Dierks Bentley recently announced that his ninth studio album, The Mountain, will be released early this year. In addition to holding a video chat with fans where he answered their questions about the project, he also released a sampler of the album's title track.

A nearly 90-second snippet showcases Bentley's familiar yearning vocals as he sings about climbing that metaphorical mountain in life. "Well I bet my soul on a six string gamble / And I climbed like hell through the brush and the bramble / Even though I had my doubts, told myself don't look down / And I turned that hill into a pile of grapple / It was only a mountain," "The Mountain" lyrics go.

With a gritty and distinct bluegrass sound thanks to electric and acoustic guitars, "The Mountain" is just a hint of what's to come on the singer's forthcoming album.  "Every album has been a snapshot of where I am," he says. "[This time], I was looking for something different [and] open for whatever it was going to be. This summer, I spent a lot of time out West and focusing on the movie The Brave. Being at the bluegrass festival Telluride gave me the very small, small seed of what the album could be."

He further describes The Mountain album as a blend of the sounds from his previous bluegrass album, Up on the Ridge, and his 2016 release, Black, which can be heard throughout "The Mountain." While he wants to fill the space on The Mountain with big sounds, he wants to accomplish this in a way that also highlights the acoustic instruments. "My musical brain is so country and bluegrass oriented," he says.

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