Dierks Bentley Eyes Late Summer or Early Fall for 2011 Album Release

Dierks Bentley has a new album in the works, and his latest update is that it "probably won't come out until late summer, early fall," according to an interview with Soundspike. He recorded the majority of the new songs in an impressive five days, but explains there's "still lots to do. We did the majority of the tracking. We just need to add a fiddle here and there, change some things up here and there. There are a lot of little tweaks that need to be done to make it just right."

Bentley says he wrote "50 to 60 songs and with some of the best songwriters in town" for this upcoming project, but the hard task was deciding which would make the album. "I tried to narrow those down," says Bentley, "and also listened to about 2,000 songs personally, and tried to whittle it all down to the top 20, 25 and take those in there and put out the top 11 or 12."

As for the album's title, the 'Am I The Only One' singer admits, "I don't have a name for it yet. I'm still working on it. I'm still trying to figure it all out." While he recorded most of the tunes in February, he says, "Now that we're on the road, I'm going back and forth here and there trying to do the overdubs and fix it up a little bit."

The country star says he gets inspired to write songs when coming off the road from touring. "Then you're always thinking of a song title or an idea," he says.  "I go into that mode." As for how much time he spent writing tunes for the project, Bentley adds, "A lot. About a hundred days' worth of writing."

Bentley is currently out (and getting pranked) on his Jagermeister Tour, with his next stops being in Akron, Ohio on May 5 and Detroit, Mich. on May 6.

Listen to Dierks Bentley's 'Am I the Only One'