Boots are still stomping and empty beer bottles are being cleaned up after a night of rollicking bluegrass and roots country at the Boulder Theatre.
Thursday night, Dierks Bentley and the Travelin� McCourys played the second night of the �Up on the Ridge� tour with plenty of picking, strumming and singing. Hayes Carll was the opening act, playing mellow, acoustic guitar. Although a talented act, Carll�s roots-country songs lacked the energy that the antsy crowd craved.
�This dude needs a stylist,� said Boulder resident Juliet Wehrly. �He needs polishing, but he was good.�
Carll played, �She Left Me for Jesus,� which won song of the year in 2008 at the 7th Annual Americana Music Association Honors & Awards and grabbed the audience�s attention with the satirical lyrics.
�She showed me a picture, all I could do was stare, at that freak in his sandals with his long pretty hair,� Carll sang.
After setting up for the headliners, banjoist Rob McCoury and fiddle player Jason Carter took the stage under a single spotlight. Rob picked and Jason sawed into an up-tempo beat when Ronnie McCoury (on mandolin), Alan Bartram (upright bass) and Dierks Bentley (acoustic guitar, vocals) took the stage. Strapped on with their respective instruments, the performers joined right in to a bluegrass-fused version of �Free and Easy,� a well-known Dierks Bentley song.
�I hope you guys enjoy the ride tonight,� Dierks yelled out to the crowd of 20-somethings in cowboy hats and middle-aged couples with Bud Lights in hand.
Without the normal video walls and technical lighting that are typical during Dierks� regular tour, he was in a different environment.
�I�m a regular dude just hanging around with some of the best musicians in the world,� Dierks said, referring to the McCourys.
On this new tour Dierks played bluegrass with the McCourys, and instead of being the star of the show, he smiled while the other musicians took their turns picking and playing. There seemed to be constant smiles throughout the show on all the musicians� faces and it was evident they were having fun playing together.
Dierks said in an interview with the CU Independent that he has been friends with the McCourys for 15 years.
�I was surprised by the drums because I thought it was supposed to be bluegrass,� said Matt Carey, a 21-year-old junior finance major. �I like country probably the most, but I really liked the bluegrass twist.�
Dierks and the McCourys continued through bluegrass versions of some of Dierks� hits, covers and new songs from the album, �Up on the Ridge,� out June 8. Unlike more orchestrated shows, Dierks engaged the audience by talking straight to certain people, letting the audience sing the words instead of himself and interacted with his band mates by joking around. The fourth wall was especially broken when the house lights came on randomly throughout the show. This gave the sense of the band onstage just being part of the crowd, although wildly talented in playing bluegrass instruments.
It became a family affair when Dierks invited his cousin, banjoist Avery Ogden of Creed, Colo., to join in on a song. With two banjos on one stage, the picking became fast and the crowd was stomping, clapping and bouncing to the fast rhythm. The fiddle took its turn and the mandolin and bass followed suit. Raw energy was no doubt pulsing out of the fast fingers and hot strings.
Of Dierks� more popular songs, �How am I Doin�,� �Lot of Leavin� Left to Do,� �Come a Little Closer,� �What Was I Thinkin�� and �Sideways� were all played. Each twisted into a bluegrass version; some were taken down in tempo from the original version while others were in a different key. During �What Was I Thinkin�� Dierks decided to try out a Spanish version and they all switched into a minor key. He tried singing the words in Spanish only to make the crowd laugh at his lousy attempt.
Angie Pollard, 21, of Denver said, �I liked the ending,� when they all started to pick and strum at a fast pace, leaving the crowd abuzz with energy.
Dierks Bentley successfully shed his country star image and it showed when he stuck around to personally shake the hand of everyone in the front row.
The �Up on the Ridge� tour heads south to Colorado Springs Friday.
Contact CU Independent Copy Editor Taylor Coughlin at Taylor.coughlin@colorado.edu.
2 comments
Taylor, I feel the pulse of a fun fast paced concert after I read your article. Makes me think I gosh wish I had been there. cp
sounds like a great evening! I wish I had been there too!