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Country Music

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Schauermann said:
Enjoyed Jake Vaadeland tonight. He is getting some credit, show was sold out. Which was a bit annoying, hard to keep up the booze level at he bar and see the artist at the same time. But on the other hand a good thing obviously.
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Anyone coming from a place called Cut Knife would have a lot going for them. Like his sound 👍🏼
 
Professor Knowall said:
Just a few months on from his son’s untimely death, in a fog of heartbreak after losing Justin
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I was so sad, actually I was super pissed and disappointed when Justin Townes Earle, died of his fentanyl-laced cocaine addiction.

He had an unbelievable grasp on the musical blend of music that encapsulated that mix: of country, soul, blues and how he captured Appalachian music to its core.

For the record I though Justin was extremely talented, I happen to be very fond of these songs of his:

Harlem River Blues
Look The Other Way
Halfway to Jackson
(Cant believe he was only 15 when he wrote Halfway To Jackson - check out the lyrics, man a 15 year old should not be able to or be put in a situation whereby they can craft ( through experience ), such pros, from real life experience at only 15.

And my favourite.

Maybe a Moment

I though he was trending in a high trajectory and believed that it was only a matter of time that he himself had a "Copperhead Road' song that he was to write and share with us all.

Sadly he never came back from that dangerous rabbit hole that his father often visited, and somehow managed to escape with life still intact, Justin was not so lucky.

I got and still am a very angry, that I never got to hear the best of his musical talent, as DRUGS, claimed another life way too soon.
 

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Monocle said:
I was so sad, actually I was super pissed and disappointed when Justin Townes Earle, died of his fentanyl-laced cocaine addiction.

He had an unbelievable grasp on the musical blend of music that encapsulated that mix: of country, soul, blues and how he captured Appalachian music to its core.

For the record I though Justin was extremely talented, I happen to be very fond of these songs of his:

Harlem River Blues
Look The Other Way
Halfway to Jackson
(Cant believe he was only 15 when he wrote Halfway To Jackson - check out the lyrics, man a 15 year old should not be able to or be put in a situation whereby they can craft ( through experience ), such pros, from real life experience at only 15.

And my favourite.

Maybe a Moment

I though he was trending in a high trajectory and believed that it was only a matter of time that he himself had a "Copperhead Road' song that he was to write and share with us all.

Sadly he never came back from that dangerous rabbit hole that his father often visited, and somehow managed to escape with life still intact, Justin was not so lucky.

I got and still am a very angry, that I never got to hear the best of his musical talent, as DRUGS, claimed another life way too soon.
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There’s an old interview of him talking about drugs and it’s chilling now cause he talks about how drugs now unlike when he was in his 20’s are being cut with shit like fent and how he feels sorry for kids etc.
 
Monocle said:
I was so sad, actually I was super pissed and disappointed when Justin Townes Earle, died of his fentanyl-laced cocaine addiction.

He had an unbelievable grasp on the musical blend of music that encapsulated that mix: of country, soul, blues and how he captured Appalachian music to its core.

For the record I though Justin was extremely talented, I happen to be very fond of these songs of his:

Harlem River Blues
Look The Other Way
Halfway to Jackson
(Cant believe he was only 15 when he wrote Halfway To Jackson - check out the lyrics, man a 15 year old should not be able to or be put in a situation whereby they can craft ( through experience ), such pros, from real life experience at only 15.

And my favourite.

Maybe a Moment

I though he was trending in a high trajectory and believed that it was only a matter of time that he himself had a "Copperhead Road' song that he was to write and share with us all.

Sadly he never came back from that dangerous rabbit hole that his father often visited, and somehow managed to escape with life still intact, Justin was not so lucky.

I got and still am a very angry, that I never got to hear the best of his musical talent, as DRUGS, claimed another life way too soon.
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Absolutely - his passing was such a waste and a great loss to music. He seemed to have inherited both the best of Steve Earle's and Townes Van Zandt's abilities and sensibilities - but also their vices.

In the Steve Earle history bit, I actually, in a stream of consciousness sort of way that I often zone into, wrote up quite a bit on Justin, only to cut it in the end for being off the primary topic and too long. Here's one segment from a 2011 interview, when he was living in NYC, that underscores your point - "He had an unbelievable grasp on the musical blend of music that encapsulated that mix: of country, soul, blues and how he captured Appalachian music to its core." -
"... Justin classifies his genre as Southern American rather than Americana or, God forbid, alt-country - “It’s either country or it ain’t,” he once told an interviewer). “What I always attempt to do on my records is to cover the South because we own all popular forms of music. They’re all inherently ours, because we created them all. (Okay, hip-hop, New York’s got that.) But we’ve got string music from the hills of North Carolina and Virginia and eastern Tennessee that moves over to bluegrass in Kentucky, country music in Nashville, blues in the Delta and all over the South, jazz in New Orleans, and like Levon Helm said in The Last Waltz, this all slides to Memphis and becomes rock ’n’ roll. So they’re all ours. It’s just all about my roots.”
 
Not a country album but Johnny Blue Skies(Sturgill Simpson) leaked his up coming album to yt before mp3 versions were leaked online (won’t be released into streaming playforms). Despite it not being a country album it’s still some of Sturgills best work.

 
Monocle said:
I was so sad, actually I was super pissed and disappointed when Justin Townes Earle, died of his fentanyl-laced cocaine addiction.

He had an unbelievable grasp on the musical blend of music that encapsulated that mix: of country, soul, blues and how he captured Appalachian music to its core.

For the record I though Justin was extremely talented, I happen to be very fond of these songs of his:

Harlem River Blues
Look The Other Way
Halfway to Jackson
(Cant believe he was only 15 when he wrote Halfway To Jackson - check out the lyrics, man a 15 year old should not be able to or be put in a situation whereby they can craft ( through experience ), such pros, from real life experience at only 15.

And my favourite.

Maybe a Moment

I though he was trending in a high trajectory and believed that it was only a matter of time that he himself had a "Copperhead Road' song that he was to write and share with us all.

Sadly he never came back from that dangerous rabbit hole that his father often visited, and somehow managed to escape with life still intact, Justin was not so lucky.

