current single: “AMERICAN GIRL” (from Petty Country tribute album)

Dierks Bentley’s latest single is his version of Tom Petty’s classic, “American Girl” from Petty Country: A Country Music Celebration of Tom Petty. When Dierks decided to tackle the song for the project, he decided to reimagine it as a bluegrass song, which he admits seemed a little daunting at first, but it was a challenge he was glad he took on.

Dierks Bentley – bluegrass American Girl :32

“It’s always a big challenge. Reimagine a song that really doesn’t need to be reimagined. You know, it’s like your favorite movie that someone’s gone and redone again. You’re like, why? The original was so good. But we wanted to do it anyway. So, we knew going into it, we wanted to keep the core essence of what the song is, that energy, the vocals kind of on that knife’s edge that’s just got this angst behind it. I feel like our track is something you could listen to, and you’ll go, oh, that’s definitely Dierks’s version of Petty. They didn’t lose the original.  You know, it’s like the national anthem. You want to stay pretty close to original, but you got to give your own little flair. And I feel like we did in this one. It really turned out great. I was so excited when I walked out of the studio.”