''The Mountain'' is the ninth studio album by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

artist

Dierks Bentley Frederick Dierks Bentley (; born November 20, 1975) is an American country music singer and songwriter. Bentley moved to Nashville in the late 90s to pursue a career in music, leading up to his releasing the self-funded and independent album Do ...

. It was released on June 8, 2018 by

Capitol Records Nashville Capitol Records Nashville is a major United States–based record label located in Nashville, Tennessee, operating as part of the Music Corporation of America. From 1991 to 1995, Capitol Nashville was known as Liberty Records. While under the ...

. It features the singles " Woman, Amen", "

Burning Man Burning Man is a week-long large-scale desert event focused on "community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance" held annually in the Western United States. The event's name comes from its ceremony on the penultimate night of the event: the ...

" (a duet with

Brothers Osborne Brothers Osborne is an American country music duo from Deale, Maryland. The duo consists of brothers TJ Osborne (lead vocals, rhythm guitar) and John Osborne (lead guitar, background vocals). They signed a recording contract with EMI Records ...

) and "

Living Living or The Living may refer to: Common meanings *Life, a condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms ** Living species, one that is not extinct *Personal life, the course of an individual human's life * ...

". The album was co-produced by

Jon Randall Jon Randall Stewart (born February 17, 1969) is an American producer, songwriter, and musician. His career began as a guitarist for Emmylou Harris' Nash Ramblers with whom he won his first Grammy for their ''Live at the Ryman'' album in 1992. Be ...

and

Ross Copperman Ross Copperman (born October 1, 1982) is an American Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and record producer. After his experience as an artist in the UK, Copperman went to Nashville, Tennessee, where he pursued a career in country music. He ha ...

Content

Bentley wrote 10 of the 13 songs on the album. Most of it was written after he performed at the

Telluride Bluegrass Festival Telluride Bluegrass Festival is an annual music festival in Telluride, Colorado hosted by Planet Bluegrass. Although traditionally the festival focuses on bluegrass music, it often features music from a variety of related genres. History The to ...

Telluride, Colorado Telluride is the county seat and most populous town of San Miguel County, Colorado, San Miguel County in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Colorado. The town is a former silver mining camp on the San Miguel River (Colorado), San M ...

. He recorded it at the Studio in the Clouds in that town in November 2017. According to Bentley, the album mixes the bluegrass influence of his 2010 album ''

Up on the Ridge ''Up on the Ridge'' is the fifth studio album by American country music artist Dierks Bentley. It was released on June 8, 2010 by Capitol Records Nashville. The album produced two singles on the US ''Billboard'' Hot Country Songs chart with the ...

'' with the

rock music Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdo ...

influence of his previous disc, 2016's ''

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

''. Serving as

record producer A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...

s are those two albums' respective producers,

and

. The album includes two vocal collaborations: "Burning Man" featuring

and "Travelin' Light" featuring

Brandi Carlile Brandi Marie Carlile (born June 1, 1981) is an American singer-songwriter and producer. Her music spans different genres, including folk rock, alternative country, Americana, and classic rock. Throughout her career, she has received eleven Gramm ...

. Bluegrass musicians

Jerry Douglas Gerald Calvin Douglas (born May 28, 1956) is an American Dobro and lap steel guitar player and record producer. He is widely regarded as "perhaps the finest Dobro player in contemporary acoustic music, and certainly the most celebrated and prol ...

Sam Bush Charles Samuel Bush (born April 13, 1952) is an American mandolinist who is considered an originator of progressive bluegrass music. In 2020, he was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame as a member of New Grass Revival. ...

, and Tim O'Brien are also featured.

Commercial performance

''The Mountain'' debuted at No. 1 on ''Billboard''s Top Country Albums and No. 3 on the US ''Billboard'' 200, with 102,000

album-equivalent units The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, often shortened to just unit, is a sales metric in the music industry that defines the number of streaming media, songs streamed and music download, songs downloaded equal to one Record sales, tradi ...

, 94,000 of which are traditional album sales. The album is Dierks Bentley's ninth top 10 and the best debut sales week of his career. It sold another 13,400 copies (18,200 units) in the second week. It has sold 193,400 copies in the United States as of September 2019.

Critical reception

''Rolling Stone'' praised the album, particularly the track "You Can't Bring Me Down," with writer Luke Levenson commenting, "Dierks Bentley is continuing his celebration of resilience and strength with "You Can't Bring Me Down," which, following previous releases "Woman, Amen," "The Mountain," and "Living," returns the production level to its basics."