I got and still am a very angry, that I never got to hear the best of his musical talent, as DRUGS, claimed another life way too soon.
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I saw JTE a few years prior to his death at at a hall in Fremantle. Maybe Victoria Hall? He was incredible. Beautiful renditions of every song. He was warm, affable, guitar playing was magnificent, voice was beautiful.

I saw him at Mojos less then a year before his death. He was the same nice guy, but he was clearly suffering. He struggled to keep time with his guitar work and his singing. He was slurring. It was incredibly sad.
 
I'm back with another country great to add to the history series. Along with one other we've just seen in Steve Earle (posts # 1,242-1,248), today's artist both burst into stardom with their respective 1986 debut albums, which put the country world on notice. His "Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc, Etc" and Earle’s "Guitar Town" were the two best - well, my two favourite -country albums that came from the 1980s’ latter half.

With his stripped-down approach to traditional honky tonk and Bakersfield country, Dwight Yoakam helped return country music to its roots in the latter '80s. Like his idols Hank Williams (# 205-219), Buck Owens (#456-463) and Merle Haggard (# 497-502), he never played by Nashville’s roots - consequently, as an outsider to Nashville, he never dominated the charts like his contemporary Randy Travis. Then again, Travis never played around with the sound and style of country music like Yoakam. On each of his records, while respecting all of country's traditions, he twisted around the retro form enough to make it seem contemporary. Appropriately, his core audience was composed mainly of roots rockabilly and rock fans, not the mainstream country audience - apart from a newer younger audience he attracted. So he still frequently was able to chart in the country Top 10 and he remained one of the most respected and adventurous charting country artists well into the ’90s and even beyond.

Born in the rural Appalachian heartland of Eastern Kentucky in 1956, Dwight Yoakam was the oldest of 3 children. Soon after he and his family moved to Columbus, Ohio, where he was raised through his childhood and teen years. His father worked several odd jobs, including factory work at Westinghouse, before becoming a petrol station owner. As a child, he was greatly influenced by the music his parents listened to on country music radio stations, as well as the songs the family sang to each other during their very frequent road trips back to their Kentucky Appalachian holler where Dwight's grandparents still lived. Despite growing up in the big(ish) northern city of Columbus, Ohio, Yoakam always identified with his Kentucky Appalachian birthplace - in much the same way as John Prine (# 685-691) also identified with his southern Kentucky family heritage, despite being born and raised in Chicago.

Young Dwight also listened to his mother’s record collection, honing in on the traditional country of Hank Williams and Johnny Cash, the rockabilly of Johnny Horton as well as the Bakersfield honky tonk of Buck Owens. A black-and-white family snapshot shows the toddler Dwight barely holding on to a guitar taller than he is. He pulled the guitar around after him everywhere until one day he fell on it and broke it. When Dwight turned 9, they didn’t have the money to buy him another guitar, but he begged so hard that his dad hocked a shotgun for one. He then taught himself to play it and also wrote his first songs.

With his mother’s encouragement, Dwight joined his high school’s band as a drummer. He also joined drama class, where his natural talent and stage presence soon led him to play the lead roles in productions such as Flowers for Algernon. In his senior high school year, Yoakam and some classmates formed a rock and roll band to compete in the school's talent show, named Dwight and the Greasers,with Dwight as the lead singer and lead guitarist. The band won the talent show and went on to play in school assemblies, becoming locally well known enough to also perform at private parties and local dances.

Dwight's passion for theatre informed their gigs - he wore a custom-made gold-sequinned suit with a big hot-pink satin heart with a hidden pleat appliquéd on the back. He also added extra theatrics - ending each show with a sizzling rendition of 'Heartbreak Hotel', he’d turn his back to the audience and as he murmured into the mic - “I get so lonely, baby / I get so lonely / I get so lonely I could die”; he’d hunch his shoulders and that pink heart would dramatically split right in two - “... I knew when I saw Elvis that I was going to be a performer. I have always had this need to be the guy with the guitar, poised on the edge, waiting for it to happen. Every kid goes through that need to imitate a rock & roll star. Then they move on to something else. But that need never left me...”.

Yoakam went on to play with a variety of bands in Columbus, playing everything from country, pop to rock & roll. After completing high school in 1974, he briefly attended Ohio State University but dropped out from college and moved to Nashville in 1977 with the intent of becoming a recording artist. But at the time he moved to Nashville, the town, as we have seen in the history series (# 908-909) was in the throes of the pop-oriented urban cowboy movement and had no interest in Yoakam's updated honky tonk - just like George Strait and Randy Travis, he was told he was too country for Nashville! Still, he stuck around in Music City for 4 years, just one of the hundreds of musicians playing in the clubs and bars hoping for a break - but his insistence on sticking to hard-core country and honky tonk ensured that break never came in Nashville.

Finally, after 4 years of fruitless perseverance, Yoakam had had enough of Nashville and at the urging of a former member of his high school Greaser Band, Billy Alves, he moved out to LA, where he eventually found a more appreciative audience.
Yoakam's break came in 1982, when he met Pete Anderson in a bar, as Anderson recalled - "A mutual friend, a steel-guitar player, introduced us and one day, Dwight sat in at a club I was playing. I said, 'What do you want to play?' and he says, 'Do you know 'The Fugitive' by Merle Haggard?' Well, hell yeah, I'd only been playing it for 10 years. So I start and he jumps right in - "Down every road, there's always one more city" ... He was like, "Boink. Do it". A lot of times you see a young singer sit in and just shake. But he was already very mature on stage and he was really going for it, so I could go for it. He wasn't intimidated one bit.”

It was the beginning of a relationship that has been called country music's Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. They formed The Babylonian Cowboys (Babylon a nickname for Hollywood) and soon became a fixture at the legendary North Hollywood honky tonk, The Palomino (more on this famous venue to come later), tapping into a vibrant L.A. club scene in which a brand of music known as "cowpunk" was gaining popularity with bands like Rank and File, Joe Ely and Lone Justice - “Cowpunk was just a cool word to throw around to get our foot in the door. Our sound was a meld of Yoakam's bluegrass roots with my blues foundation. Our common ground was Buck (Owen's), Merle, Hank and Lefty - the real shiit And we fed off each other."

