Dierks Bentley ROCKED Bridgestone Arena last night during a stop there for the
Gravel & Gold Tour . The country star has always had his own, unique way of doing things. That's probably why he was the only ever artist to be
banned from the Grand Ole Opry before he ever performed there on stage (he later became a member in 2005). So when it came time to play the "biggest honky tonk on Broadway," as Dierks described it, the 48-year-old and his rowdy band made sure to pull out all of the stops. That meant Bentley brought out all of the hits (even performing his recent cover of
Tom Petty's "American Girl" ), and it also led to some big music city cameos. After kicking off the night with a raucous performance of "Gold," and electrifying the arena with some others from his extensive catalogue, Dierks first surprised the audience by bringing out Brandon Coleman of
The Red Clay Strays . The pair opted to cover a Waylon Jennings classic ("Lonesome, On'ry and Mean"), and Coleman's incomparable, impassioned vocals echoed throughout Bridgestone Arena. Take a listen:
Come on with it. Then a little bit later, after Bentley brought out his opener
Chase Rice to share a song (in which Dierks showed off his comedy chops and tried to emulate Rice), there was another big surprise in store for the Nashville crowd. As Dierks said himself, all of the young people in the crowd got really excited to see him, and all of the older fans likely got to meet the straight-from-the-90's talent known as
Zach Top . The up-and-coming country artist immediately made his presence known on stage, and his vintage and soulful voice brought to life another cover from an all-time great. This time, Dierks, his band, and Zach Top performed the fast-paced Hank Williams Jr. song "Free Born Man." And somehow with mostly acoustic instruments being played, it was
electric :
Zach Top stayed for a while up on stage with Bentley, and I'd say pretty much everyone that was there was more than okay with it. Before Top exited stage left to give the night back to Dierks, he signed off with a portion of his own song called "Sounds Like The Radio."
Bentley and Top were great compliments to one another on stage - to the point where I'd be perfectly okay with them collaborating sometime in the near future. And speaking of collaborations, just when Nashville thought the night was over, the concert was taken over by everyone's favorite 90's country band that may or may not have actually existed in the 90's: The Hot Country Knights. As Dierks said when he sat down with the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast, he just
can't get the Hot Country Knights to leave him alone . Though in their defense, they closed out the show with a 90's-country-medley that brought the house down:
Local News