Track listing

Personnel

Adapted from ''The Mountain'' liner notes. Musicians * Dierks Bentley – lead vocals (all tracks), background vocals (1–4, 7, 8) * Alan Bradbury – background vocals (1, 2) *

– mandolin (5, 7, 12) *

– duet vocals (12) *

Matt Chamberlain Matthew Chamberlain (born April 17, 1967) is an American session drummer, record producer and songwriter. He has played with various artists, including Pearl Jam, Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, David Bowie, Tori Amos, Morrissey, The Wallflow ...

– drums (all tracks), percussion (1, 2, 5, 9–11),

programming Program (American English; also Commonwealth English in terms of computer programming and related activities) or programme (Commonwealth English in all other meanings), programmer, or programming may refer to: Business and management * Program m ...

(8) *

– acoustic guitar (3, 6, 7, 10, 11), electric guitar (3, 6, 7), background vocals (3–7, 9), keyboards (3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 11), programming (3, 4, 6, 7, 11), percussion (6, 7, 11) * Luke Dick – acoustic guitar (1), electric guitar (1, 2), background vocals (1, 2), percussion (1), programming (1) *

–

Dobro Dobro () is an American brand of resonator guitars owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally a gui ...

(8, 12) *

Dan Dugmore Dan Dugmore is an American session musician known primarily for playing the pedal steel guitar Born in 1949, Dugmore was raised in Pasadena, California. Influenced by the Flying Burrito Brothers, he learned to play steel guitar after Flying Bur ...

– electric guitar (3, 10),

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a console steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings, enabling more varied and complex music to be played than with other steel guitar designs. Like all steel guitars, it can play ...

(9, 11, 13) *

Ian Fitchuk Ian Fitchuk (born February 13, 1982) is an American songwriter and record producer. Early life Fitchuk was born in Chicago to parents who are both accomplished classical musicians and educators. He grew up there. He cites Paul Simon's ''Grace ...

– bass guitar (all tracks), keyboards (1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 13),

bass synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

(6) * Ben Helson – banjo (2, 5, 12), acoustic guitar (3, 4, 7–11), mandolin (4) * Dan Hochhalter – fiddle (2, 5, 9) * Jedd Hughes – electric guitar (all tracks), acoustic guitar (1, 4, 5) *

Josh Kear Josh Kear is a multi-Grammy Award winning songwriter based in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2007, Kear co-wrote Carrie Underwood's hit " Before He Cheats" with Chris Tompkins. The song dominated the US Hot Country Songs chart for five weeks and earned ...

– background vocals (4) * Jamie Kenney – keyboards (8) *

Hillary Lindsey Hillary Lee Lindsey (born August 11, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter. She has written songs with or for a number of artists including Michelle Branch, Faith Hill, Martina McBride, Shakira, Lady A, Gary Allan, Sara Evans, Carrie Unde ...

– background vocals (5) * Rob McNelley – electric guitar (1, 5–7, 10, 11) *

Heather Morgan Heather Morgan is an American actress and comedian. She was a cast member and writer on '' The Dana Carvey Show'', writing and performing such notable skits as Jenny and First Ladies as Dogs, the latter being called "one of the two or three funn ...

– background vocals (11) *

Jon Nite Jon Nite (born March 19, 1988) is an American singer/songwriter. He is Grammy-nominated, and has won CMA and ACM awards. He has written over 30 Billboard Airplay hits including 18 No.1's with billions of streams in multiple genres. Nite's songs ...

– background vocals (3, 6) * Tim O'Brien – background vocals (1), fiddle (1),

bouzouki The bouzouki (, also ; ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', , from Greek , from Turkish ) is a musical instrument popular in West Asia (Syria, Iraq), Europe and Balkans (Greece, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey). It is a member of the long-necked lute fam ...

(8) *

John Osborne John James Osborne (12 December 1929 – 24 December 1994) was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor, and entrepreneur, who is regarded as one of the most influential figures in post-war theatre. Born in London, he briefly worked as a jo ...

– electric guitar (1) * T. J. Osborne – lead vocals (1) * Danny Rader – acoustic guitar (6, 7), electric guitar (6, 7), keyboards (6, 7), banjo (7), bouzouki (7), programming (7) *

– acoustic guitar (2–6, 9–13), mandolin (4, 5), background vocals (5, 7, 9, 10, 13) * F. Reid Shippen – bass synthesizer (1), programming (3, 4) Technical * Arturo Buenahora Jr. – executive production * Ross Copperman – production *

Pete Lyman Pete Lyman is a mastering engineer, and owner of Infrasonic Mastering, an audio and vinyl mastering studio with three locations in United States. He has mastered Grammy-award winning and nominated albums for Chris Stapleton, Tanya Tucker, Jason I ...

– mastering * Jon Randall – production * F. Reid Shippen – recording, mixing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mountain (Dierks Bentley album) 2018 albums Albums produced by Ross Copperman Albums produced by Jon Randall Dierks Bentley albums Capitol Records Nashville albums