Hair today, gone tomorrow. But never forgotten. For proof, we submit the case of the formerly hirsute country throb Dierks Bentley.

As the official record reveals, it's been more than a year since he tempted fan fate by shearing his famously flowing locks, en masse.

How tempting was the move?

"I'm still hearing about it - all the time" he laughs.

But no scissored Samson he.

Fans may mourn the curtailing of his curls, but his musical powers haven't been lessened one lick. (Or should we say lock?)

Indeed, Bentley remains a veritable musical superman, one who has cranked out a whopping 10 Top 10 country singles in four years, with no less than half of that number making it all the way to the No. 1 peak.

Even so, the great 'do debate lengthens, like Rapunzel's voluminous mane.

"Every night at a show someone will come up to me and say, 'I like it better short' or 'I like it better long.' So I keep getting it from both sides of the fence," says Bentley.

For those on the shaggy side of the fence, take heart: "I'm sure it will grow back out again - you get tired of anything after awhile."

Lest anyone forget, Bentley's "Throttle Wide Open Tour," which hits Illinois State University's Braden Auditorium next weekend (7:30 p.m. April 11), will more than make up its namesake's loss in the form of the positively overflowing follicles of opening act Bucky Covington.

The fair-haired "American Idol" alum's waves remain intact, right down to the shoulder.

And they will probably suffice for not only Bentley's loss, but also the relatively trim 'do of second opening act Luke Bryan (who, for the record, is returning for his second B-N concert date in as many months, having opened for Trace Adkins at the U.S. Cellular Coliseum in February).

With all three singers clocking in at around the same age and sharing similar country-rock sympathies, Bentley thinks the configuration makes for a perfect concert fit.

And he should know.

It was Bentley who picked up the phone and invited Covington and Bryan to join the tour.

"Both guys are young and fresh and have a lot of energy," Bentley says. "And they both have songs on the radio. Together, we put on a really lively show."

Emphasis on the lively.

In fact, he adds, matter-of-factly, that if one of his live performances isn't approached as nothing less than a life-or-death situation "then that's when I know it'll be time to quit."

Not that every show is, in fact, literally a life-or-death situation.

But it can come close when the singer's reservoir of adrenalin gets flowing.

"Just give me a Red Bull and a live audience," says the robust Bentley, 33, "and the slate is wiped clean. For me, it's more like playing a hockey game, than doing a show. You can either win the game or lose the game, and I'm always trying to get a win. It isn't a tangible thing that you can see. It's a feeling you strive for in making a connection with the crowd. You want to reach out and grab that thing."

It's also like a hockey game in that Bentley is known for approaching a stage on the same terms of an ice rink, or another space for athletic endeavor.

"I'm always looking for the chance to do something radical on stage," Bentley says. "I like to move around."

Like, say, the time he went sprinting across the stage at the height of radicalisms and ran into an object he didn't see.

He can't remember what the object was, but the result was "a wipeout." He adds: "When that happens, all you can do is get back up and keep going."

In the short history of his fast stardom, the Phoenix native hasn't had to do that too often.

Per his Nov. 20, 1975 birth date, the meat of Bentley's musical tutelage occurred in the thick of the '80s, when his sister's musical tastes (Van Halen, Madonna, Billy Idol, etc.) vied with the country sounds coming out of his dad's favorite radio station while tooling around Phoenix in the family vehicle.

In school, Bentley tooted a saxophone, eventually segueing to guitars and power chords, the pastime of many a testosterone-infused male adolescent.

Then, an epiphany: at the age of 17, young Dierks had a close encounter with Hank Williams Jr.'s raucous anthem, "Man to Man," and suddenly the floodgates were opened.

"The testosterone on that track, the rebelliousness of his attitude and the authenticity of the music was something that immediately resonated with me," says Bentley, adding that "it still does,"

Within two years, he was a 19-year-old Phoenix expatriate living in Nashville, plugging away at the club scene by night.

During the day, he made his living at one of the more unusual jobs ever held by a soon-to-be country-star: He worked as an archivist for The Nashville Network (TNN, before it morphed into the hairy beast we now know as Spike TV).

"I knew I needed to get a job in the music business," he says.

So he made good on the commitment and wound up deep in bowels of TNN, overseeing 13,000 VHS tapes imbedded with the audiovisual records of some of the greatest country legends of all time.

"If the producers needed a clip of George Jones singing 'White Lightning' from 1970, I had to find and it put on tape for them," he recalls. "For 10 dollars an hour. And it became a great education."

Bentley moved from country music archivist to country music history-maker in 2003, when he was signed by Capitol Records and recorded his self-titled debut album. Soon, he was the owner of a No. 1 smash single ("What Was I Thinkin'").

