Dierks Bentley’s Hot Country Knights Revive the Humor in Country
When Dierks Bentley announced that his next album cycle would surround his screw off side project with his road band called Hot Country Knights and that they’d actually signed to UMG Nashville, we really didn’t know what to expect. Heretofore, if Hot Country Knights took the stage, it was to perform 90’s country cover songs from Brooks & Dunn, Travis Tritt and the like. We’re they really gonna release a record around that concept?
Then the debut single “Pick Her Up” came out featuring Travis Tritt, and all of a sudden we had to regard Hot Country Knights as a real thing. Of course, there was still a tongue-in-cheek element to everything. But this was actual country music being sent to country radio, and resulted in Travis Tritt returning to the charts for the first time in 13 years. But now with the second and third teaser songs that Hot Country Knights has introduced ahead of their recently-announced debut album The K Is Silent, an entirely new element has emerged in their music: humor and innuendo.
We all knew Dierks Bentley was getting silly with this whole Hot Country Knights thing, but we had no idea he would be getting funny too. The second song released from the band called “Asphalt” is full of those side-splitting double entendres and sexual undertones that make for a good country comedy song. And despite the slightly adolescent humor and play off the whole “Ramblin’ Man” song trope, you have to regard “Asphalt” as well-written.
Now Hot Country Knights have released a third song called “Moose Knuckle Shuffle” that’s probably even more adolescent and profane. But you can’t but help but root for Dierks to get as dumb and weird as he wants to here. And let’s be real: releasing this type of material into the woke world we live in today—especially coming from someone signed to a major label like Dierks—takes a pretty big moose knuckle. We’re not supposed to laugh at anything these days at the fear of someone being offended. That is what makes Hot Country Knights so timely.
Who needs Wheeler Walker Jr., which was fun while it lasted, but lost a lot of its flavor over time due to being too overt and lewd as opposed to laying the humor between the lines like all the country greats had to do in country music’s stuffy environment. Humor has always been a major element to country music, no different from the twang in the voice, the cut of the fiddle, and steel guitar. But just like those essential ingredients to country music, humor has mostly been lost in modern country. Along with actually sounding country, Hot Country Knights is also helping to return this important element to country too.
It may not result in multiple radio hits or lots of albums sold, but watching Dierks Bentley swing from the rafters and doing what he wants, it makes you wonder what else The K Is Silent will have in store when it’s released May 1st. As can be seen in the track list below, the brother tandem of Brett and Jim Beavers who’ve been big collaborators with Dierks in the past are a big part of Hot Country Knights, as is songwriter Jon Randall.
The K Is Silent Track List:
1. “Hot Country Knights” (Brett Beavers, Jim Beavers, Cassady Feasby, Ben Helson, Dan Hochhalter, Chase McGill, Steve Misamore, Jon Nite, Jon Randall, Tim Sergent, Brett Tyler and Dierks Bentley)
2. “Pick Her Up” (Featuring Travis Tritt) (Dierks Bentley, Brett Beavers and Jim Beavers)3. 3. “Asphalt” (Jim Beavers, Jon Nite and Brett Tyler)
4. “Moose Knuckle Shuffle” (Brett Beavers, Jim Beavers, Buddy Brock, Dan Hochhalter, Chase McGill, Zach Turner and Brett Tyler)
5. “Then It Rained” (Brett Beavers, Jon Nite and Jon Randall)
6. “Wrangler Danger” (Dierks Bentley, Brett Beavers and Jim Beavers)
7. “Mull It Over” (Dierks Bentley, Jim Beavers and Jon Randall)
8. “Kings Of Neon” (Dierks Bentley, Brett Beavers and Chase McGill)
9. “You Make It Hard” (Featuring Terri Clark) (Dierks Bentley, Brett Beaver, Jim Beavers, Mary Hilliard Harrington, Jon Randall and Luke Wooten)
10. “The USA Begins With US” (Dierks Bentley, Brett Beavers and Jim Beavers)
March 11, 2020 @ 9:03 am
They seem much more ’80s than ’90s.
March 11, 2020 @ 9:09 am
Randy you tuning sum bitch!
March 11, 2020 @ 9:48 am
I’ll whoop the dog shit outta you. Now get the fuck outta my house before I get so mad I can’t turn back!
March 11, 2020 @ 12:13 pm
You know better than to talk to me like that when I’m hurtin’, Linda. Don’t make me knock the piss outta you.
March 11, 2020 @ 9:14 am
I about died laughing when Moose Knuckle Shuffle popped up on YouTube over the weekend. It’s a fun song. I say go for it Dierks.
