The Highwomen just released their debut single, “Redesigning Women,” which has already garnered the attention of at least one country music star – Dierks Bentley. Bentley performed a dramatic reading of the lyrics of the song, which he posted in a video on YouTube.
Bentley begins the video by sitting in what looks like a den or study, with a pipe in his mouth and a pile of books on a small table beside him.
Videos by PopCulture.com
“Ahh, what to read. Harper Lee? No, not tonight. Virginia Woolf? Danielle Steele. No, I’m going to go with this one,” Bentley said, as he picked up a large book, and began a dramatic – and hysterical – reading of the entire song.
“Full time livin’ on a half time schedule,” Bentley began. “Always tryin’ to make everybody feel special / Learnin’ when to break and when to hit the pedal / Workin’ hard to look good till we die.”
Bentley continued the reading until the end of the song, saying the lines, “Skippin’ the bread for the butter / Changin’ our minds like we change our hair color / Yeah, ever since the beginning / We’ve been redesigning women,” and concluding with, “That’s a classic,” before the video shows a photo of The Highwomen while a snippet of the song played.
Bentley shared a portion of the video on Instagram, earning praise from The Highwomen members Maren Morris and Brandi Carlile.
“Danielle Steele,” Morris wrote, using the joy emoji, while Carlile wrote, “I love this [Dierks Bentley],” using the kissing heart emoji.
“Redesigning Women” is the debut single from The Highwomen’s upcoming, self-titled album, out Sept. 6. The group, which also includes Natalie Hemby and Amanda Shires, felt compelled to create a group that celebrated female artists, current and past.
“Almost all of us are mothers of young girls, and we all grew up listening to country music,” Carlile previously told PopCulture.com and other media. “We all had Deana Carter, and Trisha Yearwood, and Tanya Tucker, and Pam Tillis, and Kathy Mattea. And we had the greats, we had Loretta Lynn, and Patsy Cline, Brenda Lee, Kitty Wells, too.
“But we recognized that we’re in a time right now where our daughters don’t have the same country music heroes that we had,” she continued. “They have a few of them, and they’re great. But, two women out of the Top 20 is not enough. Zero women on the Top 20 is not enough for country radio. We wanted to get together with compassion, and love, and tackle the problem of country music not being an amplifier for women, and we intend to do that.”
Photo Credit: Getty images / Jeff Kravitz
