Dustin Bentall & Kendel Carson

Event information

Dustin Bentall hails from Vancouver, BC and it seems an unlikely place to nurture such a rustic troubadour. It seemed like an unlikely country for Rick Danko, Robbie Robertson, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel or Neil Young to be from... until people took a closer look. Up here you'll find as deep a frontier spirit and hard luck charm as any nation. You'll find a reverence for the tales of everyday life and loss and you'll find a lot of people who have time to woodshed and learn their craft. Spinning songs by Neil Young, The Band, Bob Dylan, John Prine, Tom T. Hall, The Beatles, Wilco and Steve Earle, Dustin found the heart of that music and placed it under his own landscapes.
One of the last songs Kendel Carson prepped for her extraordinary new album, Alright Dynamite, was a cover. It came about when the 24-year old Canadian singer/musician (and fiddler extraordinaire) was in a bar one night with Chip Taylor, the legendary songwriter ("Angel of the Morning," "Wild Thing") and her trusted collaborator.
Suddenly, Janis Joplin's "Mercedes Benz" belted out of the jukebox. "Neither of us had heard it in so long. It kicks so much ass!" says Carson. "The original isn't even really in tune, but it just has something else to do it...there's that attitude, that magic." She laughs. "So, for the album, we did this rippin' fiddle take on it. And I have a bit of a running theme about cars and trucks, so the song suits me just fine."
Trucks? Fiddles? If that sounds familiar, you may remember Carson from her single, "I Like Trucks," which came out in 2007 (on Rearview Mirror Tears) and garnered the singer a huge audience on both sides of the Atlantic. The song, a playful slice of country/roots music, served as a nice introduction to the singer, who was already a much sought-after studio/live performer in her homeland before the song hit.