Dierks Bentley piles on new dates for spring and summer

Country singer Dierks Bentley has announced a huge number of new 2008 dates as he begins to mold his spring and summer tour plans into shape.

The New Jersey-based singer/songwriter/guitarist now counts more than 50 cities on his current itinerary, which kicks off next month with a Feb. 14 show in Gainesville, FL. Bentley's schedule is loaded with shows over the next three months, and then tapers off a bit heading into the busy summer fair and festival circuit. The full itinerary is included below.

The singer continues to support 2006's "Long Trip Alone," his third studio album, which nabbed the Arizona-born, New Jersey-bred singer several Grammy nominations. The record is up for Best Country Album and the title track is vying for Best Male Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Song. Bentley also scored a nod in the "Best Long Form Video" category for his concert DVD, "Live & Loud at the Fillmore," which surfaced in March.

"Long Trip Alone" has spawned a pair of No. 1 singles in "Every Mile a Memory" and "Free and Easy (Down the Road I Go)," as well as a third Top 10 single in the title track. A fourth single, "Trying to Stop Your Leaving," will hit radio airwaves at the end of January. All of the singles are streaming at Bentley's MySpace page.

The singer is scheduled to perform his recent hits, as well as those from his first two platinum-selling albums, on the Jan. 26 episode of PBS-TV's "Austin City Limits."