The Mountain

On the surface, this feel-good full-length is a tribute to Colorado’s crisp mountain air: It was written and recorded in Telluride, where a team of Nashville songwriters took up in a sprawling, ranch-style studio. But these songs are more about reaching inward than gazing out. Inspired by fans he met on the road who shared stories of hope and grit, Bentley casts scaling mountains as a metaphor for persevering, bidding us to explore the great outdoors (“Son of the Sun”), find ourselves (“Burning Man"), and keep on climbing no matter what (“You Can’t Bring Me Down”). “Only a mountain,” he sings on the uplifting title track. “It ain’t hard if you don’t stop.”