Ridley Bent is back in the 'Wack Tuesday night in Chilliwack at Bozzini's.
His latest release Wild Card is the followup to Rabbit on My Wheel which showcased the country artist's keen fascination for characters whose life on the straight and narrow rarely took them past the nearest exit to a crooked road.
Ridley Bent continues to write songs of wisdom and intrigue with titles like 'Fill Yer Boots' about a truck-driving card player, and 'Crooked and Loaded' about a shootout with a posse of outlaws.
Bent, a 2009 CCMA nominee and multiple BCCMA winner, has kept his storytelling chops sharp.
Although the tales are still as tall as they come, and the characters as large as life or larger, the cast of hard-drinking, fast-driving characters the singer unleashes on Wild Card tend to be a shade less hell-bent on self-destruction than they are with keeping their lives between the lines and out of the ditch.
Channeling the high-energy performance ethic of artists like Dwight Yoakum and Little Feat, Bent and the band get things going with tracks like 'Brooklyn Texas.'
While much of his new material is drawn from real life experiences on the road, Wild Card still has its share of shady characters, jackknifing tractor-trailers and whiskey-fuelled bar fights. And for those who identify strongly with Bent's less reasonable characters - the ones who tend to prefer to stir things up with a pistol in one hand and a bottle in the other - there's The Blood Trilogy. A companion EP recorded during the same sessions and co-written with Dunn - a highly satisfying three-song western epic of violence and vengeance informed by his ongoing fascination with the bleak worlds of writers like John Steinbeck and Cormac McCarthy.
Ridley Bent, Tuesday March 4, Doors 6 p.m., show at 8 p.m., tickets $20 at Bozzini's or call 604-792-0744 to reserve by phone.