Dierks Bentley

Well, sort of. He'll use that time to tweak his upcoming album, due to be released in February 2009. And he just announced he and his wife, Cassidy, are expecting their first child this fall.

"I love what I do, but some time off will be good," said Bentley, in a phone interview, during a recent stop in New Mexico.

Bentley headed to Nashville when he was 19 -- just a few years after a friend had introduced him to the music of Hank Williams Jr. He hung up his rock 'n' roll guitar for something a little more country. "As a kid, there's something about Hank Williams Jr. -- that rowdiness, rebellion -- that appeals to the age," said Bentley.

But the kind of country music that was being produced when he arrived in 1994 wasn't exactly what he had in mind, and when the realities of Music City sank in and started to discourage him, he found inspiration in an old music genre, bluegrass, at the famed Station Inn.

"That got me back into older country music. I thought bluegrass was the way I would go," he said. And it got him back on the road to country music when he landed a job at The Nashville Network, where he was able to watch performances from the 1940s to the '80s.

He set a goal of playing the Bluebird Caf? before his 23rd birthday -- which he did with a couple of weeks to spare. He proved what he could do by cutting his own album with a team of sidemen hand-picked from the rocking Jamie Hartford Band and bluegrass icons the Del McCoury Band. Capitol Nashville saw something in the rooted-yet-independent Bentley and offered him a record deal.

Bentley describes his music as "a modern sound" that's a blend of traditional and bluegrass at its core. "It's a sound no one else is doing," said Bentley, whose music and rugged good looks appeal to young audiences, too. He says the favorite part of his job is performing on stage "with a microphone and 2,000 to 4,000 people on an average night."

Bentley is marking his five years of recording with his most recent album, released May 6, titled simply "Greatest Hits."

This fan-driven project gave creative control to his fans who voted on the title, front and back cover art, and chose five live songs for the album. "It was a way to get fans involved and give them a piece of ownership in my success," said Bentley. The first 3,000 fans who voted are listed in the liner notes as executive producers.

"The album is sort of a fan's guide to our songs and our music," he said. The album contains two new songs, "With the Band" and "Sweet & Wild," featuring Sarah Buxton. "I usually write what I record, but when I heard ("Sweet & Wild"), I said it was better than anything we've written," said Bentley, noting it's his favorite song on the album. "It's a sexy love song."

With a touring schedule that's topped 300 dates a year, it's no wonder he's been referred to as "the hardest working man in country music." Bentley gets away from the demands of the road by taking drives in a 1977 Jeep CJ-7 that he hauls with him. It's the one he's seen driving in the video for "Free and Easy (Down the Road I Go)," the first track on the "Greatest Hits" album.

Bentley said he's usually "pretty heavy handed" when it comes to the creative content of his music videos.

In "Long Trip Alone," he had the shaving of his golden curls as part of the video, which starts out with the singer-songwriter in jail in Mexico. "I was tired of having long hair. That was going to happen either way," said Bentley. The producer asked him to wait and make it part of the video.

But for his current release, "Trying to Stop Your Leaving," he had no involvement in the creative process. "I let Trey Fanjoy do her thing," he said. That included having him jump into a freezing cold river. "It was the coldest I've ever been," he said.

When he's in Nashville, he likes to take his boat out on the lake and "just chill. Just hang out and sit and be still. No activity required," said Bentley, who married his high school sweetheart, in 2005, a few months after winning the CMA Horizon Award.

And when he gets the chance, he likes to hit the ice and play a little hockey. "When the Nashville Predators came to town, I thought the sport was so cool. A friend gave me some gear and I fell in love with the sport," said Bentley. "It's a good way to blow off steam and it's so totally different from music."

He holds a charity motorcycle ride in October, in Nashville, for the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. Last year, the event raised $200,000. Besides the ride, the event ends with a concert for "whoever wants to jam. Last year we had James Otto and Big Kenny (of Big and Rich)," said Bentley. He's also featured in an Anheuser Busch "Real Men of Genius" ad as "Mr. Sad Country Song Songwriter."

For now, Bentley said he's content doing what he's doing, though "one day, I hope to make a bluegrass record. I'm pretty happy with what I've got."

You have three opportunities to see Bentley in concert in Maryland.

On May 24, he'll be at the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons, where he said he hopes to feast on hardshell crabs, too.

On May 25, he'll be at the other end of the state in Cumberland for Delfest, featuring the Del McCoury Band, Vince Gill and others.

And on Sept. 20, catch Bentley at The Great Frederick Fair.