Modern Day Drifter

1	Lot of Leavin' Left to Do 4:32
2	Come a Little Closer 4:41
3	Cab of My Truck 3:39
4	Settle for a Slowdown 3:43
5	Domestic, Light and Cold 4:00
6	Good Things Happen 3:45
7	Down on Easy Street 3:30
8	So So Long 3:24
9	Modern Day Drifter 4:10
10	Good Man Like Me 3:07
11	Gonna Get There Someday 4:16
12	[CD-Rom Track]

Barnes & Noble

Dierks Bentley follows up his lauded 2002 debut with an assured sophomore effort that brims with confidence in his vocals and features tougher, edgier music behind him. Bentley could have gone for the soporific mainstream middle ground, but instead he hews close to country's rough-cut school, equal parts Bakersfield and Texas, with nods to the New Traditionalist era here and there, especially in the pulsating hit single "Lot of Leavin' Left to Do" and the rugged road song "Cab of My Truck" (Marty Stuart is a pronounced influence throughout). Guitars sting and twang, echoed by flailing banjo; the fiddle saws furiously on the barnburners; and the rhythm section keeps that big bottom rock-solid. Bentley's originals reveal his eye for the telling detail and a sensitivity to commonplace experiences that resonate over the course of a lifetime. Vocally, he deploys his husky baritone with equal effectiveness on up-tempo rousers and sweet-hearted ballads, the best here being the winsome "Good Things Happen," which isn't hurt by Alison Krauss's velvety harmonies. The Del McCoury Band comes aboard too, for a loosey-goosey, shambling bluegrass take on Del's ironic, bittersweet breakup tune "Good Man like Me." Closing on a high note, Bentley offers a poignant reading of "Gonna Get There Someday," an eloquent lyric about loving, leaving, and staying true to a dream. He knows whereof he sings. David McGee

All Music Guide

There's little question that Dierks Bentley has good taste, as well as a burning desire to be part of the tradition of rough, rugged, and sensitive hard country singers. In particular, he styles himself after Merle and Waylon, two influences that were apparent on his eponymous 2003 debut but come to the forefront on his 2005 follow-up, Modern Day Drifter. Even the title of the record signals Bentley's intention to be a ramblin' man for the 2000s, and the music consciously echoes not just the past, but ramblin' man classics -- the first single, "Lot of Leavin' Left to Do," is styled after Waylon's "This Time" and "Good Man Like Me" deliberately mimics Hank Snow's "I'm Movin' On." This isn't a drag on the record -- if anything slows it down, it's the occasional too-tasteful ballad, as well as such cloying, product placement-filled stabs at contemporary country as "Cab of My Truck" -- because Bentley has a nice, strong country croon and delivers this straight-ahead neo-traditionalist sound pleasantly and earnestly. He doesn't have much flair, though, as either a singer or writer. Instead of being a true ramblin' man and forging his own direction, he follows the path that Merle and Waylon created, never stamping it with much of his own personality. This makes for some good music, of course, but it's a bit of a mixed blessing that Bentley is at his best when he's following the blueprint of his heroes to a T. Next time around, maybe he can draw inspiration from the spirit of his idols and put his own unmistakable personal stamp on his music instead of just crafting his record to sound like something they might have recorded. Stephen Thomas Erlewine