Dierks Bentley’s Hot Country Knights Revive the Humor in Country

When Dierks Bentley announced that his next album cycle would surround his screw off side project with his road band called Hot Country Knights and that they’d actually signed to UMG Nashville, we really didn’t know what to expect. Heretofore, if Hot Country Knights took the stage, it was to perform 90’s country cover songs from Brooks & Dunn, Travis Tritt and the like. We’re they really gonna release a record around that concept?

Then the debut single “Pick Her Up” came out featuring Travis Tritt, and all of a sudden we had to regard Hot Country Knights as a real thing. Of course, there was still a tongue-in-cheek element to everything. But this was actual country music being sent to country radio, and resulted in Travis Tritt returning to the charts for the first time in 13 years. But now with the second and third teaser songs that Hot Country Knights has introduced ahead of their recently-announced debut album The K Is Silent, an entirely new element has emerged in their music: humor and innuendo.

We all knew Dierks Bentley was getting silly with this whole Hot Country Knights thing, but we had no idea he would be getting funny too. The second song released from the band called “Asphalt” is full of those side-splitting double entendres and sexual undertones that make for a good country comedy song. And despite the slightly adolescent humor and play off the whole “Ramblin’ Man” song trope, you have to regard “Asphalt” as well-written.

Now Hot Country Knights have released a third song called “Moose Knuckle Shuffle” that’s probably even more adolescent and profane. But you can’t but help but root for Dierks to get as dumb and weird as he wants to here. And let’s be real: releasing this type of material into the woke world we live in today—especially coming from someone signed to a major label like Dierks—takes a pretty big moose knuckle. We’re not supposed to laugh at anything these days at the fear of someone being offended. That is what makes Hot Country Knights so timely.

Who needs Wheeler Walker Jr., which was fun while it lasted, but lost a lot of its flavor over time due to being too overt and lewd as opposed to laying the humor between the lines like all the country greats had to do in country music’s stuffy environment. Humor has always been a major element to country music, no different from the twang in the voice, the cut of the fiddle, and steel guitar. But just like those essential ingredients to country music, humor has mostly been lost in modern country. Along with actually sounding country, Hot Country Knights is also helping to return this important element to country too.

It may not result in multiple radio hits or lots of albums sold, but watching Dierks Bentley swing from the rafters and doing what he wants, it makes you wonder what else The K Is Silent will have in store when it’s released May 1st. As can be seen in the track list below, the brother tandem of Brett and Jim Beavers who’ve been big collaborators with Dierks in the past are a big part of Hot Country Knights, as is songwriter Jon Randall.

The K Is Silent Track List:

1. “Hot Country Knights” (Brett Beavers, Jim Beavers, Cassady Feasby, Ben Helson, Dan Hochhalter, Chase McGill, Steve Misamore, Jon Nite, Jon Randall, Tim Sergent, Brett Tyler and Dierks Bentley)
2. “Pick Her Up” (Featuring Travis Tritt) (Dierks Bentley, Brett Beavers and Jim Beavers)3. 3. “Asphalt” (Jim Beavers, Jon Nite and Brett Tyler)
4. “Moose Knuckle Shuffle” (Brett Beavers, Jim Beavers, Buddy Brock, Dan Hochhalter, Chase McGill, Zach Turner and Brett Tyler)
5. “Then It Rained” (Brett Beavers, Jon Nite and Jon Randall)
6. “Wrangler Danger” (Dierks Bentley, Brett Beavers and Jim Beavers)
7. “Mull It Over” (Dierks Bentley, Jim Beavers and Jon Randall)
8. “Kings Of Neon” (Dierks Bentley, Brett Beavers and Chase McGill)
9. “You Make It Hard” (Featuring Terri Clark) (Dierks Bentley, Brett Beaver, Jim Beavers, Mary Hilliard Harrington, Jon Randall and Luke Wooten)
10. “The USA Begins With US” (Dierks Bentley, Brett Beavers and Jim Beavers)

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