Dierks Bentley is back with his 11th studio album, Broken Branches. The 11-track project serves as a celebration of the underdogs of the world and highlights Bentley’s honest storytelling.
The country hitmaker had a hand in writing four of the album’s 11 tracks, but was meticulous when it came to selecting outside songs, choosing to record songs that spoke to him, and paying no attention to who wrote each track during the song selection process.
Bentley enlisted several special guests for the album, including Stephen Wilson Jr. on “Cold Beer Can,” Miranda Lambert on “Near You,” and both John Anderson and Riley Green on the title track.
Before the album’s June 13 release, Bentley met with a group of reporters to talk through the creative process and highlight a few standout tracks. Here’s what he shared.
He Intended For The Album To Have A Theme
Bentley explained that he aimed to give the album a clear theme, and he believes the title track is what ultimately defined its direction.
“I was going for a little bit of a theme, just really leaning into the songs I guess is where it all started trying to find the message in the songs. When ‘Broken Branches’ got sent my way, I feel like I found a pretty good place to maybe revolve a record around just this idea of where I sit in my career. I can kind of look at the guys that come before me and all the new guys coming up and the one thing that seems like everyone has in common is just this idea of being a broken branch,” he explained.
Bentley went on to point out that many artists, songwriters, producers, etc. move to Nashville with a big dream and sometimes might be looked at as a bit crazy by their loved ones for stepping away from the expected paths in life.
“Everyone that’s come to this town is doing something probably a little bit different than their family…They’ve come in here to chase this kind of crazy honky tonk country dream and kind of being a black sheep in the family and being here and doing something a little different and just all that comes with that, the highs and the lows, faith and brokenness and redemption and small town life and…that kind of felt like the place to start from.”
He Blindly Selected The Outside Cuts To Remove Any Bias
The Arizona native carefully selected each track for the project and shared that when listening to outside cuts, he chose not to look at the songwriters’ names.
“Everything starts with the song. It’s a true cliche and you’ve got to have great songs. I think bringing Mary Hilliard in as an executive producer is really great. She really did a lot of work to go find the songs. And as she knows, I don’t want to know who wrote the songs. If it’s an Ashley Gorley song, I might be biased to think, ‘oh, it’s a great song.’ I just don’t want to know who wrote the songs, just send ’em to me without the names on. Let’s just listen and pick the best songs.”
He Changed A Lyric To Fit Miranda Lambert
Bentley said he instantly fell in love with the song “Never You” and immediately thought to bring Miranda Lambert in as a duet partner. The original lyric mentioned “long black hair” and they changed it once Lambert agreed to sing on the song with him.
He explained, “It’s just such a great song. I mean, when I first heard it, the first person I thought of was Miranda because we’ve been such good friends for so long, we’ve never had a true collaboration together. And so I was like, ‘I’m going to make it happen on this one.’ And I sent it to her and had to change it from long black hair to blonde hair to make it work with Miranda.”
Dierks Didn’t Initially Plan For “She Hates Me” To Be The Lead Single
He explained that he feels an ongoing inner conflict between wanting to release serious, traditional country songs and fun, lighthearted hits.
“It’s the same old struggle. It’s the same old me. Even the first song that came out, ‘What Was I Thinkin’,’ I fought so hard for that not to be the first single. I wanted this other song that was more serious, what I consider to be a real country song, to be the first single. I just love that kind of music,” he recalled.
While he was initially hesitant, Bentley admitted the writing was “on the wall.”
“There’s not a bad line in there, it’s just so well written and it is fun. And I look back on the last record I had, Gold, and really it’s the only song that was off that last record. So it was kind of time for that kind of tune. And they’re really fun to have those in the live show.”
He Deeply Connected With The Song ‘Off The Map” And Hopes It Will Be A Single
“Off The Map,” written by by Jeremy Bussey, Lauren McLamb and Adam Wood, was sent to Bentley with just a guitar vocal. Upon first listen, he was hooked and immediately knew he had to record it.
“I was off the map,” Bentley recalled of the first time he heard the demo. “I was driving literally driving out away from the town for a little bit. And that song came on and just hit me so hard. I don’t know why it did. I think just living in Nashville and it’s so busy and it just so counter to how I feel like I’m supposed to be living sometimes in the mayhem of being in here. It really just struck a chord with being off the map.”
The singer/songwriter pointed out that being “Off The Map” can mean many different things to many different people and said that’s something he loves about the song.
“Your couch can be off the map. You can be on a bar stool and be off the map. You can be a beach chair…anywhere When you’re taking that time just to tune the world out. It doesn’t mean you’re lost. It just means you’re taking a little break from being on this grid that we’re all on. And so it really struck me.”
Bentley hopes to release the song as a single to country radio in the future.
Dierks Bentley is in the midst of his 30-city Broken Branches Tour, which recently launched with support from Zach Top and The Band Loula.
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