''Black'' is the eighth studio album by American
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
artist
Dierks Bentley
Frederick Dierks Bentley (; born November 20, 1975) is an American country music singer and songwriter. In 2003, he signed to Capitol Nashville and released his eponymous debut album. Both it and its follow-up, 2005's ''Modern Day Drifter'', ar ...
. It was released on May 27, 2016 by
Capitol Records Nashville
Capitol Records Nashville is a major United States-based record label located in Nashville, Tennessee operating as part of the Universal Music Group Nashville. From 1991 to 1995, Capitol Nashville was known as Liberty Records, before returning ...
. Bentley explained that this is a record about relationships, and follows the same person throughout the track listing going through them. The lead single, "
Somewhere on a Beach
"Somewhere on a Beach" is a song recorded by American country music artist Dierks Bentley. It was released for digital download on January 19, 2016, and to country radio on January 25, 2016, as the lead single from his eighth studio album, ''Blac ...
", was released to radio on January 18, 2016. The album's second single, "
Different for Girls" (featuring
Elle King
Tanner Elle Schneider (born July 3, 1989), known professionally as Elle King, is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. Her musical style was influenced by Country music, country, Rock music, rock and blues.
In 2012, King released her d ...
), was released to country radio on June 6, 2016. The album's
title track
A title track is a song that has the same name as the album or film in which it appears. In the Korean music industry, the term is used to describe a promoted song on an album, akin to a single, regardless of the song's title.
Title track may al ...
was released to country radio as the third single on November 14, 2016. "
What the Hell Did I Say" was sent to country radio as the albums fourth and final single June 26, 2017.
''Black'' garnered positive reviews from critics, praising the blend of classic and modern country aesthetics and its exploration of mature themes. It debuted at number two on the
''Billboard'' 200, selling 101,000
equivalent album units
The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy. This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to traditio ...
and 88,000 copies in the first week.
Summary
Bentley announced the album along with its first single "
Somewhere on a Beach
"Somewhere on a Beach" is a song recorded by American country music artist Dierks Bentley. It was released for digital download on January 19, 2016, and to country radio on January 25, 2016, as the lead single from his eighth studio album, ''Blac ...
" on January 18, 2016, via his social media sites. The second single, "
Different for Girls" featuring Elle King, was released on June 6, 2016. The third single, also the title track, was released on November 14, 2016. The fourth single, "
What the Hell Did I Say", was released on June 26, 2017.
Bentley also released a series of promo videos for "I'll Be the Moon", "What the Hell Did I Say", "Pick Up" and "Black".
In a statement about the album, Bentley said that although it bears the maiden name of his wife Cassidy, it tells a universal tale of hookups, breakups, and everything in between, shining a light on the things that occur after the sun goes down. He also noted that "It's a relationship album that covers the ups and downs of the journey and ends with some self-realization and evolvement. The song 'Black' helps set all of that in motion at the top of the album by guiding you into the darkness and the shadows of the night. The same guy who sings 'Somewhere On a Beach' winds up growing and having enough perspective to sing something introspective like 'Different for Girls'. By the last song, he's taking a look back on love and life."
Critical reception
Indicating in a review by ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'', Stephen L. Betts says, "But what lifts ''Black'' past merely being a good concept album is an old-school musicality that never takes a backseat to modern-country conventionality."
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occ ...
, doing the review for
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
, describes, "It's mood music, sometimes playing as smooth as a seduction but better suited for moments of introspection when you're surrounded by a crowd and need to isolate."
Reviewing the album from ''
Newsday
''Newsday'' is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and f ...
'', Glenn Gamboa writes, "expertly weaving styles and storytelling tricks to build memorable tales to sing along with."
Chuck Yarborough, giving a review of the album at ''
The Plain Dealer
''The Plain Dealer'' is the major newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. In fall 2019, it ranked 23rd in U.S. newspaper circulation, a significant drop since March 2013, when its circulation ranked 17th daily and 15th on Sunday.
As of Ma ...
'', states, "It is a grownup album, with grownup themes, grownup lyrics and grownup performances, especially from Bentley with his pen and on the microphone."
In 2017, ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' contributor
Chuck Dauphin
Charles Frederick Dauphin III (February 17, 1974 – September 18, 2019) was an American sports and country music journalist. He was a radio broadcaster for WDKN in Dickson, Tennessee
Dickson is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Located in ...
placed two tracks from the album on his top 10 list of Bentley's best songs: the title track at number three and "Different for Girls" at number six.
Commercial performance
The album debuted at number 2 on the
''Billboard'' 200 with 101,000
equivalent album units
The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy. This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to traditio ...
; it sold 88,000 copies in its first week.
It was the best-selling album of the week.
''Black'' became Bentley's highest-charting album on the ''Billboard'' 200 and largest sales week.
The album was certified Gold by the RIAA on February 22, 2017.
The album has sold 276,400 copies in the US as of November 2017.
Track listing
Personnel
* Roy Agee –
trombone
The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...
*
Jessi Alexander
Jessica Leigh Alexander (born November 18, 1976) is an American country music artist and songwriter.
Biography
She has had her songs recorded by Patty Loveless, Trisha Yearwood and Little Big Town. She also launched her own recording career in 2 ...
– background vocals
* Sam Ashworth – background vocals
*
Dierks Bentley
Frederick Dierks Bentley (; born November 20, 1975) is an American country music singer and songwriter. In 2003, he signed to Capitol Nashville and released his eponymous debut album. Both it and its follow-up, 2005's ''Modern Day Drifter'', ar ...
– lead vocals
* Jeff Coffin –
saxophone
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...
