On May 7 I went to a concert I was expecting to leave feeling lukewarm about. Hayes Carll was opening for Dierks Bentley and the Traveling McCoury’s. I’m a fan of Hayes Carll and I really went to see him, so let me start with that. He’s an artist that’s often placed in that tradition that’s epitomized by the Texas singer/songwriter like Townes Van Zandt and Steve Earle and that now counts among Hayes’s peers the likes of Ryan Bingham, Bruce Robison and others. In fact you hear a lot of influences in his music from Kris Kristoferson, Johnny Cash, Buck Owens and Willie Nelson, to Bob Dylan and David “Honey Boy” Edwards and the Delta Blues. I don’t know that he would list all these, but I hear them.

Hayes is alternately a balladeer with a wry sense of humor, a lyricist whose simple, stripped down melodies can tug at your heart strings like the best of them, and the Rock and Roller whose driving guitars oriented licks I’d gladly follow down the road tonight or any night cause there’s going to be a great party when you get there. He first attracted my attention a year or so ago with the hilarious, ironic tune “She Left Me for Jesus,” from his 2008 release Trouble in Mind, released in 2008, and I’ve backtracked from there to get my hands on everything he’s ever released. But I’d never seen him live, and now I had my chance.

When I see artists I’ve liked for a long time play for the first time, I make a very conscious effort to ratchet down my expectations because they so seldom live up to them. I’d done that in this case, and it was not necessary. Hayes was accompanied by only two musicians, Bonnie Whitmore on bass and Travis Linville on all kinds of guitar, and they were a well-oiled trio, even when they weren’t. What I mean by that is that they had chemistry with one another and were masterful musicians. The show felt spontaneous and not rehearsed and planned down to the second, yet each song came together nicely.

Travis Linville is a pure virtuoso on the guitar, the kind of artist that I wanted to sound like when I took up guitar as a kid and also the kind of artist that made me give up the guitar because I knew it was hopeless. I still have it and I still dream, but with much less lofty expectations and that’s another entry. Not a lot of people play like Travis. He was a revelation.

I am thoroughly convinced that the bassist is, more often than not, the coolest person in the band. He, or in this case she, stands back, plucks away, watches the action and watches the crowd and makes music. Plus, the bass is a cool instrument, with its deep rhythmic tones. Bonnie, however, is particularly cool, firecracker of a woman and you got the feeling that she could have stolen the show had she so desired. Indeed, she has a solo album, and she stepped forward to duet with Hayes on a couple of tunes. They play off each other well, particularly well on songs like “It’s a Shame” and a new song about star-crossed lovers from opposite sides of the political fence, the title of which I didn’t get. Hopefully I’ll be able to get it when the song is released on the new album I hope Hayes will be coming out with soon. He joked in the show about a due date somewhere way down the line, but let’s hope it’s sooner.

These two had such chemistry that the couple sitting next to me in the theater wanted to know if she was his wife! They were surprised to find this wasn’t the case and they were also surprised to find that these three haven’t been traveling and recording together for decades. “Not only do they sound great together,” one of them told me, “but they seems to get along so well.”

Then came the main attraction, just not in my eyes

. I thought Dierks Bentley was ok, just not someone I would have made a point to see in concert. “What Was I Thinking?” is funny and catchy and got stuck in my head for ages, but then there other songs are just corny or riddled with cliches. In other words, Dierks wrote great, uptempo, good time songs. I figured the show would be fun, but I wasn’t thrilled. Still, even though I had to drive almost two hours drive back home, I had to stay because I had some promotional stuff for Lost Highway that I couldn’t distribute until after the show. I hadn’t noticed Dierks was playing with a group called “The Traveling McCourys” and even if I had, I don’t know that I would have put them together with the Del McCoury Band.
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Well that is what they are. They are the Del McCoury Band without Del McCoury. The Del McCoury Band is Bluegrass royalty except that, even though there’s a lot of family in the group, it’s not a hereditary title. You’ve gotta be really good to be in the Del McCoury Band, whether your last name is McCoury or not.

It seems that Dierks is a fan of Bluegrass, and that he’s got a new album coming out this summer that is an acoustic Bluegrass album. Now if all that comes to mind when you hear the word “Bluegrass” is banjo music or perhaps a little fiddle riff, then you don’t know Bluegrass. Dierks, the McCourys (Ronnie McCoury-mandolin, Rob McCoury-banjo, Jason Carter-fiddle, and Alan Bartram-upright bass) and two from Dierks’s regular touring band (drummer Steve Misamore-drums and Tim Sergent-pedal steel guitar) played a tight, exciting set that hit the highlights of Dierks’s recording career to date, previewed some of the new tracks from the forthcoming album “Up on the Ridge.” We left with a three song sampler of tracks from it and I have to say, I think I’m going to like it.

There was a kind of snippy review of the show the night before that practically dripped with condescension essentially suggesting that the Dierks was basically lost at his own show because his admiration for the musicians playing with him. He’s awfully catty about clothing and demeanor, too. He begins the article

“It ain’t easy standing onstage with your heroes,” the country star Dierks Bentley said at the Highline Ballroom on Wednesday night. Still, he hadn’t dressed up for the occasion. His hair was maybe a bit more matted than usual, his 5 o’clock shadow a bit more honest. His black T-shirt had seen crisper days.

And he ends it with

Not much has changed. At the end of the show the band was joined by the virtuosic fiddler Gabe Witcher of the Punch Brothers, who squared off with Mr. Carter. Mr. Bentley said that Del McCoury had taught him a few tricks about how to keep up in such a circumstance, but he didn’t seem much invested in showing off. “Give me the Del McCoury tempo,” he insisted, and — eyes wide, mouth agape — he let everyone around him take over.

The critic who wrote that review may be a fine critic under normal circumstances, but he had no idea what he was talking about with this show. Unless the performance on the 5th in New York was that markedly different from the show on the 7th in Portsmouth, the New York Times reviewer simply doesn’t understand modesty and respect. I didn’t see an artist out of his league. I saw a confident artist who led the show, and who knew he was accompanied by legends and virtuosos. He makes no secret of his admiration of the artists on stage with him or of their talent. He even talks about how discovering the Del McCoury band changed his approach to music and what he wanted from his career. Dierks is a singer/songwriter. What kind of a disservice would he be doing with regard to his audience not to let them step forward from time to time? Dierks Bentley is the singer/songwriter/celebrity, but he admires the virtuosity of his fellow musicians on stage, derives joy from their music and from playing with them, and wants his audience to see his appreciation in the hopes it with help them to appreciate it as well. It reminds me of when Dave Mattews plays with Tim Reynolds, and let’s Reynolds talk over for a while while he just stays on stage and listens.

Funny, I left the show with a new found respect for Dierks Bentley. I thought he was great, the consummate showman, confident enough to lead a band of legends, but humble enough to step back and let them do their thing, too. The Bluegrass take on his songs also allowed me to hear them differently, and I appreciate them more, now. So in short, I didn’t leave feeling lukewarm at all. Great Show! I can’t wait for the album.

There’s some stops left on this 25 cities in 30 days Up on the Ridge tour, so if you get a chance, check it out for yourself. Let me know what you think.