Dierks Bentley is nominated at this year's CMA Awards for Album of the Year for his bluegrass-influenced Up on the Ridge, but he laughingly predicted that Miranda Lambert will win instead.
In an interview with The Boot, the Arizona native said that he's thrilled with the accolades the album has received since its June release. "Every record, I go in there hoping to make a record that is recognized by folks for the songwriting and the production, but this one was special," said Bentley, who won the 2005 CMA Horizon Award. "I knew that when we started working on it. I'm elated, and I just feel real happy for the small group of people who believed in it in the very beginning and encouraged me to make it."
The singer said he used to go to Nashville's famed Station Inn every week and watch the bluegrass performers there, taking it all in. He never expected a contemporary record with those influences to garner a warm reception from radio or the mainstream music media, which focuses more on contemporary pop country. "I went into it with no expectations," Bentley stated. "That's what freed me up to make the kind of record we wanted to make. So, the back side of that to have country radio play the song, see the video on CMT and GAC, and then to be recognized by the CMA for making a record that leans on the bluegrass side of things, there's not a lot of words for it.
"I'm still taking it all in, and the Album of the Year [nomination], I'll be enjoying that right up until the moment they announce Miranda Lambert's name," he added with a laugh.
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