Dierks Bentley celebrates 10 albums and 20 years with show at Blossom Music Center

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Dierks Bentley, the Arizona native, husband, and father, knows Dierks Bentley, the singer-songwriting country music star intimately. But, perhaps more importantly, both of those Dierks Bentleys know what Dierks Bentley fans want and how to deliver it to them in his smooth, convivial voice.

And all the aforementioned Bentleys will be on stage on Saturday, June 3, when he brings his “Gravel and Gold Tour” to Blossom Music Center. Tickets for the show start at $37 and are on sale at Live Nation. Jordan Davis and Molly Tuttle are opening.

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The tour is named for Bentley’s latest album, released in February, which marks a couple of milestones for the 47-year-old artist.

Bentley’s eponymously-titled debut album was released 20 years ago, featuring the country chart-topping single, “What Was I Thinkin’.”

“Gravel and Gold” is Bentley’s 10th studio album, a fun bit of calendrical synergy that is not lost on him and informed the song choices and overall construction of the album.

Originally, Bentley, who moved back to Nashville with his wife and three children after spending a few years in Colorado, had a different concept for the album. But when he returned, Music City felt different, more welcoming.

“I was trying to get out of Nashville for so long,” said Bentley in a recent phone interview. “And then I kind of realized when I got back here to start working again how much I really missed and how much I love the city, the friends I had here, and the venues I used to go frequent, — places like The Station, the bluegrass bar where I’ve been playing monthly again and have been for the last six months.”

Bentley’s new perspective gave him the idea for the theme and title of his album.

He’d been riding on what he thought was a bumpy gravel road. Coming back to Nashville made him realize it was paved with gold. It gave him the confidence to experiment and reach for the brass ring with “Gravel and Gold.”

The result is an album that blends Bentley’s bluegrass roots with his mainstream country flair. He calls it a “greatest sounds” collection, something that captures his whole musical personality and that he can “hand to anybody.”

Of course, Bentley already has plenty of very popular hits in his storied catalog. His debut single, “What Was I Thinkin’,” went to No. 1 and sold more than two million copies. He’s kept the hits coming with nearly 20 chart-toppers across a two-decade career, including the breezy, traditional-country shuffle and banjo-laced “Free and Easy (Down the Road I Go)” the humorous country-rockin’ arena sing-a-long “Sideways” and the funny-but-lonesome “Drunk On A Plane.”

The creation process of “Gravel and Gold” took longer than most Bentley records. It’s been a full five years since the release of his last album, “The Mountain.”

The “Gravel and Gold” sessions were started and abandoned twice, in part due to the pandemic, but Bentley also felt he hadn’t quite found the right batch of songs and waited until the musicians were able to play and communicate with each other without wearing masks for a more natural feel and sound. For the first time, Bentley also took on the task of self-producing the record because he said the third time in the studio was indeed the charm and he knew what he wanted by that time.

“Yeah. I think I have all the different sounds I’ve tried to put my little stamp on over the years,” he says. “That being mixing the bluegrass with the kick-ass. You know, taking those bluegrass instruments and getting the kick drum and electric guitars behind them. And then some shuffles and I’ve had some great duet partners with Ashley McBride (”Cowboy Boots”) and Billy Strings (the album closer “High Note”). So I think it all turned out as good or better than I could have hoped it would,” Bentley said.

Bentley is enjoying blending the new “Gravel and Gold” songs into his hit-heavy set on tour, saying they are fresh and fun to play.

“You have to find that balance between what the crowd will let you do and what they kind of wish you wouldn’t do, Right? So, if you’re playing a brand-new song, I like to wedge it between a couple of hits and check out what’s being streamed. So, seeing what works, and you really can’t tell until you get out there and see what people like and don’t like,” he said.

Ohio fans will be among the first to let Bentley know what they do and don’t want to hear, as the Blossom show is only the third date of the tour and one of the stops to which Bentley looks forward.

“It’s just gonna be a great year, man. I’m loving this first run of venues from playing Toronto first and then heading over Michigan and then playing Blossom, which is one of my favorite venues,” he said.

“Just that old roof. Amphitheaters can feel a little similar in some ways backstage and whatnot, which is fine. But when you play Blossom, it’s like, ‘Oh, wow, this is the one. It’s just right in the middle of that kind of nature preserve, and then the cool dressing rooms look out on the trees and then that old wooden roof, and you can just imagine the orchestra that been on that stage the night before, all right.”