Dierks Bentley Crafts a Perfect Awards Show Moment
When regarding the 2021 ACM Awards, which transpired Sunday evening (4-19), there’s really nothing to rave about when it comes to who won, and who lost. The awards themselves were a who’s who of the Maren Morris’s, Dan + Shay’s, and Old Dominion’s of the world who aren’t country, and aren’t even particularly great as pop acts either. Chris Stapleton’s Starting Over winning for Album of the Year was about the only bright spot, and even that feels like just a ho-hum, predictable pick.
But there were some really stellar performances on the evening, in between quite a few subpar ones as well. Really, Carrie Underwood stole the show, being afforded an extended 7-minute slot, and making the most of it with Gospel material from her recent album My Savior, and joined by CeCe Winans. Alan Jackson also made his first appearance on an awards show in some five years, singing “Drive,” as well as “You Will Always Be My Baby” from his upcoming album Where Have You Gone.
It was cool to see Miranda Lambert bring Jack Ingram and Jon Randall up on stage with her for what ended up being one of three performances from her on the night. She also started the show off with Elle King, which resulted in additional face time for another cool artist, even if that performance felt a little overwrought. Mickey Guyton both hosted, and turned in a quality performance of her own, and the only thing that went wrong for Eric Church’s performance is he had to follow Carrie Underwood.
But on a night when the headlines will gravitate to Maren Morris’s big wins for Female Artist and Song of the Year, Carrie Underwood’s soaring Gospel performances, and the ridiculous pick of Luke Bryan for Entertainer of the Year, it’s the performance Dierks Bentley composed that deserves to be selected out of the crowd of moments, and shined a spotlight on.
Billed as a collaboration with the soul/Americana duo The War & Treaty, it was certainly that, but it was so much more. Along with Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Blount of the duo, sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell and other members of the band Larkin Poe comprised the instrument section for Dierks, who decided to perform from The Station Inn in Nashville, not from the stage, but removing all of the venue’s tables and playing from the audience section.
It’s easy these days for awards shows and the like to try too hard to address race in their presentations, and come across as performative and pithy in a way that feels forced, with subtlety and sensibilities loosely considered. Dierks Bentley performing “Pride (In The Name of Love)” originally composed by U2 about the Martin Luther King assassination in a bluegrass style could have been one of those moments.
But some may forget that Dierks Bentley originally covered the song on his 2010 bluegrass-inspired album Up on the Ridge. Some may also forget that Dierks Bentley started primarily in bluegrass, and performing at The Station Inn in Nashville, which just suffered a tragedy in the death of their long-time owner JT Gray in March.
It wasn’t just the arrangement, the cool special guests, the poignant setting, and the timing of it all, it’s how it all conspired to create a special moment and a rather spectacular performance that in the throes of the otherwise mediocre ACM Awards really shined out as something sincere and heartfelt.
Dierks Bentley can get easily lost in the mainstream set because he’s not an ostentatious character, either with his music, or his public persona. He lets the work speak for itself. His recent side project Hot Country Knights was hilarious and super cool. But it sort of slid under-the-radar—sort of like Up on the Ridge did—or maybe was just bad timing to be launched during a pandemic.
But in a lack for new material to perform, Dierks selected the perfect song, with the perfect set of collaborators, from the perfect place, and turned in a darn near perfect performance. There was even a bell toll at the end of it, which rang from the big cowbell that hangs over The Station Inn’s bar, and only rings out whenever someone turns in a special performance. And the Dierks & Co. performance was certainly special.
April 19, 2021 @ 10:49 am
Could not agree more! This should be released as a single for us to enjoy all summer over and over again!
April 19, 2021 @ 10:59 am
I really felt like that was the performance of the night. My kids were watching with me and they were both awed by it. We watched it twice.
Honestly, the ACM winners were disappointing (as always) but they pulled off a decent show. I mean yes, we had that embarrassing LBT performance and Maren Morris with her dopey pop duet…but…
They showcased some really fine performances. I don’t like gospel music, but that Carrie Underwood medley was stellar. Miranda and Stapleton were good and Miranda with Randall and Ingram was pure beautiful. Eric Church had us up and dancing. Paisley and Allen were good. It was great to see Jackson. Guyton turned in another great performance. And the kids loved both Lambert/King and Ashely Mcbryde.
The thing was a success. At least in my house. I know because my daughter (who is 20) spend the night downloading Miranda Lambert and Ashley Mcbryde and Mickey Guyton and NOT Maren Morris or Kelsea Ballerini.
April 19, 2021 @ 11:18 am
Dang that’s cool!
April 19, 2021 @ 11:25 am
I’ll go back and watch it. I just don’t like U2 (I feel the are the most overrated band ever), so I tuned it out at the time. And it didn’t pull anyone in the room back in like Carrie Underwood did. We all stopped what we were doing to listen to Carrie. I did a SCM search for Larkin Poe last night and saw they were on Ray Wylie Hubbard’s last album. I’ll check them out.
“Drunk (And I Don’t Want to Go Home)” could have benefited with fan shots from the pit and artist’s high-fives!