In LA, Yoakam didn’t just play in the few country or cowpunk clubs there, but played the same nightclubs that punk and post-punk rock bands like X, the Dead Kennedys, Los Lobos, the Blasters, and the Butthole Surfers did. What Yoakam had in common with rock bands like X and the Blasters, was similar musical influences - they all drew from 1950's rockabilly and hard core honky tonk and country. In comparison to the polished pop-country music coming out of Nashville at that time, Yoakam’s stripped-down, direct revivalism seemed radical.

It took a few years of fronting groups like Kentucky Bourbon, but eventually LA audiences embraced Yoakam’s retro hardcore country, electrified bluegrass and deep rural groove. The cowpunks that attended Yoakam’s shows provided an invaluable support for his fledgling career - enough so that he recorded 10 demos in 1981 over the course of 6 months. He took this demo back to Nashville, trying to interest the labels there, but, not surprisingly at that time, but much to Yoakam's disgust, none bit.

Things finally started happening. By 1984, Yoakam had written a large number of songs. Staking his own money on future success, he scraped up $5,000 to finance a 6 song EP which he titled "Guitars, Cadillacs Etc Etc". It included 5 self-penned songs and one cover - 'Ring Of Fire'. Only a few thousand were pressed on the tiny Oak label in late 1984, but they received substantial airplay on LA college and independent radio stations, creating enough of a stir to get Warner Brothers interested. Later in 1985, Yoakam was the opening act for The Blasters, which led to him being "discovered" by Reprise Records (a branch of Warner Bros) executive Paige Levy, who helped him sign with the label in 1986.

Reprise re-issued "Guitars, Cadillacs Etc Etc" in 1986 with 4 more tracks, thus making it Yoakams full-length debut album. Instead of re-recording those half dozen earlier tracks, Yoakam felt strongly enough in them to demand they be released as-is. He tacked on the 4 new songs, colourised the cover photo and the 10 tune album - 7 of which were written by Yoakam - hit the streets and was an instant sensation. Rock and country critics alike praised it and it earned airplay on college stations not just in California but across the U.S. More importantly, it then hit the country charts, as its first single, a cover of Johnny Horton’s 'Honky Tonk Man' climbed to # 3.

The release of "Guitars, Cadillacs…" further helped shake the country world out of its Urban Cowboy doldrums. It introduced the world to an artist who, at age 29 and having developed his sound over a dozen years of live performances, was ready to do traditionalism his own way. Yoakam's debut album topped the album chart in 1986 and would eventually go platinum and, in time, double platinum.

"I was very influenced by Johnny Horton. My mom happened to be in the Columbia Record Club and she had a Johnny Horton’s Greatest Hits album that I played over and over." There was nothing subtle about Yoakam’s opening introduction to country radio. The leadoff cover of Johnny Horton’s ‘Honky Tonk Man’, featuring the opening lines of “I’m a honky-tonk man / and I can’t seem to stop / I love to give the girls a whirl to the music of an old jukebox ...” wasn't penned with Yoakam in mind, but it effectively consolidated his rugged, sexy persona in a few sentences and tacked it onto a hooky chorus. Many covers are almost too loyal to the originals for their own good, but Yoakam had the ability and distinct sound to always makes a cover sound like a Dwight Yoakam song and does so while also somehow remaining true to the original’s roots.

Horton’s original is classic (# 296) but doesn’t have that certain cool swagger that Yoakam gives it. Other artists would cover the song through the years, but it was Yoakam who brought the song to a wider influence with a cutting-edge sound, taking it to # 3 in the U.S. and all the way to # 1 in Canada - remarkable for a debut single, signifing the beginning of a sound that nobody had heard the likeness of in many years -
",,, It takes a purdy little gal and a jug of wine / That's what it takes to make a honky tonk mind /
With the jukebox a moanin' a honky tonk sound / That's when I wanna lay my money down / ..." -

The video for 'Honky Tonk Man' was the very first country music clip shown on MTV. Yoakam, with his interest in theatre dating back to high school, was also a country music pioneer in music videos. Right from the start, unlike nearly all of his country music contemporaries such as George Strait, who did them reluctantly, quickly and poorly, Yoakam took the time to make watchable, entertaining, quality videos. The second country music clip on MTV was Yoakham's second single.

The title track from his 1984 debut EP on Oak Records was the first stone-cold self-penned Dwight classic - retro and modern at once. It was this song more than any other that got Yoakam signed to a major label and showed LA’s punk community a vision of a different future when he started showing up on live bills with X and The Blasters. The title track from Yoakam's debut peaked at # 4 in the U.S. and # 2 in Canada on the strength of its vintage sounds - fiddle, honky-tonk guitar, strolling rhythms - and classic nostalgic sentiments.

'Guitar and Cadillacs' has all the ingredients of a classic country song - a thumping bass, twangy guitars and a honky-tonk bravado that was straight out of the George Jones/Johnny Cash playbook.Nursing a broken heart, the song's protagonist finds solace in the titular pastimes while lamenting his fate with his lovelorn twang. But another deeper interpretation is Yoakam himself, still a struggling artist when he wrote the lyrics, feeling a sense of alienation living in LA -
"... There ain't no glamour in this tinselled land of lost and wasted lives / And painful scars are all that's left of me / Oh, but thank you, girl, for teaching me brand-new ways to be cruel / If I can find my mind now, I guess I'll just leave..." -

Another part of the song’s success was the ultra hip video directed by the late Sherman Halsey.

Yoakam's 3rd single release from the "Guitars and Cadillacs etc etc" album, the self-penned 'It Won't Hurt', basically plays out as a tribute to traditional honky tonk, with the unmistakable influence of Texan legend, Ray Price (# 269-275) along with Mel Street (#627-631) and Garry Stewart (840-842). Probably because this was so faithful to the honky tonk sub-genre, it only had limited success in the U.S., stalling at # 31, but the better educated Canadians took it to # 7. Being my favourite sub-genre (more a cultural than music taste as such with me), of course I had to include it here.

