Those in the know classify Dierks Bentley’s 2010 bluegrass detour, Up on the Ridge, as his best all-around album. During Wednesday night’s 2024 CMA Awards, the country singer scratched that string-music itch again, performing a version of Tom Petty’s 1977 anthem “American Girl” as a bluegrass rave-up with a trio of musical aces: Molly Tuttle on guitar, Sierra Hull on mandolin, and Bronwyn Keith-Hynes on fiddle.
Bentley’s rendition of “American Girl” originally appeared on this year’s tribute album to the late leader of the Heartbreakers, Petty Country: A Country Music Celebration of Tom Petty.
That a song by a rock artist was selected to wrap up the CMAs shouldn’t come as a surprise. Petty, who died in 2017, is arguably country music’s biggest rock influence; and he and the Heartbreakers incorporated elements of country music into their own songs. “We all grew up in the South and were seeped in the music of Hank Williams and George Jones that we heard on the radio,” Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell told RS earlier this year. “We all loved the Flying Burrito Brothers, and the Byrds when they went country [on Sweetheart of the Rodeo]. We listened to a lot of country, and some of it seeped into our consciousness.”
As for Bentley, this isn’t the first time he’s shared the stage with Tuttle, the Grammy-winning singer-guitarist who is helping bring bluegrass into the future. In 2023, they performed Townes Van Zandt’s “White Freight Liner Blues” together at a show in Toronto; Tuttle and her band Golden Highway opened select dates on Bentley’s Gravel & Gold tour.
Charlie Worsham, a regular member of Bentley’s touring band — who was named the CMA’s Musician of the Year tonight — also played on “American Girl” at the CMA Awards. Like Bentley, he’s a fellow disciple of bluegrass and raved about Bentley’s bluegrass bona fides to RS in 2023. “Dierks has a long-held mantra, to mix the kick-ass with the bluegrass,” Worsham said. “Through his long career, he’s made a slew of records that feature mandolin, banjo, Dobro, high-lonesome harmony, fiddle, steel guitar, and chicken-picked Telecasters. He has a deep respect for ‘liner note people,’ and he leans on the expertise of great musicians, great songwriters, and great producers to steer his record-making process.”