There was no turning back now.

And within a short two years (2005), he became the third youngest member on the roster of the Grand Ole Opry (after those snot-nosed upstarts Josh Turner and Carrie Underwood).

By the beginning of his current tour, he'd logged those aforementioned 10 hit singles, half of them hitting No. 1.

As Bentley sees it, he's had the privilege of sampling the best of both worlds over the course of his quick rise to the top.

Courtesy his archival work and Grand Ole Opry induction, "I've been able to become involved with the history or country music," while, courtesy his youthful stardom, "I've also been given the chance to become involved in the formulation of its future."

---

At a glance

What: Dierks Bentley, with special guests Bucky Covington and Luke Bryan

When: 7:30 p.m. April 11

Where: Illinois State University Braden Auditorium

Tickets: $27.50 to $45

Box office number: (309) 438-5444

---

What he was thinkin'

Snapshots from the lyrical inventory of Dierks Bentley, whose former day job archiving country music video/film clips at The Nashville Network clearly paid off:

• "Red sun down, out across the western sky, takes me back to the fire in your eyes." - From "Every Mile a Memory"

• "Hangin' memories on the high line poles, free and easy down the road I go." - From "Free and Easy (Down the Road I Go)"

• "Hey bartender, can I make one special request? My woman left me, so tonight I'll be drinkin' your best. I'm not talkin' about Single Malt, Scotch, Jagermeister, or Cuervo Gold. I'll take anything domestic, light and cold." - From "Domestic, Light and Cold."

• "Becky was a beauty from south Alabama, her daddy had a heart like a nine-pound hammer." - From "What Was I Thinkin'."

• "I bought the golden band she wore, on the hand that closed the door … and I bought the shoes that just walked out on me." - From "I Bought the Shoes."

---

Bentley joined by familiar faces

By Dan Craft | dcraft@pantagraph.com

Lending Dierks Bentley two pairs of helping hands at his Illinois State University concert next week will be a couple of Bentley's youthful contemporaries.

They are: Bucky Covington, he of the flowing blond tresses and "American Idol" heritage; and Luke Bryan, whose appearance may trigger strange sensations of déjà vu in local country fans

And with good reason: He was just here two months ago.

In fact, Bryan seems to be emulating the singer he opened for Feb. 8 at the U.S. Cellular Coliseum in Bloomington, Trace Adkins.

Adkins went into the local concert record books by becoming the first major star to play the same major venue twice in less than a year's time (Adkins first played the Coliseum in March 2007).

Waiting even less time than Adkins did to come back for seconds, Bryan isn't playing the same venue again, but he is opening for another A-list country star.

Following are thumbnail sketches of both openers:

Bucky Covington

• Birth name: William Joel Covington III ("Bucky," or "Buck," was his grandpa's moniker)

• Birth date: Nov. 8, 1977

• Hometown: Rockingham, N.C.

• Marital status: Divorced; he and first wife Crystal split in February 2007 after seven years of wedlock

• Quirk of fate: He has a look-alike twin brother, Rocky, who is also a country singer

• Turning point: Though he only placed eighth during "American Idol's" fifth season, the exposure led to his first album, "Bucky Covington," which debuted a year ago at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Country Album

• Career prognosis: " … acquits himself ably in the singing department, with an appealing husky edge to his voice. But despite blistering lead guitar that nearly salvages some routine rockers, the songs - full of stock bucolic images and far more nostalgia than you'd expect, or want, from a twentysomething artist - are the weak link overall." - Ken Barnes, USA Today

Luke Bryan

• Birth name: Thomas Luther Bryan ("Luke," because, let's face it, Tom Bryan just doesn't have that Nashville vibe)

• Birth date: A carefully guarded secret, it seems, since a massive Internet search came up empty; estimates place him in the same ballpark age range as Bucky and Dierks (i.e., a child of the late '70s, now in his early 30s)

• Hometown: Leesburg, Ga.

• Marital status: Happily hitched to first wife Caroline

• Quirk of fate: As a songwriter, one of his first sales was to Trace Adkins, with whom he now tours

• Turning point: Co-authored Billy Currington's No. 1 hit "Good Directions," which held the top spot for three weeks a year ago this spring, around the same time Bryan's own first hit, "All My Friends Say," was lurking just below it at No. 5.

• Career prognosis: "Luke Bryan is a country boy who drives a truck, knows how to hot-wire a tractor, remembers fishing with his grandfather and refuses to change. Where have we heard this story before? Oh, yes - everywhere … (but) Bryan sometimes shows enough talent to not let the cliches weigh him down. With luck he'll lose them altogether." - Steve Knopper, The Washington Post