Yoakam's durable melodic sense and effortless way of telling a story is displayed on ‘It Won’t Hurt’. Here, in the true tradition of the honky tonk bar room lament, he takes the voice of a broken-hearted bloke who tries - unsuccessfully - to drown the sorrow of a wrecked relationship with copious amounts of whisky - which, of course, is the perfect accompaniment to traditional honky tonk like this (though not necessarily in copious amounts) -


Besides the 3 singles, the "Guitars and Cadillacs etc etc" album also contains other gems. The self-penned 'South of Cincinnati' is a one such gem, one of the prettiest and saddest country songs of any era. It’s on ballads like this that Yoakam’s burnished vocal is especially evident. At first, this song sounds like it'll just be another song of yearning for the South. As we've seen in this history, especially with groups such as as Alabama (#1,009-1,016) - and I could throw in the great southern rock group, Lynyrd Skynyrd - songs of Southern pride were much in vogue through the 1970's and '80's). But 'South Of Cincinnati' goes beyond just this southern yearning.

Look on a map and you will find that right on the Southern edge of the Cincinnati CBD is the Ohio River - and straight across the river is Kentucky. The river also marks the border between the Northern and Southern states, with their vast cultural differences. The hard-luck Kentucky region south of this border sent tens of thousands of of its citizens (and millions, both black and whites, from the South in general) north after WW2 to seek work in such factory hubs like Columbus, Cleveland, Chicago, Dayton and Detroit. Dwight's family was amongst this flight to the North. But in many cases, it was only the married male that headed north to the factories, leaving his wife and children behind. All the alienation, loneliness and homesickness these immigrant “hillbillies” endured seep through in this recording, just as did in Bobby Bare's 'Détroit City in 1962 (# 464).

If 'South of Cincinnati' has its share of thematic cliches, it is no less effective for them - the wreck of a boozer who abandons his Kentucky roots and the love of his life to end up lonely and lost in a Chicago flophouse and his forlorn ex - back home, too proud to mail the letter that she rewrites daily, keeping it tucked inside the (biblical) Book of Luke, saying she’d gladly welcome him back
- “... He lies there drunk, but it don’t matter drunk or sober / He’ll never read the words that pride won’t let her send ...” -


The album closes with a honky tonk standard, the Harlan Howard written classic, 'Heartaches by the Number', originally made famous in 1959 by that titan of Texan country music, Ray Price, (the founder of the 4x4 shuffle "Ray Price beat" that underpins so much classic country, especially honky tonk (# 272). Here, because of Ed Black's steel playing, Brantley Kearns' fiddle, and Pete Anderson's guitar, the accompaniment is stronger and far edgier than the Ray Price version. 'Heartaches By The Number' especially benefits, not just because it’s a strong song, but also because that galloping rhythm, almost tripping over itself throughout, fits Dwight’s twang so goddamn well. -


It’s impossible to overstate the importance of Yoakam's debut album. Not only did it introduce him as a fledgling yet, at age 30 (though he looked more like age 20) with a dozen years of performing live behind him, a seasoned talent with a yearning tenor voice that comes along once in a generation. "Guitars, Cadillacs Etc. Etc.” isn't just a brilliant album – it still sounds great today – it's a pivotal album. Its phenomenal success shook up the country music establishment more than any other record at that time, going straight to the heart of the genre and reminding everyone about the fervour and excitement of real country music.

Yoakam opened up the genre to a host of new young fans and made country music cool. He presented pure country of the Hank Williams Sr type, but amplified and energised to the new, younger audience. Yoakam found himself in the enviable position of being supported both by college and independent "alternative" stations and also the standard commercial country ones. It was also an auspicious beginning to a business and professional association with his lead guitarist and producer, Pete Anderson that lasted until 2001 and yielded Yoakam’s greatest commercial success.

So that's all for today, with a sample of Dwight Yoakam's brilliant 1986 debut album "Guitars and Cadillacs etc etc". The ACM crowned him as "Best New Talent" - while the Nashville based CMA ignored this LA based outsider.

Tomorrow we will follow Yoakam to see what he has to offer going into 1987.
 
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Before proceeding into 1987, one thing I haven't yet mentioned is that Dwight Yoakam's debut 1986 album "Guitars, Cadillacs etc etc" completes the set of 5 seminal albums from 5 artists that changed the face of country music over a 5 year period, from the pop drenched Urban Cowboy sound that dominated Nashville in 1980. It still took half a decade up to 1986 to pretty much complete the transformation back to a more roots based sound. As a reminder - for I've now covered all these 5 seminal albums, each very different from the others in their own way, here's the list -
1 Ricky Skaggs 1981 "Waiting's For The Sun To Shine" Bluegrass soaked trad country (#1,110-1,117)
2 George Strait 1982 "Strait From The Heart" Trad Texan dancehall & Texan honky tonk + Bakersfield Sound (# 1,129-1,143)
3 Randy Travis 1985 "Storms Of Life" Trad country + honky tonk (# 1,229-1,237)
4 Steve Earle 1986 "Guitar Town" Prog country + rockabilly (# 1,242-1,248)
5 Dwight Yoakam 1986 "Guitars, Cadillacs etc etc" Honky tonk + rockabilly + Bakersfield Sound

Apart from Steve Earle, who very much charted his own course, all these artists were labelled under the "Neo-traditional" movement, although each had their own distinct music influences and sound.

Now we proceed into 1987. I briefly mentioned yesterday that Dwight Yoakam excelled in theatre as well as music while at school. He kept his knack for theatrical flair (at least by country music standards - we ain't talking glam pop or shock rock here). First, there were his stage swagger, especially his slow twist dance moves - a match for Mick Jagger, if not Michael Jackson. Then there was his de rigeur stagewear. His trademark 10 gallon cowboy hat defiantly asserted his country credentials when successful ‘country’ artists of the time were trying to avoid any hillbilly connotations.

The sequinned jacket and cowboy boots further nailed Yoakam’s colours to the mast. However, it was his skin tight ripped-knee jeans, worn so tight they almost looked sprayed on, that also defined him - though in a couple of music videos it's even tighter light tan leather pants. However, Yoakam rubbed some critics the wrong way as well, as per a writer from the
Village Voice - "...he has an obnoxious, ass-twitching stage presence. Yet everything he does is hyper-calculated … all part of the pose."

Whilst the rest of Yoakam's attire emphasised his affiliation to the traditions of country music, those jeans yelled out that he was also young, radical and that country stars could also have sex appeal like glamour rockers. That, even 30 years after Elvis Presley emerged, was quite a jolt to many in the often ultra-conservative world of mainstream country. With his 10 gallon hat and protruding longish wavy hair, he always seemed to look around 10 years younger than his age. In fact, he never appeared in public without his trademark hat. Only many years later was it revealed he wore it not merely as an image signifier of his country credentials, but because he was going bald before the age of 30!

