Dierks Bentley, Lainey Wilson Team for Hilarious Hot Country Knights Song


What’s even better than the unexpected return of the Dierks Bentley comedic side project Doug Douglason and Hot Country Knights? How about pairing up with the hottest woman in mainstream country music at the moment, one Lainey Wilson—a.k.a Darla McFarland—for some hilarious hijinks. That’s what we have in the form of the new Hot Country Knights single “Herassmeant,” which is sure to split sides, bust denim seams, and send the prudish Twitter crowd screeching.

Just about perfectly written by Dierks and Lainey with help from Jim Beavers and Luke Dick, not only does the song play off of semi current events, it also finds a muse in Lainey’s notorious “assets” that have been the butt of quite a few jokes in country music over the last few months. And just like the selections from the Hot Country Knights’ debut project The ‘K’ Is Silent from 2020, “Herassmeant” is Country with a capital ‘C.’

“Yeah, seems like everybody is talking about harassment these days and the Knights do not tolerate that stuff,” says Douglason. “You gotta treat your lady right, tell her how you feel about her, respect her, love on her. My old flame Darla McFarland, who most people will remember from Teazers down in Murfreesboro, was itching to sing on this one. She knew she was the inspiration, so how could we say no?  Darla is the best damn country singer of the last three decades, in my opinion.  Everybody better get down to Tower Records before the CDs are sold out.”

And that’s not all. “Herassmeant” is paired up with another song called “MidKnight Rodeo.” It is a pretty darn perfect parody of 90s-era Garth Brooks that explores the beauty of innuendo and metaphor in the lyricism, written by Jim Beavers. The real irony here is that either of these songs would be an improvement from virtually any slot they may steal from a current mainstream country radio single, despite their silliness.

It’s not 100% clear at the moment if the new singles are part of a bigger upcoming Hot Country Knights project, or just something to seed a couple of new songs into the band’s repertoire ahead of appearances this summer. Hot Country Knights also consists of the Dierks backing band, including bass player Trevor Travis, lead guitarist Marty Ray (“Rayro”) Roburn, keytar/fiddle player Terotej (“Terry”) Dvoraczekynski, steel guitarist Barry Van Ricky and percussionist Monte Montgomery.

Once again Dierks Bentley proves that he’s one of the most unique and self-aware artists in mainstream country. Even if his solo output can be hit and miss, whether it’s his bluegrass forays with his band Long Jon, or Hot Country Knights, he carves out space to something different, and it’s often a breath of fresh air in the stuffy mainstream. These two new songs are no different.

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