COUNTRY
Dierks Bentley
"Long Trip Alone." Capitol. 11 tracks.
Grade: A-

Just three albums into his career, Dierks Bentley is already one of the most consistent male country singers of his generation — and he's getting consistently better, too.

(ENLARGE)
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"Long Trip Alone" is practically a song cycle about life on the road and the things left behind. Among those things, especially for a hard-touring musician like Bentley, is a home life. In the year and a half since his second album, Bentley got married. Even if you didn't know that, it's obvious that the man is in love. As happy as that can make a human being, it sometimes makes a musician a little dull.

Perhaps it's also given him the added power and confidence that make this album glow a little brighter than its fine predecessors. Viva el amor.

— Shane Harrison