Personals
"What would Jesus do?" Give his fellow man fair consideration. So listen to "Domestic, Light and Cold," the fifth cut on Modern Day Drifter. Here's a catchy tune about a guy who's lost his sweetheart, and is drowning his sorrows. Given that title, it would be a no-brainer for Bentley to slip in narrow-minded, nationalistic digs at foreign ales and fancy microbrews, but he doesn't. He reiterates his preference, but also acknowledges that those other beverages deserve a place on tap, too.
Plus, musically Bentley hews closer to alt- or classic-country practices than 99 percent of his Nashville peers. Bluegrass vets the Del McCoury Band join him on "Good Man Like Me," and throughout this 11-song set, mandolin and slide guitar are high in the mix, not buried under glossy vocal overdubs. Like the Dixie Chicks, Bentley is a gateway artist, someone churning out chart-topping country that could actually point the masses toward worthwhile, non-mainstream acts.
Unless you've picked up this issue hot off the stands on Wednesday, May 11, your opportunity to quiz Bentley personally has passed. (He plays an in-store at Fred Meyer in Lynnwood, 4615 196th Ave SW, at 6 pm. He'll be back in town July 21 at the Showbox.) But you can mull over similar thorny questions about roots music and God as bedfellows on Monday, May 16, when Peter Himmelman plays the Tractor. The son-in-law of Bob Dylan (who has endured his own back and forth with the Man Upstairs), Himmelman is an Orthodox Jew who explores issues of faith, propelled by noteworthy blues-rock, on his 11th solo release, Imperfect World.
Is the redemptive higher power Himmelman invokes on the stirring "Another Day" the same one that Bentley prays to? Maybe, maybe not. The great thing about God--as anyone who's ever been in Alcoholics Anonymous, read The Artist's Way, or studied religion will reiterate--is, ideally, plenty is open to individual interpretation. Kinda like music criticism.
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