*
Ross Copperman
Ross Copperman (born October 1, 1982) is a Grammy-nominated American singer-songwriter and producer with 29 number one radio hits. After his experience as an artist in the UK, Copperman discovered his talent for writing and producing country mus ...
–
bass guitar
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
,
acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...
,
electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...
,
keyboards
Keyboard may refer to:
Text input
* Keyboard, part of a typewriter
* Computer keyboard
** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping
** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware
Music
* Musi ...
, programming, background vocals
* Luke Dick – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, programming, background vocals
*
Jerry Douglas
Gerald Calvin "Jerry" Douglas (born May 28, 1956) is an American Dobro and lap steel guitar player and record producer.
Career
In addition to his fourteen solo recordings, Douglas has played on more than 1,600 albums. As a sideman, he has ...
–
dobro
Dobro is an American brand of resonator guitars, currently 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 ...
*
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 B ...
– electric guitar,
pedal steel guitar
The pedal steel guitar is a Console steel guitar, console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all s ...
*
Fred Eltringham
The Wallflowers is an American rock solo project of American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jakob Dylan. The Wallflowers were originally a roots rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1989 by Dylan and guitarist Tobi Miller. The band h ...
–
drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...
* Mike Haynes –
trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...
*
Natalie Hemby
Natalie Nicole Hemby Wrucke (born March 24, 1977) is an American country music songwriter and singer. She has written songs for Lee Ann Womack, Eli Young Band, Toby Keith, Miranda Lambert, Sunny Sweeney, Little Big Town, Jon Pardi, Kacey Musgrav ...
– background vocals
* Lee Hendricks – bass guitar
*
Jedd Hughes
Jedd Hughes (born in Quorn, Australia) is an Australian singer, songwriter, session musician, and record producer.
Early life
Hughes grew up in Quorn, where he grew up listening to his father's country records. He won a local country music co ...
– acoustic guitar, electric guitar
*
Jaren Johnston
Jaren Ray Johnston (born October 4, 1980) is an American country music and rock singer and songwriter. He is a member of the group The Cadillac Three.
Career
Jaren is a multiple time Grammy nominated songwriter and producer. Johnston was former ...
– acoustic guitar, electric guitar, background vocals
*
Elle King
Tanner Elle Schneider (born July 3, 1989), known professionally as Elle King, is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. Her musical style was influenced by Country music, country, Rock music, rock and blues.
In 2012, King released her d ...
– duet vocals on "Different for Girls"
*
Luke Laird
Luke Robert Laird (born May 4, 1978 in Hartstown, Pennsylvania) is an American country music songwriter and producer. He has written over 20 number one ''Billboard'' singles, including Carrie Underwood's "So Small", "Temporary Home", and "Und ...
– acoustic guitar, electric guitar, programming, background vocals
*
Hillary Lindsey
Hillary Lee Lindsey 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 Underwood, Kellie Pickler, Bon ...
– background vocals
* Tony Lucido – bass guitar
*
Maren Morris
Maren Larae Morris (born April 10, 1990) is an American singer-songwriter. While rooted in the Country music, country genre, her music also blends elements of Pop music, pop, R&B music, R&B, and Hip-Hop music, hip-hop. Born and raised in Arlingt ...
– harmony vocals on "I'll Be the Moon"
* Russ Pahl – pedal steel guitar
*
Danny Rader
Danny Rader (born November 1, 1981) is a musician from Panama City, Florida. Born into a musical family, he began to play drums at age 2 and branched out into bass, guitar and piano in his early teens. Later he incorporated bouzouki, mandolin, b ...
–
bouzouki
The bouzouki (, also ; el, μπουζούκι ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', from Greek ), also spelled buzuki or buzuci, is a musical instrument popular in Greece. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat top and ...
, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, keyboards, programming,
synthesizer
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
* Jimmy Robbins – programming
*
Aaron Sterling
Aaron Sterling (born July 9, 1980) is an American drummer, producer, engineer, and session musician who lives in Los Angeles. The son of professional musicians, Sterling grew up in Texas and Nashville, Tennessee, before moving to L.A. in 2000. K ...
– drums,
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
*
Bryan Sutton
Bryan Sutton is an American musician. Primarily known as a flatpicking acoustic guitar player, Sutton also plays mandolin, banjo, ukulele, and electric guitar. He also sings and writes songs.
Biography Early career
Sutton's grandfather and ...
– acoustic guitar
*
Trombone Shorty
Troy Andrews (born January 2, 1986), also known by the stage name Trombone Shorty, is an American musician, producer, actor and philanthropist from New Orleans, Louisiana. He is best known as a trombone and trumpet player but also plays drums, ...
– trombone on "Mardi Gras"
* Micah Wilshire – background vocals
*
Charlie Worsham
Charlie Worsham (born September 1, 1985) is an American country music singer, songwriter and actor. He is signed to Warner Bros. Records. Charlie is currently a member of Dierks Bentley's tour band. He is a former member of the band Old Crow Med ...
– acoustic guitar, electric guitar
* Craig Wright – drums
*
Jonathan Yudkin
Jonathan Yudkin is an American multi-instrumentalist who is a proficient player of banjo, violin, mandolin, and other stringed instruments. He is a Nashville-based session musician, record producer, arranger, and band leader.
Biography
Growin ...
– string arrangements,
strings
String or strings may refer to:
*String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Singles
Certifications
Release history
Notes
References
{{Authority control
2016 albums
Albums produced by Ross Copperman
Capitol Records Nashville albums
Dierks Bentley albums