It's interesting how many thoughts come to mind when seeing and/or hearing a new artist for the first time. I remember, way back in early 2003, seeing the music video for Dierks Bentley's "What Was I Thinkin'." Right away, I had a feeling that Dierks Bentley was an artist worth watching.
But what was it that drew me to Dierks Bentley not even a minute into his lead-off single, besides his extremely unusual first name? First of all, Dierks arrived on the scene with a fully-formed image. Sure, his curly hairdo wasn't too different from that Billy Currington guy who was trying to get "Walk a Little Straighter" into the Top 10, but unlike Currington's image of the down-home country boy who just happens to have a Playgirl-worthy killer set of abs, Dierks came off as more of just a refined, modernized branch of the down-home country boy. Sure, there was a little bit of the rock sound that country music began edging itself toward in the aughties. It's not every artist who includes the Del McCoury band in an excellent bluegrass interlude on a debut album.
As for the song itself, "What Was I Thinkin'" was just a strong song all around. A muscular electric guitar riff paired with Randy Kohrs' Dobro work and a rapid-fire verse not all that far removed from Garth Brooks' "Ain't Goin' Down ('Til the Sun Comes Up):" "Becky was a beauty from south Alabama / Daddy had a heart like a nine-pound hammer / I think he even did a little time in the slammer / What was I thinkin'?" That line alone is enough to draw the listener in and lead him through to the end. It would be easy to dismiss the story of running off with the opposite-sex partner whose daddy doesn't want that pairing to happen, but it plays that storyline so convincingly that the overused premise is but a minor complaint.
"What Was I Thinkin'" was certainly a great introduction to Dierks Bentley, unseating the monster hit "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere" from its peak late in the year. Although Dierks stumbled a bit with his next two singles ("My Last Name" only went to #17, and the equally excellent "How Am I Doin'" took forever and a day to get to #4), Dierks managed to rebound with his strong second album, and he shows no signs of slowing down. His later albums haven't quite produced a knockout of this magnitude, and at times his voice sounds a little more forced than it should ("Sideways"), but "What Was I Thinkin'" set the bar so high that it would be rather hard to jump over. While, indeed, he hasn't yet passed its excellence, he has at least remained consistent enough to prove that his debut was no fluke.
You can support Dierks Bentley by purchasing this single at Amazon | iTunes.
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