Dierks Does Nashville, Spots Possum

Posted by amyclark on 08/03/2008
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On the upcoming ABC-TV special, CMA Music Festival: Country's Night to Rock, Dierks Bentley gives four fans from Canada a quickie tour of Nashville. He even supplies the visitors with guitars and leads them as they set up shop in front of Robert's Western Wear on Nashville's Lower Broadway, while serenading people passing by. “I think we made $8 at the end of the day,” Dierks says with a laugh, adding, “Their first lesson in the music business was I gave them $1 and kept $7 for myself, as the promoter!” Dierks’ segment of the special also includes a visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, where he encounters his friend, the legendary George Jones, himself a 1992 Hall of Fame inductee. “I thought the Hall of Fame would be a cool idea,” Dierks tells the Philadelphia Inquirer, “because I feel like I'm trying to be a bridge between what's left of country music and the future of it. So the Hall of Fame was a nice way to tie those two together.” While the article laments the fact that George only appears briefly, and doesn’t get the opportunity to sing on the special like some younger, more pop-influenced performers, Dierks puts a positive spin on the writers’ observations, saying, “For sure the genre is changing, with a lot of outside performers and whatnot, people getting record deals through television shows. Hopefully, this will bring more fans into country music and they'll stick around and go back and listen to the older stuff and discover Waylon Jennings and all the [other] great guys. CMA Music Festival: Country's Night to Rock airs Monday at 9pm (ET) on ABC-TV.    7/19/2007 Stephen L. Betts