To share his 2018 Mountain High Tour dates, Dierks Bentley and his opening acts re-enacted a mountain high. At least, we think it was acting…

Brothers Osborne and Lanco will join the “Woman, Amen” singer for a 40-date tour that begins in May in Maryland and works across the midwest before wrapping in California. The first tickets will go on sale on Friday.

“I’ve been friends with T.J. and John for a long time and I have loved watching their career explode,” Bentley says of opening act Brothers Osborne. “I’m just getting to know the boys in Lanco but I love their music and the energy they bring to the stage.”

The announcement came via press release and sketch video. During the five-minute-long video the group meet in the woods to learn from a dreadlocked spiritual advisor played by Bentley. After sipping from the same cup they begin to hallucinate before passing out until the next morning. The real Dierks Bentley finds them in pretty rough shape when his tour bus pulls up after daybreak.

Musically, Bentley released “Woman, Amen” earlier this month, announcing that it was the lead single from his upcoming The Mountain album, expected in early 2018. See stops on the 2018 Mountain High Tour below.

Dierks Bentley’s 2018 Mountain High Tour Stops:

Columbia, Md.
Holmdel, N.J.
Philadelphia, Pa.
Cincinnati, Ohio
Clarkston, Mich.
St. Louis, Mo.
Kansas City, Mo.
Pittsburgh, Pa.
Indianapolis, Ind.
Bethel, N.Y.
Darien Center, N.Y.
Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Raleigh, N.C.
Charlotte, N.C.
Alpharetta, Ga.
Salt Lake City, Utah
Virginia Beach, Va.
Bristow, Va.
New York City
Jacksonville, Fla.
West Palm Beach, Fla.
Tampa, Fla.
Austin, Texas
Houston, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Albuquerque, N.M.
Phoenix, Ariz.
Mountain View, Calif.
Sacramento, Calif.
San Diego, Calif.
Los Angeles, Calif.

There’s a reason Dierks Bentley has been sporting a mountain man look recently.

The singer’s ninth studio album, The Mountain, is slated for later this year. The project is a departure for Bentley, although not to the extent of Up on the Ridge, his bluegrass album from 2010.

The album was inspired by Bentley’s performance at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 2017. He returned to Telluride on a songwriter’s retreat with Natalie Hemby, Luke Dick, Ross Copperman, Jon Randall, Jon Nite, and Ashley Gorley, and as he tells NPR, Bentley wrote and recorded most of The Mountain there last year. The end result will have a Western feel to it, he says, although a snippet of the title track falls very much in line with what he’s been working toward on recent albums including Home, Riser and Black.

“What I said to the musicians was, ‘Look around you. Look at the mountains,'” he tells NPR. “‘I can’t verbalize this. Just go for a hike, take the gondola, get some coffee, walk around town, take in the vibe of this location. That’s what I need you to make the record sound like.'”

No specific details about the remaining songs on The Mountain have been revealed, although the 42-year-old indicated he would release the first single in January. The album is the follow-up to the critically acclaimed, gold-certified Black, which featured hits in “Somewhere on a Beach,” “Different for Girls” and “Black.”

Last month Bentley shared two new songs, “Burning Man” and “Living” with fans at a concert in Las Vegas. It was a quiet fall for him on social media until he recently began teasing this new project.

The Mountain is currently available for pre-order via Dierks.com. Fans who pre-order the album will receive a key to The Mountain that will unlock extra tracks, bonus videos, special merchandise and VIP experiences with Bentley on his 2018 tour.