Yoakam also single-handedly took the word “hillbilly” - once, and still, a derogatory term used mostly by Northerners and West coasters to smear Southern backwoods folk (e.g. the 1960’s US show The Beverly Hillbillies) - and made it not just respectable, but almost somewhat classy. Yoakam always insisted on calling his music "hillbilly" instead of country and opened his live shows with the self-deprecating aside - “It’s just old hillbilly stuff”.

Steve Earle, who, as we've seen, rose to fame around the same time as Yoakam and included a song he wrote called 'Hillbilly Highway' on his 1986 breakout album "Guitar Town", later observed - "What we had in common is that we use the term 'hillbilly,' which pissed George Jones off. He said one time, 'We spent all these years trying not to be called hillbillies, and Dwight Yoakam and Steve Earle farked it up in one day".. The "hillbilly" tag was something that country had made a concerted effort to ditch, from the countrypolitan sophistication of Chet Atkins and Billy Sherrill productions through the slick suburbanisation of Urban Cowboy. And here was this punk upstart, tracking manure all over the split-level home that country music had built for itself, reminding listeners of the music’s outhouse era. Yoakam once remarked - "They asked Pete (Anderson) if he could get me to change it, take the hillbilly out. And Pete knew better. He said, "No way"".

In 1987, 13 months after his pivotal debut "Guitar and Cadillacs etc, etc' album, Yoakam released his second album, "Hillbilly Deluxe". It was a first class follow up album, also reaching # 1 on the album chart and producing 4 Top 10 hits. The albums title pays homage to his proud Appalachian heritage. The album has a more overall rockabilly feel than its hardcore honky-tonk predecessor. This was immediately apparent with the release of the lead single, 'Little Sister”, which had been a Top 5 hit on the Pop chart for Elvis Presley in 1961. Yoakam’s version reached #7 on the country singles chart.

For the lead single from "Hillbilly Deluxe", Yoakam once again tipped the covers hat - this time to Elvis Presley - “To me, the Hillbilly Cat is what country music is all about. Hank Williams was a Hillbilly Cat. Johnny Cash with his'Man in Black’ was a Hillbilly Cat. And the biggest Hillbilly Cat of them all was Elvis. Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis - all those guys back in the fifties when rockabilly was hot, they were the Hillbilly Cats. They knew they were country. They knew the music they played was hot and they were cool. They dressed the part, they acted the part and they played country music with an edge. And people loved it.”

Originally popularised by Elvis in 1961, Yoakam put his own snappy spin on the honky-tonkin' rockabilly tune, 'Little Sister', courtesy of a slinky guitar twang punctuated by Pete Anderson's slashing licks, backed by a huge wall of sound and drum hits like pistol shots, all held together by a bluesy underbelly that gives the song an extra kick. Yoakam's attitude fuelled cut of 'Little Sister' hit # 7 in the U.S. and # 3 in Canada in 1987 -


Well before Yoakam's release of 'The Streets of Bakersfield' in 1988, he had demonstrated an affection and natural affinity for the Bakersfield Sound (see post # 455). Back in 1985, having been in California for 4 years, he contributed the song 'I'll Be Gone' to the landmark country and country-rock compilation album "A Town South of Bakersfield" (the title refers to LA as the town). The album is credited with helping launch the "New Country" and "Cowpunk" scenes by showcasing artists from the LA area such as Yoakam who were reviving the raw, traditional "Bakersfield Sound.

With Yoakam's self-penned 1987 'Little Ways', the 2nd single from his "Hillbilly Deluxe" album, he sounds like the perfect combination of Buck Owens (# 456-463) and his harmony sidekick, Don Rich - complete with the classic-sounding cold introduction. Just listen to the enunciation of the first 3 words of the song “You’ve … got … your ...” and take a listen to the “I’ve … got … a …” from Owens’ 1964 hit 'I’ve Got a Tiger By the Tail' (post # 458). The opening of 'Little Ways' could easily pass for Owens. No wonder Buck Owens himself became such a huge fan of Yoakam - the style was very familiar. This went to # 8 in the U.S. but once again, Yoakam did much better in Canada, going all the way to # 1 -

'Little Ways' served as a sign of things to come. Yoakam was a year away from finding himself forever joined at the hip with the 1980's revival of Owen's musical legacy. It's also worth noting that Yoakam remained comparatively more popular in a Canada than his native U.S. right from the start of his recording career and for the remainder of his charting career - clear evidence, it seems, of their superior taste and appreciation of country music heritage.

"Hillbilly Deluxe", which, just like Yoakam's debut album, contained 7 Yoakam written originals and 3 covers, had already proven he could hit with a cover, 'Little Sister' and the smouldering mid-tempo 'Little Ways'. Dropping the self-penned 'Please, Please Baby' in late 1987 felt like showing the third card in a winning hand - a pleading, high-energy single that still sounded like a band onstage rather than a studio machine. Radio answered with a # 6 peak in the U.S. and a near-miss at the top in Canada, reaching # 2 -


My next selection from the "Hillbilly Deluxe" album wasn't released as a single as it would never have charted, not being a radio friendly tune. Actually, I've chosen it not so much for the music itself but for the deeply personal story that Yoakam - who was a seriously good songwriter - wrote here. First, some background - U.S. Route 23 runs north from Kentucky through Ohio’s Columbus and Toledo then through to the automotive centres in Michigan. Through the 20th century, it was the route used by impoverished southerners, mainly from Appalachia, to find jobs in the North whenever coal played out. The hillbillies were welcomed with the same sort of scorn most immigrants faced, although the stereotypes about Appalachia have proven to be unusually resistant to change to this day - their physical isolation in the long steep sided hollers remains a key obstacle. The joke in Ohio was then - and still is - “You know what they teach down in those Kentucky schools? Readin’, ’ritin’ and Route 23 north" - as opposed to the school standard of the three-Rs of “Readin’, Ritin’, and “Rithmetic,”. Yoakam’s song here, a musical homage to his childhood move from Kentucky, is the counter to that scorn.

