I would love to have seen the text messages Dierks Bentley sent out inviting his artist friends to join him onstage for the grand opening of his Whiskey Row in Nashville on Sunday night (Jan. 14).
It had to be something like, “hey man. wanna come out to my whiskey row on sunday night and sing something? but not one of your songs. u have to do a country cover song. and it has to be from 1993 to about 1999. u in?”
Since I live about 480 miles from Bentley’s new bar at 4th and Broadway, I had to live vicariously through everyone who was there. And it seems like it was a night celebrating Bentley’s future, but also his past. All the way back to the time when he was heavily influenced by the kind of country that was everywhere when he moved to Nashville in the mid-90s when he was just 19.
From 1993 to 1999, Bentley and his singer-songwriter buddies covered some of the decades biggest hits. Clearly, 1995 was a really big year for the kind of timeless hits everybody loves to sing along to.
1993: Brothers Osborne covered Alan Jackson’s “Chattahoochee”
1994: Jon Pardi covered Clay Walker’s “If I Could Make a Living”
1995: Lauren Alaina covered Shania Twain’s “Any Man of Mine”
1995: Cole Swindell covered Tim McGraw’s “I Like It, I Love It”
1995: Thomas Rhett covered his dad Rhett Akins’ “That Ain’t My Truck”
1995: LANCO‘s Brandon Lancaster covered John Michael Montgomery’s “Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incident)”
1996: Maren Morris covered Deana Carter’s Strawberry Wine”
1999: Maddie & Tae covered Jo Dee Messina’s cover of Dottie West’s “Lesson in Leavin’”
1999: Ryan Hurd covered Kenny Chesney’s “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy”
2018: It wasn’t all old stuff. Bentley managed to work in his a new song — a heartfelt prayer thanking God for the woman in his life — called “Woman, Amen.”
Enjoy scenes from Sunday’s grand opening:
John Shearer/Getty Images for Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row Nashville
John Shearer/Getty Images for Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row Nashville
John Shearer/Getty Images for Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row Nashville
John Shearer/Getty Images for Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row Nashville
John Shearer/Getty Images for Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row Nashville
John Shearer/Getty Images for Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row Nashville
John Shearer/Getty Images for Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row Nashville
John Shearer/Getty Images for Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row Nashville
John Shearer/Getty Images for Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row Nashville
John Shearer/Getty Images for Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row Nashville
John Shearer/Getty Images for Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row Nashville
John Shearer/Getty Images for Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row Nashville
John Shearer/Getty Images for Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row Nashville
John Shearer/Getty Images for Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row Nashville
Alison Bonaguro
This Article Was Originally Posted at www.CMT.com
http://www.cmt.com/news/1790232/dierks-bentley-keeps-his-country-country/
