Dierks Bentley’s debut single, “Woman, Amen,” from his upcoming The Mountain album is a pivotal one, both for the record and for his career. The song, which says, “Every night I should be on my knees / Lord knows how lucky I am / I’ll never say near enough / Thank God for this woman, Amen,” carries an important message.
“It’s a really great love song, but it also feels like a party for me,” Bentley tells Rolling Stone Country. “I have party songs like ‘5-1-5-0’ and ‘Am I the Only One,’ but you can get to that same destination in a different way, like with this song. It still gets to the party, it just takes a different route to get there.”
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Josh Kear, who co-wrote “Women, Amen” with Bentley and Ross Copperman, says the message of songs in country music might remain largely the same, but the delivery method and the context is changing, for the better.
“In the context of historical country music, there has always been room for party songs. It’s not like they suddenly became something you should steer away from,” Kear notes. “Wanting to have a good time with a woman in a song or in real life has never been a bad thing. The way you talk about it might be shifting, and that is probably long overdue. If part of what is happening in our country as a whole is finding its way into the way songwriters lyrically approach the presentation of the message, great. That’s going to be a good thing for everyone involved. It’s going to make men more respectful. It’s going to make women feel less objectified.”
“Women, Amen” is one of several on The Mountain that Bentley says reflect where he is in his own life, including his relationship with his wife, Cassidy.
“There are a lot of songs about hope and gratitude and feeling alive and feeling good,” adds the Arizona native. “[It celebrates] that person in your life, who grows with you, and grounds you but also allows you to continue to grow. I feel like it’s a good place to start off from before you jump into all these other themes. Where does that gratitude come from? For me it all starts at home.”
Download “Women, Amen” on iTunes.
Photo Credit: Facebook/Dierks Bentley
