Pictured (l-r): Ross Copperman, Dierks Bentley, Ashley Gorley
Multi-Platinum singer-songwriter Dierks Bentley celebrated his 16th career #1 as an artist and 13th #1 as a songwriter behind “Black” with industry friends and media alike, as they were treated to a chic party by performing rights organizations ASCAP and BMI hosted yesterday (6/22) at Nashville’s new restaurant Hemingway’s Bar & Hideaway. Serving as the third consecutive chart topper off Bentley’s critically acclaimed album BLACK (Capitol Records Nashville), the Gold-certified single and most personal song to date for Bentley was co-written alongside ASCAP songwriter Ashley Gorley, who celebrated his 33rd #1 song, and BMI songwriter Ross Copperman, who celebrated his 16th, and was produced by Copperman along with Arturo Buenahora. Both Copperman and Gorley were named Country Music Songwriter of the Year by their respective PROs in 2016.
”Black” hit the top of the charts exactly one year after the release of Bentley’s “most fully-formed LP of his career” (TIME), and further illustrates Bentley’s depth and diversity as an artist as the smash hit follows the chart-topping Platinum-certified and award winning hits “Somewhere On A Beach” and “Different For Girls.” BLACK serves as one of only two Country albums released since last May that has been certified Gold while simultaneously spawning three certified songs by the RIAA. All three chart toppers released from the multi-nominated Album of the Year record have have seen more than 389 million digital streams.
Also on hand to celebrate the song were label UMG Nashville’s Cindy Mabe and publishers Combustion Music’s Kenley Flynn, Kobalt’s Jesse Willoughby, Rezolant’s Tim Wipperman, Sony/ATV’s Josh Van Valkenburg and Warner/Chappell’s BJ Hill.
About Dierks Bentley
The “king of the breakup song” (Noisey), continues to balance “robust record sales and heavy radio play with acclaim from even those critics who had seemed allergic to Nashville’s output in the past” (Esquire) as all three singles released from his eighth studio album BLACK (Capitol Records Nashville) have now received certifications from the RIAA. “The bluegrass picker, the love song singer and the stadium rocker all packaged together” (Associated Press) has been a Grand Ole Opry member for over a decade and has amassed 16 No. One songs, 13 GRAMMY nominations and countless nominations from CMA, ACM, People Choice and Billboard Music Awards. More than half a million fans have already flooded sold-out arenas and amphitheaters in 2017 across North America to witness the “wildly entertaining affair” (Tampa Bay Times) that is Bentley’s 2017 WHAT THE HELL WORLD TOUR. Special guests Cole Swindell and Jon Pardi round out the full-throttle summer party as Bentley continues “forging ahead into new terrain,” (Hartford Courant). For more information and a full list of tour dates, visit www.dierks.com. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) is a professional membership organization of songwriters, composers and music publishers of every kind of music. ASCAP’s mission is to license and promote the music of its members and foreign affiliates, obtain fair compensation for the public performance of their works and to distribute the royalties that it collects based upon those performances. ASCAP members write the world’s best-loved music and ASCAP has pioneered the efficient licensing of that music to hundreds of thousands of enterprises who use it to add value to their business – from bars, restaurants and retail, to radio, TV and cable, to Internet, mobile services and more. The ASCAP license offers an efficient solution for businesses to legally perform ASCAP music while respecting the right of songwriters and composers to be paid fairly. With over 600,000 members representing more than 10 million copyrighted works, ASCAP is the worldwide leader in performance royalties, service and advocacy for songwriters and composers, and the only American performing rights organization (PRO) owned and governed by its writer and publisher members. Learn more and stay in touch at
www.ascap.com, on Twitter
@ASCAP and on
Facebook.
