''Riser'' (stylized as ''RISER'') is the seventh 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, ...
singer
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'', a ...
. It was released on February 25, 2014, by
Capitol 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 ...
, and debuted at number 6 on the
''Billboard'' 200, becoming his seventh top ten album.
The album was nominated for
Best Country Album
The Grammy Award for Best Country Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality albums in the country music genre. Honors ...
at the
57th Annual Grammy Awards
The 57th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 8, 2015, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The show was broadcast live by CBS at 5:00 p.m. PST ( UTC−8). Rapper LL Cool J hosted the show for the fourth consecutive time ...
.
Content
The album includes the singles "
Bourbon in Kentucky", "
I Hold On
"I Hold On" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Dierks Bentley. It was released in August 2013 as the second single from his 2014 album '' Riser''. Bentley wrote the song with Brett James.
Content
The song describes ...
", "
Drunk on a Plane
"Drunk on a Plane" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Dierks Bentley. It was released in April 2014 as the third single from his seventh studio album '' Riser''. The song has been certified 3x Platinum by the RIAA. ...
", "
Say You Do". and the title track
Riser. The first single peaked at number 45 on the
Country Airplay chart, becoming Bentley's lowest-charting single to date at the time. The album was originally scheduled to be released in late 2013. The label decided to postpone the album's release date, and quickly began promoting the album's second single "I Hold On", which reached number 1 on
Country Airplay. "Drunk on a Plane", the album's third single, became one of the biggest hits of his career, peaking at number 27 on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100. "Say You Do" served as the album's fourth single. The fifth single, also the title track, was released to radio on June 15, 2015.
Bentley told Roughstock that “You have one ear monitor in, one ear out, and the crowd’s there and your voice feels really great. There’s a certain amount of gravel to it because you’re tired, but you’re all jacked up on whatever you're drinking and adrenaline, and the crowds and the fans are there and there’s this feeling, fists in the air—it’s that thing that’s hard to transfer into a studio environment. There’s a rawness.”
Critical reception
''Riser'' garnered positive reception from eight
music critics
Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...
ratings and reviews. At
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, they assign a "weighted average" score to selected independent ratings and reviews, and based upon six reviews the album has a Metascore of 70, which means the album received "generally favorable" reviews.
Brian Mansfield of ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...
'' rated the album a perfect four stars, writing that "Grief over his dad's death infuses ''Riser'' so deeply that the emotions his loss triggered seep even into songs about girls", and observes this in how "Bentley bares his soul in meditations on love and loss, death and rebirth."
At
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 databa ...
,
Stephen Thomas Erlewine rated the album three-and-a-half stars out of five, saying that because of the big issues dealt with on the album "it's no wonder that Riser doesn't quite feel brimming with lighthearted singles, but it's a sturdy, often absorbing record from a singer who is determined to be in it for the long haul."
Sarah Rodman of ''
The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' gave a positive review, noting how Bentley has a career that he's built on the "bedrock concepts that feel more quaint all the time: musicianship, emotional integrity, and hard work", which just happens that "Those elements again make themselves known on his stirring seventh album".
At ''
Country Weekly
''Nash Country Weekly'' was an American lifestyle weekly magazine about country artists and their music. It was in circulation between April 1994 and May 2016. The publisher, Cumulus Media, now maintains the site ''Nash Country Daily''.
Overview ...
'', Jon Freeman graded the album an A, stating that the album is "leaps and bounds" from his first song and shows how Bentley grew as an artist "incrementally, in a way that feels effortless and natural."
Dan MacIntosh of Roughstock rated the album four-and-a-half stars out of five, noting how "The quality of his songs speak for themselves" on the album, which he declares Bentley has "never been better."
Yet, MacIntosh writes that "''Riser'' may pass the emotional balancing test, but it’s nevertheless a few rungs short of content perfection."
At Got Country Online, Tara Toro rated the "ballad heavy" album four-and-a-half stars out of five, calling it "an unhurried record" that is "full of reflective, emotional and mature songs"; and "Throughout the record, one hears Dierks’s gravelly vocals, perhaps at the best they have been, pouring emotions into every song."