As outlined yesterday, Yoakam was no native Californian but the product of the unique, literally centuries-old culture of rural southern Appalachia - “I can never escape being the grandson of Luther and Earlene Tibbs, nor do I want to. There’s a pride garnered from understanding where you came from. I come from mountain people, rural mountain people. I’ve got a lot of family still down there, in Floyd County and Pike County ... I was not ashamed nor made to be ashamed of where I came from". Dwight's parents migrated with their 3 children North to Columbus, along with hundreds of thousands of others to whom one could as easily apply the term “hillbilly” as to the inhabitants of an east Kentucky holler. Far from an insult or term of opprobrium for Yoakam, one finds “hillbilly” sprinkled throughout his song and album titles, almost a term of endearment.

The lyrics to 'Readin’, Rightin,’ Route 23', Yoakam’s essentially autobiographical song about eastern Kentucky’s Ohio-bound migrants like his parents, fleeing the coal mines for factories - only to find they were they almost equally, if not more, dehumanising than the poverty they left behind, facing Northern discrimination for the crime of being Southerners. Route 23, by the way, runs right past Betsy Layne, the tiny Kentucky mountain coal town where the family used to live and where their grandparents still lived - “We were taillight babies,” referring to the fact his parents, like so many other Appalachians, would drive back “home” to the mountains every weekend off. He and his brother, Ronnie, and sister, Kim, spent their summers back

Sounding wistful, joyful, and cynical all at the same time, 'Readin’, Rightin,’ Route 23' is a brilliant display of songwriting, with Yoakam using simple language to create vivid pictures of a people and a way of life with deep family roots and sweet hillbilly charm - “If you’re a writer, you write about what you witness. And you can also be a witness for other people” -
"... Have you ever seen 'em / Put the kids in the car after work on Friday night / Pull up in a holler about 2 am /
And see a light still shinin' bright / Those mountain folks sat up that late / Just to hold those little grandkids /
In their arms, in their arms / And I'm proud to say that I've been blessed / And touched by their sweet hillbilly charm ..." -


One way of judging a quality album is by the songs that weren't released as a single. We've just seen one from "Hillbilly Deluxe", but here's another showing the high quality of Yoakam's storytelling songwriting. 'Johnson’s Love' is a beautifully written, understated ballad about, of course, a broken heart - in this case, eternally broken. Mr Johnson pines for his lost love, Maureen, calling her name "... deep in the night or sometimes right at dawn...". The song is steeped in the Kentucky memories of Yoakam's coal-mining grandfather, Luther Tibbs - "My grandfather is the central character in ‘Johnson’s Love', but not him literally. It's just the tool that allows the writer to move beyond himself to something larger than himself. That's the task at hand. And that's what the best writing can be, using what you know to move beyond yourself". It’s somewhat similar in theme to the all-time George Jones 1980 classic, 'He Stopped Loving Her Today' (post # 409), but unlike in that recording, the protagonist in Yoakam’s song continues to pine after his lost love even after his own death -
"... I heard the preacher at the service / Say from love he’s finally free /
But I say love it knows no season / It haunts the soul eternally ..." -


Many of the songs on Yoakam's first albums tell stories that stem from the mountain culture he experienced as a kid. The songs from that canon - 'Readin’, Rightin,’ Route 23' of course, but also 'South of Cincinnati' featured yesterday, 'Bury Me', 'Miner’s Prayer', 'Johnson’s Love', 'I Sang Dixie' - tell the complicated stories of mountain men and women, with an uncommon dignity, in the very best tradition of storytelling country music. Behind the traditional retro country sound with the pumping modern twists he and guitarist/producer Pete Anderson added and the theatrical stage craft and swagger of his live shows and music videos, Yoakam's deeply personal, accomplished song-writing can easily be overlooked.

Anyway, that's today's quota, all from Yoakam's 1987 "Hillbilly Deluxe" album, done. Tomorrow we will step into 1988 with more of Dwight Yoakam's original music and a couple of great covers.
 
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Welcome again to 1988 and back to Dwight Yoakam's 2nd album, "Hillbilly Deluxe", for the fourth and final single, released in early 1988, Here, he takes a detour into more traditional territory, tipping his hat to one of country music's most influential innovators, Lefty Frizzell (posts # 216-219), with a polished cover of his 1951 classic 'Always Late With Your Kisses' that had topped the charts in 1951 (post # 218), the year in which Lefty was going toe to toe in the charts with the immortal Hank Williams - between the two of them, they reshaped the country music sound for decades to come.

'Always Late With Your Kisses' perhaps best reveals the 3 techniques that set Lefty apart from his competitors - even including Hank Williams - when he arrived on the national scene. The most obvious change he introduced was the curls and bends that often embellished his notes.But he also wrote many of his songs with a melody that dipped into his rich lower range just enough to add emotional depth just by showing the breadth of his voice - a technique adapted by George Jones, Merle Haggard and hundreds more, The most subtle of Lefty's 3 techniques came in his phrasing - Frizzell would, at times, start a line at a loud volume before trailing off by the end - not because he had run out of breath, but because it captured the mood of that particular thought.

Yoakam breathed new life into this classic with his signature honky-tonk flair, a testament to his ability to blend traditional country sounds with a modern edge, sending it to # 9 in the U.S. and # 5 in Canada.Interestingly, Yoakam, showing his own innovation in a highly unusual departure from his normal stripped-down sound, added intrusive backing vocals, 1950's Nashville Sound style
(# 354 & 404) - and the music video to go with the song actually accentuates this intrusive backing, albeit in an amusing way, signalling this singalong song is one for the dance floor, just as Lefty intended, rather than a bar room lament -


Another number from "Hillbilly Deluxe" not released as a single but too good to omit from Yoakam's song selection is also
another Pete Anderson production. The foreboding self-penned ballad, '1,000 Miles', which finds a man boarding "flight 209" and ruminating on his broken marriage is irretrievably country, featuring Yoakam's stellar singing and unique phrasing. It's elusive lyrics shows Yoakam developing his songwriting even further, turning a simple taxiing aircraft into a metaphor for unavoidable distance - and also filled it with self-pity and self-loathing -
"... Teardrop falls, we start to climb / This window seat proved a poor choice / It shows the dream that's been destroyed /
A little baby starts to cry / Hey, I would too, if not for pride / I owe so much to pride, it's true / It brought an end to me and you..." -


Yoakam's first two albums, 1986's "Guitars, Cadillacs, etc, etc" and 1987's "Hillbilly Deluxe", both hit #1 on the albums chart and established him as one of the hottest stars in what was referred to as the "New Traditionalist" movement, a shift away from the slick productions of Nashville to a more, roots-based sound - albeit with updated sound and production elements. Like Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and his hero Buck Owens, Yoakam honed his craft and developed a following well away from the Nashville – in his case by playing rock and punk clubs in and around LA.

