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Dierks Bentley (feat. Stephen Wilson Jr.) - ‘Cold Beer Can’
Release Date: March 14, 2025
Songwriters: Dierks Bentley, Stephen Wilson Jr., Luke Dick and Jon Randall
The Background:
With the promise of a new album on the horizon, Dierks Bentley has been steadily inundating fans with a number of fresh tunes. First up was 'She Hates Me', a blistering bop that found the hitmaker laughably unlucky in love. Today, we've been gifted 'Cold Beer Can', a song that finds him trading that humor for wisdom.
Bentley is in good company on the sage track, having been joined by co-writer and fellow country star Stephen Wilson Jr. On 'Cold Beer Can', the pair deliver a bewitching track that is sure to leave listeners fully satiated rather than simply buzzed.
The Sound:
Born from the steady thud of rhythm and steel, 'Cold Beer Can' unfolds like a distant storm, rumbling awake and bellowing ominously throughout. The tune quakes, moved by faraway drums and the moan of silvery strings, for many of the verses.
With the chorus, however, it erupts into a gale force opus of deep kick drums and biting electronics before dying back into its nascent form again. Despite the blustery show it puts on, 'Cold Beer Can' offers a message of hope and camaraderie to all.
The Meaning:
Shade tree mechanic
More than just a neighbor
Keystones on me
If you change my alternator
Old conversations
Start right up again
Nothing gets you runnin’ like a cold beer can
In 'Cold Beer Can', there are few things a beer can't fix. Need your car repaired by a friendly neighbor? Beer. Need to break the ice with a woman at the bar? Beer.
The song, however, offers so much more than the well-brewed buzz you find at the bottom of a tall boy. Instead, a nice cold beer – or twelve – means harmony. The passing of a pint can unite people, bring everyone together for a problem that needs solving or just some good ole conversation.
As Bentley and Wilson sing in the chorus, "A cold beer can / Go further than a dollar / 12-pack peace pipe for the blue collar / Worth more than a silver / When it changes hands / Money can’t buy what a cold beer can."
We hadn’t talked forever
Since we had that fight
Momma said come over and try to make things right
I set a Coleman down
‘Tween me and my old man
Words can’t say what a cold beer can
Beer can't solve everything, but according to the song, it provides a great solution for un-ruffling feathers, resolving arguments and easing tensions. In the tune, money can't buy and words can't say the kind of comfort and community a beer can bring to all who gather 'round to crack open a cold one.
In the end, it's "Worth more than a silver / When it changes hands / No, money can’t buy what a cold beer can."
What have Dierks Bentley and Stephen Wilson Jr. said about ‘Cold Beer Can'?
Until recently, Bentley and Wilson have been relatively tight-lipped about this collaboration.
In a statement, Bentley shared a little bit about how the duet came to be, explaining, "I was a really big fan of Stephen’s and asked him to jump in on some writes with me, and we ended up writing two songs that both made the new record."
'Cold Beer Can' turned out to be among the most special. "What I love about this song," Bentley shared, "is that the title and idea seem like such familiar territory for country music, but when you actually dig into the lyrics of the song, it’s much more meaningful. I asked [Wilson] to come in and lay down some acoustic guitar parts once we got in the studio, and he crushed it.”
Of the song's meaning, Wilson chimed in, offering, "There are some things that money just can’t buy. People crave an experience. Sometimes bartering is required. A fermented meeting ground perhaps. A cold beer can be a simple and affordable catalyst in the chemical and emotional reactions of this human life. Humans are looking for something to carry us on or bring us together.”
For the full lyrics to Dierks Bentley and Stephen Wilson Jr.'s ‘Cold Beer Can', see below:
Shade tree mechanic
More than just a neighbor
Keystones on me
If you change my alternator
Old conversations
Start right up again
Nothing gets you runnin’ like a cold beer can
I saw her in the corner
Had so much to say
Something bout her took my words and all my breath away
When you gotta tall boy
You don’t needa plan
Nothing breaks the ice like a cold beer can
A cold beer can
Go further than a dollar
12-pack peace pipe for the blue collar
Worth more than a silver
When it changes hands
Money can’t buy what a cold beer can
We hadn’t talked forever
Since we had that fight
Momma said come over and try to make things right
I set a Coleman down
‘Tween me and my old man
Words can’t say what a cold beer can
A cold beer can
Go further than a dollar
12-pack peace pipe for the blue collar
Worth more than a silver
When it changes hands
Money can’t buy what a cold beer can
Worth more than a silver
When it changes hands
No money can’t buy what a cold beer can
No money can’t buy what a cold beer can
--
For more on Dierks Bentley, see below:
