Up On the Ridge

Country hunk Dierks Bentley's sixth album is an excursion into bluegrass, which jettisons his usual power chords and booming choruses in favor of sawing fiddles and coal-miner ballads. His voice is too plain to deliver the pathos in songs like Buddy Miller's "Love Grows Wild." But the record succeeds on high spirits, sterling guest stars (Miranda Lambert, Jamey Johnson) and covers like U2's "Pride (In the Name of Love)" — a choice that might scandalize bluegrass fans, even as they tap their feet.