Dierks Bentley, the War and Treaty Cover U2’s ‘Pride’ on 2021 ACM Awards

In 2010, Dierks Bentley recorded “Pride (In the Name of Love)” for his bluegrass album Up on the Ridge. Bentley revisited the song on Sunday night’s ACM Awards, teaming up with the War and Treaty to perform U2’s 1984 anthem at Nashville’s epicenter of bluegrass, the Station Inn. “I first came to this bar when I was 19 years old looking for something and I found it in the music here and I found it in the bluegrass community,” Bentley said, before paying tribute to JT Gray, the owner of the club who died in March.

.@DierksBentley & @warandtreaty performing U2's "Pride (In the Name of Love)" from the The Station Inn gave us ALL. THE. FEELS. ❤️ There are still plenty more performances still to come, only on @CBS + @paramountplus! #ACMawards pic.twitter.com/XomiZcgakS

— ACM Awards (@ACMawards) April 19, 2021

The War and Treaty, the husband-and-wife duo of Michael Trotter and Tanya Blount, elevated the performance with their powerful voices, adding gorgeous high harmonies. Larkin Poe, the sibling band of Rebecca and Megan Lovell, on mandolin and Dobro, Brittany Haas on fiddle, and the Punch Brothers’ Paul Kowert on bass also joined Bentley for the rendition.

“It’s an amazing mixture of people, country, bluegrass and soul all coming together,” Bentley told SiriusXM’s the Highway of the performance. “Country music [is] trying to get a little more inclusive and open up the fences a little bit. So it’s exciting for me to be a part of that. It’s an exciting time for country music and I appreciate the ACMs having his kind of vision.”

Bentley released the single “Gone” in October. It’s the first new music from the Nashville star since 2018’s The Mountain. The War and Treaty released their album Hearts Town last fall.