{"id":1313937,"date":"2019-08-24T10:54:50","date_gmt":"2019-08-24T16:54:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/?p=1810971"},"modified":"2019-08-24T10:54:50","modified_gmt":"2019-08-24T16:54:50","slug":"dierks-bentley-the-seven-perks-of-seven-peaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/music-news\/dierks-bentley-the-seven-perks-of-seven-peaks\/","title":{"rendered":"Dierks Bentley: The Seven Perks of Seven Peaks"},"content":{"rendered":"
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by Alison Bonaguro<\/a><\/span> 16m ago<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

I can think of about 14,000 reasons to go to Dierks Bentley\u2019s upcoming Seven Peaks festival this weekend (Aug. 30-Sept. 1). Namely, the view of the famed 14,000\u2032 Collegiate Peaks \u2014 the Fourteeners, as they\u2019re known to mountaineers \u2014 that surround the festival\u2019s site nestled in Buena Vista, Colorado.<\/p>\n

But, then if you add the 30 or so artists on the line-up, the number of reasons to go just keeps climbing.<\/p>\n

So when I had a chance to sit down with Bentley backstage before his Chicago show on Friday night (Aug. 23), he narrowed it down to the seven very best reasons to make the Seven Peaks festival an annual must-see.<\/p>\n

1. Bentley is all in.<\/strong>
\u201cMy mindset last year and my mindset now is that I want this festival to be around for 20 years. So much so that that I didn\u2019t even drink last year. I wanted to stay so focused on being present. I wanted to be best version of myself, and that\u2019s exactly what I did and will keep doing. Because I don\u2019t want to look back and have any regrets. I don\u2019t want to think, \u2019I could\u2019ve jumped on more stages, I could\u2019ve visited with more fans, I could\u2019ve surprised more people at the campsites.’\u201d<\/p>\n

2. He knows that you are all in, too.<\/strong>
\u201cI want to be respectful of the fans who are using their Labor Day weekend and traveling from all over the country, and they are entrusting us to make it the best fan experience possible.<\/p>\n

3. It is hard work, but he is up for that.<\/strong>
\u201cGoing into this last year, I knew it would be hard work. You can\u2019t phone it in on something this big, something this important. You\u2019ve gotta put the work in if you want it to be successful. And I am not afraid of hard work.\u201d<\/p>\n

4. Bentley admits that this time, it\u2019s personal.<\/strong>
\u201cThe whole concept of this festival is very selfish, right? It\u2019s all the things I love: Colorado, bluegrass, 90s country, new country. It\u2019s like building your own personal Field of Dreams<\/em>. It\u2019s kind of like writing a song, in a way. You\u2019re writing it for yourself, but you\u2019re hoping your fans like it. Because you can\u2019t do it the other way around. You can\u2019t write a song for fans to like and then not even like it yourself. You have to trust your gut. And really, I just wanted an excuse to go to Colorado every year.<\/p>\n

5. For fans, though, he has high hopes as well.<\/strong>
\u201cFor the fans, this weekend has a chance to be a transformative experience in your life. I don\u2019t take that lightly. You\u2019ve traveled a long way to get there, and now you\u2019re in the middle of the mountains. And this not Denver.\u201d (It is, however, only about two hours southwest of the Denver airport, and the road that takes you to Buena Vista is the very definition of \u201cthe scenic route.\u201d) \u201cYou\u2019re staring at mountains. You\u2019re listening to the best music. You\u2019re making friends. It\u2019s like \u2019Living\u2019 in real life. You have the chance to walk away from this feeling inspired and really thinking about who you want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

6. There will be mullets.<\/strong>
\u201cNo other country festival has a 90s night. Ours is an entire night devoted to that 90s music. This beard of mine is going down next week, and by the time I\u2019m ready for Seven Peaks, I\u2019ll just have the full \u2019stache. It\u2019s all about giving us and the fans a chance to go back in time. Last year, fans even dressed up in 90s clothes, and we\u2019ll be there handing out mullets and \u2019staches.\u201d Bentley also told me that he and 90s great Clint Black just finished recording a song called \u201cThis Old House\u201d for Black\u2019s upcoming Still Killin\u2019 Time<\/em> album.<\/p>\n

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7. It took a machete for Bentley to carve out this niche.<\/strong>
\u201cThe world doesn\u2019t need more music festivals the same way the world doesn\u2019t need more singers. So we had to carve out our<\/em> niche, and we did it with a machete. There\u2019s nothing like Seven Peaks, because there\u2019s nothing like this location where you\u2019re literally surrounded by 14,000\u2032 mountains. And I tried to make the line-up really varied, so there\u2019s a bluegrass-rock band Larkin Poe and Chris Shiflett from the Foo Fighters, so it\u2019s a place where all of us get to discover new music.\u201d In addition to Bentley, Seven Peaks has rounded up some of Nashville\u2019s best, from brand new artists to the legends we all treasure. Luke Bryan, Maren Morris, Ryan Hurd, Jon Pardi, Travis Tritt, Tracy Lawrence, Diamond Rio, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Deana Carter, Mitchell Tenpenny, Clare Dunn, Tenille Townes, Caylee Hammack, Hardy, Teddy Robb, Rita Wilson, Kendell Marvel, and more.<\/p>\n

Everything you need to know about Seven Peaks is on the festival\u2019s site, including how to buy passes<\/a>, where to camp<\/a>, and if you\u2019re a fan of country music but not of roughing it, Bentley has that<\/a> covered, too.<\/em>
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Embedded from www.youtube.com<\/a>.