Do you know where Elma is?
Dierks Bentley does.
The rising, hard-workin’, hard-touring country singer made that Thurston County town one of his many stops during his first year as a major-label act, when he spent 300 days on the road.
Bentley, now supporting his third major-label release, still hits the road hard he’s logged more than 180,000 miles on another 300 days on the road this year and brings his blue-collar style to the Everett Events Center at 7:30 tonight.
Bentley, 31, is not your typical country star. He grew up in Phoenix, listening to rock tunes and trying to master Eddie Van Halen’s guitar licks before his country music epiphany at age 17, according to the official biography on his Web site.
A friend had him listen to the Hank Williams Jr. tune “Man to Man,” a story of a conversation between a son and his dead father, and Bentley says everything came into focus.
“That moment really changed my whole perspective,” Bentley says in the bio. “Everything just clicked. I just knew I loved country music.”
And country music has loved him over the past three years. His self-titled debut album in 2003 went platinum and reached as high as No. 4 on Billboard’s country album chart. The follow-up, “Modern Day Drifter,” also went platinum and peaked at No. 6 on the overall Billboard chart while topping the country chart. His latest album, “Long Trip Alone,” peaked at No. 5 on the overall Billboard chart and has topped the country chart.
Bentley, who lived in Nashville for eight years to soak up that country music spirit, is more about the music than the image. You don’t see many photos of Bentley sporting a wide-brimmed hat in the manner of his mentors, Kenny Chesney and George Strait, whose shows he’s opened during the past couple of years. Bentley is more of a jeans and T-shirt kind of a guy who’s known to keep a fridge full of beer on stage, and that seems to suit his fans just fine.
He’s in the running for Country Weekly’s Readers’ Choice Awards, and the categories he’s favored in include “Star You’d Like to Have a Beer With,” “Sexiest Video (for his song, “Come a Little Closer”),” and “Favorite Hair.”
But Bentley isn’t thinking about those things as he rides out his first tour as a headlining act.
“I feel like I’m the same dude who used to carry his own PA system, go set up, make the phone calls and put bands together downtown,” Bentley says in his bio. “From day one, it’s been the same attitude from Lower Broadway, not worrying about money, just trying to build up fans one handshake and one beer at a time.”
Reporter Victor Balta: 425-339-3455 or vbalta@heraldnet.com.
Associated Press
Dierks Bentley performs tonight in Everett.
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