Yoakam's sniping at Nashville in the media did not endear him to industry insiders and even some fellow musicians - most notably back then, his fellow emergent star, Nashville veteran Steve Earle, who was also enjoying his first taste of success around the same time. Earle testily dismissed Yoakam as "a stylist" (which was, as we've seen, was largely true in terms of Yoakam's dress, slinky dance moves and music videos, but didn't acknowledge his innovative sound or his songwriting). Years later, an older, wiser, Earle remarked - "We butted heads a little bit, which was turned into this feud by some people, but there was never any personal animosity between us … He pushed my buttons that way, and I resented it. Nowadays, I sort of wonder what I was defending, because I defended that town right up to the time I left. And I don’t anymore."

Yoakam's third album, 1988's "Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room" completed a trifecta, his first 3 albums all reaching the coveted # 1 - a rare achievement, though not matching Randy Travis first 5 # 1 albums. The album, which like his first two, contained 7 original self penned songs and a few covers, was again produced by guitarist Pete Anderson, Yoakam's creative partner since meeting in LA. Armed with a Telecaster, Anderson provided some fiery treble to Yoakam's songs in much the same way that guitarist Don Rich did for Buck Owens, and along with Yoakam's nasal, high lonesome voice, created a unique sound rooted in the Bakersfield honky-tonk scene from the fifties.

However, for this album the pair introduced a tejano (aka Tex-Mex) sound by employing the great San Antonio, Texan tejano and conjunto singer-songwriter and accordion kingpin, Flaco Jimenez, a member of the legendary Texas Tornadoes (along with the great Freddy Fender - # 764-766) and still regarded as an absolute legend from Austin to the Mexican border and beyond (but I'll say no more or this will go forever). There were also changes in Yoakam's backing band, the Babylonian Cowboys, with bassist J.D. Foster and fiddler Brantley Kearns leaving and new bassist Taras Prodaniuk, mandolinist Scott Joss, and keyboardist Skip Edwards joining.

What's a musician heavily inspired by the Bakersfield scene to do once he becomes a country star? If you're Yoakam, you team up with one of the scene's greatest patriarchs, Buck Owens, for a rousing duet of the classic 'Streets of Bakersfield'. Ever since his rise to stardom, Yoakam had openly admitted the major influence of the Bakersfield Sound (#455) in general and Buck Owens
(# 466-463) in particular. In 1987, Yoakam was scheduled to play the Kern County Fair in Bakersfield when he showed up - unexpected and unannounced - at Buck Owen's office. The upshot was that Buck joined the rising star on stage that same night and from that performance, the two forged a lasting friendship and would be forever linked together, with this single from 1988 becoming Yoakam's first # 1 U.S. hit (and his 3rd in Canada) while Buck had his first since 1972. The song had been originally written by Homer Joy in 1972 after literally getting blisters from walking the streets of Bakersfield - in a very bad mood- with brand new boots while he impatiently waited for Buck's band, the Buckaroos, to finish at the recording studio so he could then start recording his own songs.

Just 8 hours after writing 'The Streets of Bakersfield, Homer Joy showed it to Buck at the studio and Owens took an instant liking to it and soon recorded it for his 1973 album, "Ain’t It Amazing Gracie". However the song didn't become great until Yoakam used it to make sure that country fans knew the veteran legend Buck Owen's as more than just the compère of the country music TV show, Hee Haw.

A defiant stand against those who looked down on the southerners who lived in Bakersfield from the 1930's until mainly replaced by Mexicans from the 1970's onwards, the duet sounds a little cheerier than the lyrics demand, but it’s an entertaining track, heavily enriched by Flaco Jimenez’s accordion -
"I came here looking for something / I couldn't find anywhere else/ I don't want to be nobody / Just want a chance to be myself / ... I've done a thousand miles of thumbing / And I've wore blisters on my heels / trying to find me something better / here on the streets of Bakersfield ...".

it's Mexican accented sound (albeit a Texan Tejano Mexican sound from Flaco Jimenez) was, by 1988, quite appropriate for this song, for by then, the Southern influence in Bakersfield from the great dust bowl migration of the 1930's was fading in favour of the growing Mexican influence from the relentless migration of Mexican farm workers. Bakersfield, along with the rest of California's Central Valley food bowl is now mostly Spanish speaking. The song's chorus, which speaks of judging people unfairly, was actually originally a dig at the studio producer who had frustrated the songwriter from recording his own material -
"... You don't know me / but you don't like me / You say you care less how I feel/
But how many of you that sit and judge me / Ever walk the streets of Bakersfield?".

The music video for 'The Streets Of Bakersfield', in which Buck Owens also performed, Is well worth a look and listen, but I prefer this live version from Austin City Limits even more -

Yoakam's first U.S. chart-topper rejuvenated the career of his Bakersfield Sound hero, Buck Owens. The pairing proved so successful that Owens went on tour as Yoakam's special guest, where he received a warm welcome from a generation of fans who vaguely knew him only as a legend, while reinforcing a passing-of-the-torch claim to Yoakam's honky-tonk ascendance. The 1988 dream duet taught a younger generation a couple of lessons. First, Owens deserved to be recognised as more than just the bloke comparing the nationally broadcast country music TV show Hee Haw. Further, fans got a friendly reminder that Bakersfield once offered a creative alternative to the Nashville sound (# 455).

