Dierks Bentley - 'Gravel & Gold'

[Darkest Hour]

1. “Same Ol’ Me” (Luke Dick, Jon Randall, Dierks Bentley)
2. “Sun Sets In Colorado” (Ross Copperman, Tommy Lee James, Josh Osborne)
3. “Heartbreak Drinking Tour” (Luke Dick, Ashley Gorley, Michael Hardy, Ross Copperman, Dierks Bentley)
4. “Something Real” (Luke Dick, Ashley Gorley, Michael Hardy, Ross Copperman, Dierks Bentley)
5. “Still” (Jeff Hyde, Ryan Tyndell, Jeremy Spillman, Dierks Bentley)
6. “Beer At My Funeral” (Brett Beavers, Jim Beavers)
7. “Cowboy Boots” (Featuring Ashley McBryde) (Casey Brown, Jordan Minton, Hunter Phelps, Dierks Bentley)
8. “Gold” (Luke Dick, Ashley Gorley, Ross Copperman, Dierks Bentley)
9. “Walking Each Other Home” (Luke Dick, John Osborne, Dierks Bentley)
10. “Roll On” (Brett Beavers, Jim Beavers, Dierks Bentley)
11. “All The Right Places” (Josh Osborne, Ross Copperman, Dierks Bentley)
12. “Ain’t All Bad” (Casey Brown, Jordan Minton, Hunter Phelps, Dierks Bentley)
13. “Old Pickup” (Neil Thrasher, Tony Martin, Michael Dulaney)
14. “High Note” (Featuring Billy Strings) (Jim Beavers, Charlie Worsham)





Focus track is Walking Each Other Home.

[carriekins]

I'm too old to do the "stay up till midnight for an album release" thing so I just ran through the album the first time and - obvious bias aside - this is an outstanding album. I don't feel like there's a bad song in the bunch. I think my only gripe is that the transition from "Still" to "Beer at my Funeral" is a bit jarring. This is some solid legitimately country music. The instrumentations and arrangements are so good. Hat tip to Dierks on his first time executive producing!

Dierks has been around for 20 years now (!!!) and I feel like this is some of his best work. It feels like a natural step forward from The Mountain, modern without pandering, while undeniably country with 'grown up' lyrics and themes.

I gotta run through it a few more times to really land on my highlights but after one run, I'm loving Heartbreak Drinking Tour, Walking Each Other Home, High Note, Sun Sets in Colorado, and Still.

[austin]

Overall a pleasant listen. “Gold” was the only super obvious radio hit here but “Heartbreak Drinking Tour” is my next pick, I really love that one. “Something Real” could work at radio but to me is probably the worst song here, super generic and Dierks is much better than that.

[dm2081]

Found the album to be pretty disappointing, especially considering the gap between album eras. For singles, I really only hear 3 options: “Something Real”, “Heartbreak Drinking Tour” and “All The Right Places”. Think this will be a quiet era for Dierks though.

[schnetzka]

Currently listening to this and I quite enjoy it. It feels like a 2000s country album which I absolutely love. Current favorite is "All the Right Places".

[zdm1998]

Going to debut even lower than I expected. HITS doesn't even have this projected in the top 50. Meaning it will have sold less than 14k units.

[3chords]

Oof, at least he made the record he wanted that he’s proud of. It’s crazy how the landscape has changed so much, but those album bundles really padded sales for a lot of artists when they were a thing.

[Darkest Hour]

#14 country and #73 overall with 12k SPS first week.

[zdm1998]

Goodness. I know album sales are low right now but that is LOW. Thought for sure he’d at least be 20-30k

[raylatch98]

Mar 6, 2023 18:34:14 GMT -5 zdm1998 said:

Goodness. I know album sales are low right now but that is LOW. Thought for sure he’d at least be 20-30k

It doesn't help that "Gold" has been a pretty non event single. 

I was thinking he'd get 15-20k so seeing it be only 12k is so saddening as this is his best album since Up On The Ridge

[theoutsider]

Do you think that his career is in decline considering his last album sales?

[carriekins]

Mar 8, 2023 7:54:17 GMT -5 theoutsider said:

Do you think that his career is in decline considering his last album sales?

Honestly his career is in decline because he's in the 20th year of his career and is 47 years old, lol. He's not particularly trying to play the mainstream game anymore as evidenced by this album, but I still expect his tours to do well. He'll likely become a consistent top 10s guy instead of a consistent #1s guy for the next bit, though he's still capable of a big hit.

[theoutsider]

Mar 8, 2023 8:21:01 GMT -5 carriekins said:

Mar 8, 2023 7:54:17 GMT -5 theoutsider said:

Do you think that his career is in decline considering his last album sales?

Honestly his career is in decline because he's in the 20th year of his career and is 47 years old, lol. He's not particularly trying to play the mainstream game anymore as evidenced by this album, but I still expect his tours to do well. He'll likely become a consistent top 10s guy instead of a consistent #1s guy for the next bit, though he's still capable of a big hit.

 IMO he's still capable to be back on top. I respect him a lot because he has always distinguished himself by his own style and he has never strayed from it throughout his career. For me 47 is still young in this business even if he still has a youthful face of a 30er. Maybe he needs another marketing promotion strategy.

 

[carriekins]

Mar 8, 2023 17:35:44 GMT -5 theoutsider said:

Mar 8, 2023 8:21:01 GMT -5 carriekins said:

Honestly his career is in decline because he's in the 20th year of his career and is 47 years old, lol. He's not particularly trying to play the mainstream game anymore as evidenced by this album, but I still expect his tours to do well. He'll likely become a consistent top 10s guy instead of a consistent #1s guy for the next bit, though he's still capable of a big hit.

 IMO he's still capable to be back on top. I respect him a lot because he has always distinguished himself by his own style and he has never strayed from it throughout his career. For me 47 is still young in this business even if he still has a youthful face of a 30er. Maybe he needs another marketing promotion strategy.

 

Well of course he's capable of big hits, but I've never really considered him as "on top" in Country. I mean, even when he was riding the Drunk on a Plane wave there was Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, and FGL outpacing him, to name a few.

I don't think promotion or marketing is the issue. He's been everywhere promoting the album. He did Fallon, the Today Show, a segment for CBS Mornings, CMT Top 20 countdown; full profile interviews with Rolling Stone and the Tennessean; Feb 24-26 was 'Gravel & Gold Weekend' on the Highway, he was on Bobby Bones. I think Gold isn't a single that got the general public excited for an album. I don't hear anything on this album that screams "blockbuster hit" either. I think Heartbreak Drinking Tour is a good choice, to me Walking Each Other Home sounds like a Song of the Year nominee. But it's really hard to say if listeners, the general public, and radio programmers will agree.

I see this era as a good one from a critical perspective, but a quiet one commercially. As you said, he's always kind of done his own thing, and it's one of the things I love about him. But in a world of Luke Combs and Morgan Wallen domination, I don't see him keeping up on radio in the slightest, and even though we're in the world of streaming, the 'viral' interest just doesn't seem to be there.

As for his age, I only brought it up because he's in that weird spot where radio is like 'do we start phasing him out?' Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw are obviously still relevant but even Kenny has struggled with his last couple of singles, and Knowing You was so KENNY it still baffles me that it didn't perform better. It remains to be seen how Tim will perform with his new music.