Nashville Country Club's Lisa Coleman rated the album four stars out of five, alluding to how the release "features an excellent track listing of songs of both intense and light hearted nature."
However,
Jon Caramanica
Jon Caramanica (born 1975) is an American journalist and pop music critic who writes for ''The New York Times''. He is also known for writing about hip hop music.
Biography
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Caramanica received his bachelor's degree ...
of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' gave a mixed review of the release, indicating this is a "hit-or-miss album." At ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'', Andrew Dansby rated the album two-and-a-half stars out of five, noting that "Compared to what gets played on country radio, Dierks Bentley can almost sound like a traditionalist, with his hickory voice and songs about drinking"; however Bentley on ''Riser'' "devolves into a standard-issue world of bikinis and Bud Light."
In 2017, ''
Billboard'' contributor
Chuck Dauphin placed three tracks from the album on his top 10 list of Bentley's best songs: "I Hold On" at number one, "Drunk on a Plane" at number seven and "Bourbon in Kentucky" at number ten.
Commercial performance
''Riser'' debuted at number 6 on the
''Billboard'' 200 selling 63,000 copies in its opening week, becoming his seventh top ten album.
It also debuted at No. 1 on ''Billboard's'' Top Country Albums chart, his fifth No. 1 on the chart. The album has sold 380,000 copies in the U.S. as of April 2016.
Track listing
Personnel
*
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'', a ...
– lead vocals
*
Ross Copperman –
acoustic guitar,
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 gu ...
,
keyboards,
mandolin, programming, background vocals
*
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 ...
–
dobro, acoustic guitar, electric guitar,
pedal steel guitar
*Fred Eltringham –
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. Ex ...
*
Kenny Greenberg
Kenneth S. "Kenny" Greenberg is an American guitarist, songwriter, producer, and session musician. He is known for bringing a rock-and-roll sensibility to Nashville recording sessions.
Biography
Greenberg was born in Cleveland, Ohio but attend ...
– acoustic guitar, electric guitar
*Rob Hajacos –
fiddle
*Lee Hendricks –
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 ...
*Mark Hill – bass guitar
*Dan Hochhalter –
banjo, fiddle
*Jedd Hughes – 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 ...
– banjo, acoustic guitar, background vocals
*Brian Layson – banjo, electric guitar, mandolin
*
Jason Lehning –
Hammond B-3 organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated ...
, keyboards,
synthesizer
*
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, Bo ...
– background vocals
*Tony Lucido – bass guitar
*
Kacey Musgraves
Kacey Lee Musgraves (born August 21, 1988) is an American country singer. She has won six Grammy Awards, seven Country Music Association Awards, and three Academy of Country Music Awards. Musgraves self-released three solo albums and one as Texa ...
– background vocals on "Bourbon in Kentucky"
*
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. B ...
– background vocals
*
Mickey Raphael
Michael Siegfried "Mickey" Raphael (born November 7, 1951) is an American harmonica player, music producer and actor best known for his work with Willie Nelson, with whom he has toured as part of The Family since 1973.
He has performed or rec ...
–
harmonica
*F. Reid Shippen – percussion
*
Chris Stapleton – background vocals on "Hurt Somebody"
*
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, mandolin
*
Ilya Toshinsky
Bering Strait was a Russian country music band, whose style was sometimes called "redgrass". In 2003, the band was nominated for a Grammy Award and appeared on the TV show ''60 Minutes''. The group disbanded in 2006. The lineup on their first alb ...
– banjo, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandolin
*Ryan Tyndell – electric guitar, keyboards, mandolin, percussion, 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 ...
– electric guitar, keyboards, mandolin, percussion, background vocals
*Craig Wright – drums, percussion
*
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
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Singles
Certifications
References
{{Authority control
2014 albums
Capitol Records albums
Dierks Bentley albums
Albums produced by Ross Copperman