April 19, 2021 @ 12:00 pm
“Drunk” is one of those fun party songs that really needs a loud, rowdy audience to make a live performance work. Still, the vocals from both ladies were very good. And that fringe…
I could look at that fringe all night.
April 19, 2021 @ 11:51 am
In the end it’s still Dierks Bentley singing. I would have loved to have heard The War and Treaty doing this song along side the musicians. Didn’t thing Carrie could replicate How Great Thou Art that she did with Vince Gill but she definitely killed it and the ending was amazing.
April 19, 2021 @ 12:25 pm
Dirks can pull a rabbit out of the hat from time-to-time. Like his bluegrass album.
I know he is a fan of Marty Stuart and I can see some similarities in his progress as related to Marty. It woud behoove him to continue is said direction.
April 19, 2021 @ 1:01 pm
Like Eric Church, Dierks Bentley does a great job of using his platform to highlight talented artists who most probably do not know about. He did it early in his career when he dropped Cross Canadian Ragweed’s name in “Free and Easy” and he has done it through a variety of other ways.
This performance was one of only a handful that sounded country music last night. Anyone who reads this website knows there is plenty of great country music being made in Texas and Appalachia and elsewhere, but it’s important for there to be mainstream ties — like Dierks — who provide recognition on a big stage, assuming enough people still care enough to tune into awards shows. I’ll admit, I only watched on demand, and only because of Trigger’s tweets about this performance and the one from Alan Jackson.
April 19, 2021 @ 6:38 pm
This was truly amazing! It should be put out as a single. This was the epitome of what a live collaborative event performance should be.
April 20, 2021 @ 12:10 am
well …ok . I’m shoring up for the backlash but ..
I’m not a fan of Dierk’s vocals …and I’m mystified by the choice of song . I find it a repetitive and boring piece of music and this was nothing more than a jam session for acoustic instruments . it wasn’t bluegrass , it wasn’t driven by traditional ‘grass harmonies , the rhythm seemed to be fighting itself throughout and what the hell ? who is dierk’s dressed up as this week ? why would you go out of your way to look unkempt and homeless on national television if you weren’t chasing some sort of hippie/hipster trend ?
April 20, 2021 @ 10:00 am
I understand what you’re saying. But if you’re going to perform a bluegrass, or even bluegrass-inspired song on a big country music award’s show, it better be something the public can recognize. I think the song selection was pretty genius.
April 25, 2021 @ 8:43 am
I’d say you’re looking a gift horse in the mouth. It’s a nice little roots music performance. And on the ACM Awards show, of all places.
As for Bentley’s appearance, I’d say it fits the venue in which the performance took place (and really, the type of venue where you’re most likely to hear acoustic roots music). I saw bluegrass band The Seldom Scene in a similar venue a little over a week ago and Dierks looked no worse than Dudley Connell or Lou Reid did that night. And no one is going to confuse them for hipsters.
April 20, 2021 @ 7:37 am
Not really a fan of Bentley but love Larkin Poe. Nice performance though.
April 20, 2021 @ 7:26 pm
Always gotta bag Old Dominion don’t you. Get over it you little baby
April 20, 2021 @ 10:46 pm
Someone with tons of music listening experience writes the hard truth about your favorite band, and that’s your reply? Juvenile.
April 20, 2021 @ 10:57 pm
Not my favourite band actually, and I have plenty of music listening experience as well, you little baby.
April 20, 2021 @ 10:55 pm
Uh, k
April 21, 2021 @ 3:20 am
That was Brittany Hass on fiddle! A force of nature in herself. Anyone looking up Larkin Poe will be shocked that the sisters ate kick ass Rock!! Let’s put it this way. How many “musicians” in Country can you make? Huh? How many sidemen can you point out and say that’s so and so on fiddle. You know the people in The E Street Band, Heartbreakers, and U2. But who plays drums for Carrie, Luke, and even Ice T…oops Little Nas X? Yep homogenized country will bring you nameless faceless toe tapping mind numbing brainwashed algorithms called Country! Yeeeeehaw!
April 21, 2021 @ 5:25 am
I like Dierks. especially this new version of Dierks, that seems to have left the Nashville persona behind and opted for a more Colorado ski/mountain bike bum. But this didn’t do it for me. never like the original version of the song. I have no particular reason why, it just never floated my boat. secondly it felt contrived in today’s political and social climate. we all see what was trying to get done here. I don’t think it changed anything. Miranda on the other hand nailed it by bringing out Jon Randal and Jack Ingram to perform a that beautiful song. if you want to change the world, best way to do it, is to create art that everyone can appreciate no matter where they land on the political spectrum. Miranda did that Sunday night.
April 21, 2021 @ 8:19 am
Dierk’s previous version of this song from Up On The Ridge is in my top 5-10 songs of all time so it is absolutely amazing for me to see this song pop up on such a big stage. However, for me the highlight of his 2010 release of the song is Del Mccoury singing the high vocals and thus I still prefer that version to the one performed. Despite that, I still thoroughly enjoyed the performance. The song, the arrangement, the performers, and the venue all fit what they were looking for so I can’t really complain there, but like I said his original recording of it is at the very top of my all-time favorites.