Dierks Bentley, Kentucky Thunder, and Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder

Dierks Bentley, the Arizona born heartthrob has been appearing consistently on the US country chart since the release of his self-titled debut in 2003. Having achieved huge commerciality in the States and a handful of number ones on the country charts he has amassed a huge following and plays arenas globally.

Despite entertaining thousands, Bentley and his high quality live band make the whole show feel very organic and natural, less bravado and more musicianship. Dierks is a charismatic frontman who swaggers around the stage with guitar in hand working his crowd into huge excitement before playing mega-hits such as 'Sideways'.

His band have a great rapport and really jam out during a country-fied version of Bon Jovi's 'Living On A Prayer' which keeps the audience singing at the top of their voices. Rounding the show off with a selection of his biggest hits such as 'Come A Little Closer' and 'I Hold On' keeps the crowd cheering until the final reverberated guitar note had faded away. Returning for an encore, the whole crowd erupts in cheers as Bentley cheekily runs back onstage and rips into a couple more of his guitar heavy country hits before taking his final bow and thanking his fans.

I saw 14 Grammy winner Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder at the Kent Stage on May 19, 2016. Incredible show. All acoustic bluegrass (natch). Ricky put his band to shame with fever pitch on mandolin, guitar and fiddle, outpicking and outlasting all of them even at twice their ages.

Kentucky Thunder includes six awesome musicians. I wish I knew all of their names, but I remember Jake Workman, the lead guitarist from Salt Lake City. He was phenomenal. The fiddle player from White House, TN was amazing. He was essentially the lead musician because he played the bridge between virtually every verse of every song. Sometimes, Ricky did with mandolin, but Ricky was obviously busy with lead vocals and storytelling. Speaking of vocals, the harmonies were spot-on perfect, as you would expect with Ricky's band.

Mostly Bill Monroe songs, some Flatt & Scruggs, a tip of the cap to Guy Clark (who passed away this week) with one of Guy's songs, but a good variety among the category of bluegrass.

Overall, a very good time.

Ricky Lee Skaggs…bluegrass roots, southern charm and artistic style. The singer, producer and multi-instrumentalist has been making music for much longer than I’ve even been alive, and has received accolade and recognition of the highest honor, and has worked with people across a number of genres. He is well respected as an artist by many of his fans, as well as his peers.
When he takes the stage, he is extremely polite, and most definitely brings the Southern charm wherever he goes. He gets onto stage, mandolin wrapped around him ready for what’s to come, and a giant smile on his face, both of which remain with him until the end of the show. As he plays, you can see how happy it makes him, no matter where he could have been at any given moment. In between songs he is always having a conversation with the audience, not just talking at them. He will always say thank you, and for almost every song he introduced the name of it, as well as a little about the process behind writing it. Whether you like bluegrass or not, watching his live set is a learning experience, both musically and of the human condition.