After five successful country records, why did you suddenly decide to make a bluegrass record?
Bluegrass has always been in my heart, and I always knew that I would someday make a bluegrass record like this. A lot of my songs, even those that were big country hits, were banjo driven songs. But it started when I was about 19 or so. I would go down to this club in Nashville called the Station Inn where they played a lot of bluegrass music. This was at a time where there was a lot of commercial country in Nashville, but this was something authentic and human, and there wasn't a lot of that going around in Nashville. Bluegrass made a big impact on me. From there I knew that I would make a record that would devote itself to this kind of music.
Being in Nashville, you basically have more talented players than you can wave a stick at. How did you decide on whom to work with?
I spent about six months thinking really hard about who I wanted to play on the record. There are a lot of talented people around, people like Tim O'Brien, Sam Bush and Alison Krauss, and they're all good friends of mine. And then, the more I thought about it, the more I wanted Jon Randall Stewart to produce it. He knows all those people and he has a great understanding of bluegrass from playing in different bands himself. I kept asking him if he would do it, and I kept talking about all these different songs I wanted to do, the U2 song, and off we went.
Apart from U2's Pride (In The Name Of Love), you also cover Bob Dylan and Kris Kristofferson among others. Do you always imagine how different songs would sound if they were turned into bluegrass songs?
All the time. All the time. Every song I hear, I go "that string section could be replaced with a fiddle and that electric guitar part could be a banjo." But, what I think made that U2 song possible was the Punch Brothers playing on it, and those guys are just amazing. I know it looks funny taking a U2 song and putting banjo on it, but the way they guys did it made it sound authentic. And besides, I thought it would be really interesting to hear Del McCoury sing a U2 song with me.
Chris Thile (formerly of Nickel Creek .-ed) and The Punch Brothers put in a lot of work on this record. They've been taking bluegrass to new places ever since they first got together a couple of years ago, haven't they?
They definitely have. They grew up listening to newgrass and stuff that's a little out there, but it's amazing how they can also play all these old bluegrass standards, public domain songs really well. There are five of them, they all moved to Brooklyn about five years ago, they're all under thirty and none of them are married, so they just spend all their time playing bluegrass music. They're one of the best acoustic bands I've ever heard.
You also sing a great duet with Kris Kristofferson. What's it like being in a room with one quarter of the Highwaymen?
Oh man, it was just great. The song we did, "Bottle To The Bottom," was just one of those well written songs I had heard all my life. It was written in '69, and if you think about what a lot of country music was like in the 70's, that song is just so poetic. It exemplifies just how good a writer he is. When we recorded the song, Jon and I thought "wouldn't it be fun to get him to sing on it?", but we were also both like "yeah right, like that will ever happen". But we kept thinking about it, and it turned out he was coming to Nashville to play at the Ryman Auditorium. Jon started contacting some people and we ended up doing the song with Kris. It was just such a highlight being in the same room together. He's a great guy, very funny to be around. He's just good people.
He's also sort of the last of his kind, isn't he? They don't make 'em like Kris anymore. Where do you think country music will be when the last of its legends leave us?
It really is a sad thing if you think about it. Johnny Cash is gone, Waylon Jenning is gone. Luckily we've still got Kris, Merle Haggard and George Jones, but when they leave, country music won't be the same anymore. It's changed so much, it's a completely different kind of music from what it was back then, and to think of it without them will be strange.
Did you ever at any point, while in the studio, stop, looked around and thought "wow, I'm in the same room with some of the most talented people in the world?"
To be surrounded by people like Alison Krauss, Tim O'Brien, Jamey Johnson, Del McCoury, Miranda Lambert and the Punch Brothers was just great. You see, the thing is, with a lot of country records, everything is built up around the singer. The background vocals are there to support the singer, who's at the top of the triangle. With this record, it felt more like a circle. I was just a part inside the circle. I don't feel weird about listening to my own records, cause it's not just about me. I'm just a part of it, and there is such great musicianship on this record. I felt like I was just one of many people trying to make a great record.
Was it intimidating, from a career perspective, leaving behind your well-known country rock sound and venture into bluegrass music instead?
Yeah, my original thought was that this would just be a side-project, a fun thing to do between my other records, but the more I worked on it, the more I realised that it wasn't just a bluegrass record anymore. I wanted to see if these songs would work with drums and electric guitars, so it ended up also being a country/Americana record, three records in one, if you know what I mean? We also wanted to see what would happen if we gave it to country radio and gave them the chance to play it, because I think that if you give people the chance to listen to this record, they will gravitate towards it like I did when I was 19, sitting at the Station Inn listening to bluegrass bands.
Could you have made this record ten years ago, right before bluegrass and folk music "exploded" with the Oh Brother, Where Art Thou film and soundtrack?
The thing is, I was actually in Nashville when T Bone Burnett came to town to record that album. I was singing at the Station Inn and his assistant told me and the guys I was playing with that "T Bone wants to work with you guys tomorrow, lay down a few tracks!", and we thought "sure!". All I knew was that he was working with the Coen brothers, but I didn't know what it was, but we ended up cutting three songs for him. It's a shame they didn't end up in the movie, but I definitely think that movie raised people's attention towards this kind of music.
Where do you think your music will go from here on?
That's a good question. I think I'll always carry the bluegrass music with me, I always have in the past, so I guess my goal is to keep finding ways to mix it in with my country stuff. I don't know if I'll ever do a middle-of-the-road bluegrass record, but I want to keep taking the best of the acoustic stuff and mix it with the best of the country stuff. When you tour, it's also great to have the acoustic songs to back the electric stuff.
Any plans about a UK tour?
Yeah, we're coming over there in October. I don't know where yet, I just know we'll be touring in the UK. I think this record will be a great record to tour on.
You were here a couple of years ago when you toured with the album Long Trip Alone. I remember you played at The Borderline. What are your thoughts on touring in the UK?
It's great. I love everything about it. It's always a very flattering experience when you play to European audiences. I love hanging out at pubs and meeting people, and what always amazes me about the UK is that you can walk into a pub and there's a sign above the door saying "1592." Man, that's really old!
Dierks Bentley's Up On The Ridge is out now Capitol/Hump Head Country. For more on this truly visionary artist, simply head over to Dierks.com