March 11, 2020 @ 9:24 am
Ok, I was on the fence after the first single, but “Asphalt” has got me convinced to see these guys for $20 on a Tuesday night.
March 11, 2020 @ 9:41 am
“Moose Knuckle Shuffle is watermelon crawl with different words and it even mentions it. Lol but damn do I love the corniness.
March 13, 2020 @ 6:36 pm
The original Watermelon crawl singers are credited as songwriters on this song which may or may not be something to be proud of lol.
March 11, 2020 @ 9:54 am
Now this is the type of comedy country that actually works. I never was a fan of Wheeler Walker Jr., but this stuff is actually pretty funny. For all of the hidden meaning in Asphalt, it’s pretty decent. It seems like they’re having fun with this and it sure beats about 90% of what we hear on the FM nowadays, so I say go for it.
March 11, 2020 @ 10:00 am
I hate this more than words can say.
March 11, 2020 @ 10:20 am
Fully on board with this.
March 11, 2020 @ 4:46 pm
I thoroughly enjoy ‘Pick Her Up’ and, as Trig points out, it got Travis Tritt back on the charts in over a decade. (He does sounds like he hasn’t missed a step, either) Haven’t heard ‘Asphalt’ or ‘Moose Knuckle Shuffle’ yet but judging by the comments, it sounds like they’re as good, as funny… Or better.
HKN kinda reminds me of the serious dramatic actor that appears to have a comedic side to him/her and once they’re cast in a full-blown comedy, they slay in the role. Bravo to Dierks & Co. for just having a good time and making people laugh.
March 11, 2020 @ 10:51 am
These songs are the best Dierks has ever been, the perverted undertones notwithstanding. If this is how he always sounded, I’d be a fan.
Too bad, after this project is done, he’ll go back to being himself and release the least C(c)ountry album of his career.
March 11, 2020 @ 11:28 am
Dierks secured his future too – we will be dong the Moose Knuckle Shuffle in dance halls for years and years to come
March 11, 2020 @ 11:30 am
Hee Haw shtick comes to live in this project. A welcomed relief.
March 11, 2020 @ 12:03 pm
I like Dierks working with Brett Beavers again. If only DBs Modern Day Drifter part 2 could get made next…
March 12, 2020 @ 9:28 pm
Very exciting. It all went downhill after he stopped writing with him. Wish he was working on some serious material with him though.
March 11, 2020 @ 12:11 pm
Enjoyed Wheeler Walker Jr. for a bit, until I found out he was actually a piece of shit that instigated violence against a child. Good riddance to him.
I’ll have to give this a listen when I get the chance.
March 11, 2020 @ 12:44 pm
I love to hate it…wait…i hate to love it…anyway.
The album features Terri Clark…so it can’t be bad.
March 11, 2020 @ 1:32 pm
Been loving these guys so far! It’s silly country, yet it sounds a lot better and is very refreshing compared to most of what’s on modern country radio. “Moose Knuckle Shuffle” is friggin’ hilarious! I love how it’s pretty much a parody of the whole line dance craze from the early-mid 90’s, with the obvious nod to Watermelon Crawl. “Asphalt” is also a hoot, especially the video for it. I’m completely on board! I agree that they couldn’t have come along at a better time.
March 11, 2020 @ 3:58 pm
???? (put it in there).
But, I won’t fault those who like it.
March 11, 2020 @ 9:16 pm
6-12 writers on some tracks? Insane.
March 12, 2020 @ 1:40 pm
I think that’s part of the joke
March 12, 2020 @ 5:26 am
Those videos are hilarious. I love the old women groupies in Asphalt. I have to work on a proposal for the construction of a Dierks Bentley Whisky Row in Denver within the next few days. And although I don’t listen to his music, I completely forgot about this project, which I can tell I’ll be a fan of.
March 12, 2020 @ 1:02 pm
No problem with the concept, I just think it will wear out really quickly. I have an ongoing pre-release playlist and I skip “Pick Up Truck” every time now, I laughed at “Muckle Shuffle” the first time I heard it, but I’m ok to never hear it again. I do really like “Asphalt”!
March 12, 2020 @ 8:49 pm
Finally! I have been having conversations over the past year about how country music has lost its humor. It’s so good to see that whim return if only for a little bit.
March 12, 2020 @ 9:38 pm
Videos are mandatory. Listened to them on Spotify first and hated them, but the videos were hilarious. The highlight was Dierks repeatedly humping his guitar throughout the entirety of Ass-phalt.