Written after a home state visit to Kentucky from California, 'I Sang Dixie' is an unashamed southern flavoured heartstring tugger, featuring one of Yoakam's finest early vocal performances, imbuing the song with the right amount of pity-free reverence. Country fans, mostly southerners, of course, responded in droves to a heart-wrenching tale of a homeless southerner dying alone on the mean streets of LA. His only solace came from a stranger, a southern compatriot, willing to speak words of encouragement after singing a few familiar lines of the old unofficial anthem of the south 'Dixie' to comfort him in his final moments. Before he died, he urged the singer to flee the city back to the South -
"... Listen to me son while you still can / Run back home to that Southern land / Don't you see what life here has done to me?... "

Yoakam's 2nd # 1 U.S. hit and his 4th in Canada, the sombre ballad serves as a subtle commentary on the ways society - particularly in big cities - too often don't always take care of its most vulnerable populations and how easily people can fall through the cracks -
"... The people just walked on by as I cried / The bottle had robbed him of all his rebel pride / So I sang 'Dixie' as he died..." -


'I Got You', also written by Yoakam was released in early 1989 as the 3rd single from his album Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room. It peaked at #5 in both the U.S. and Canada. The gritty romantic track is all about love getting you through the hard times - served up with a little helping of wit and an insistent radio friendly rhythm. It's a good song, worth a listen, but just didn't grab me enough to include it here - I can't include all his hits, especially when some of his best songs weren't actually radio friendly hits but I've included here.

The 4th single was the album's title track, the grandiosely titled´Buenas Noches From A Lonely Room (She Wore Red Dresses)', is perhaps Yoakam’s crowning achievement as a tunesmith. You can feel the anger and the guilt in each and every line of this song about a man who takes a final revenge on a cheating lover and the man who led her astray. Yoakam adds some latin Spanish/Mexican flair with more Flaco Jimenez, in the spirit of Marty Robbins, with another original composition. The western themed murder ballad finds the narrator "... like a madman ..." praying for vengeance before tracking down the woman and her lover and shooting her in the head - not the sort of song that would even be allowed today - apart from hip-hop. Perhaps due to the song's dark subject matter, the single was hardly played on radio and failed to make the Top 40 in either the U.S. or Canada in 1989. A shame, because it's damn good, as this live performance, once again from Austin City Limits, shows -


So we end today in 1989, having done, over the past 3 days, the song selections from Dwight Yoakam's first 3 albums - all of reached # 1 in both the U.s. and Canada from 1986 to 1988 and provided a raft of hits for him. He had seen off the ascendancy of pop-country that had driven him from Nashville nearly 10 years earlier and, as a talented singer-songwriter and entertainer, had firmly established his own brand of contemporary country - yet firmly rooted in its authentic traditions. At the age of 33 (but looking and moving like he was 22), he was now reaching his artistic peak as we head into the 1990's. So stay tuned for tomorrow - or maybe the day after - for more.
 
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As we've seen, Yoakam developed his sound in the bars and punk rock clubs of LA. However, as his star rose, he did not mince words in interviews when asked about the music industry in Nashville – such as his disdain for executives at Columbia Records after they dropped Johnny Cash from the label, among other things – and quickly gained a reputation in Nashville as an opinionated outsider. Yoakam was unimpressed when he first re-visited Music City in the earlier 1980's and touted the open-minded creativity of the west coast scene. Critics responded by questioning the Kentucky-born songwriter's hillbilly credentials. His refusal to play ball with Nashville cost him radio play and award nominations from the powerful CMA, who pretended he didn't exist, although he was immensely popular with the LA based ACM. Remaining in LA distanced Yoakam from the Nashville music industry to advance his recording career through radio play, but it allowed him to develop as a live performer, to work the circuit, sharpen his chops, find his audience, and forge his own path in country music.

Now to resume Yoakam's music. After recording 3consecutive # 1 albums, he released the greatest hits collection, "Just Lookin’ for a Hit" in 1989, his first compilation album. It included 8 hit singles from his 3 1980s albums and 2 newly recorded cover songs, including 'Sin City', originally recorded by the Flying Burrito Brothers. But the album is best known for containing the Dave Alvin composition 'Long White Cadillac', a song originally recorded by The Blasters, whose self-described "American Music" is a blend of rockabilly, early rock'n'roll, punk rock, mountain music, and R&B and country. 'Long White Cadillac' is about the death of Hank Williams, who died in the backseat of a Cadillac on his way to a show in Ohio on New Year's Day, 1953.

Yoakam played gigs alongside Alvin's band The Blasters, Los Lobos, X and others in the rock and punk clubs of LA. In 1986, just after the release of "Guitars & Cadillacs etc etc", he started his tour by performing at the standing-room-only Manhattan punk venue, Club Irving, opening for the punk band Hüsker Dü with some 1,000 people squeezed in. They were not a surprising pairing - the 1980s were, on both coasts, a time of flux, when punks and at least some country musicians such as Yoakamwere perfectly comfortable appearing on the same bill. This was the start of the time when young punks increasingly turned to roots country music as they got older and wiser - to the benefit of both

Dave Alvin, the Blasters songwriter, was overjoyed when Yoakam, now one of the hottest stars in country music, told him that he was going to record his song - "And I went, "heck yes!" So I went down there, and they'd already cut the track and Dwight was putting on harmony vocals. As I'm driving over, I'm kind of imagining how it's gonna work as a country shuffle. And then I get there and hear a 6 minute long psychedelic thing! And all I could do was think like a radio-programmer – can we add more fiddle? Maybe shorten it a little? I'm trying to get a yacht here. Maybe just a rowboat. (laughing). And Dwight said to me, "This is my **** you to country radio." And my innermost thought was, "Could you pick someone else's song to do that with?"

'Long White Cadillac' Was released as a single in 1989 and, not surprisingly given its pumping psychedelic punk sound, it stalled at #35, just as Alvin had feared. The LA punk fans loved it of course, but the country mainstream not so much, despite Hank Williams and his cadillac being the song's topic. Yoakam later insisted - "I did it because I loved that song. I thought it was one of the greatest songs ever written. A rock and roll homage to Hank Williams, who was essentially the first rock star." -


As we've seen, Yoakam's first 3 albums, beginning with "Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc, Etc" in 1986, contained several old songs he had demoed back in 1982, with producer and guitarist Pete Anderson recalling - “…we’d had 21 of his songs to record, and he wrote some new songs along the way. But not a whole album of new songs.” Anderson cannily spread these 21 Yoakam written originals, which was also Yoakam's standard live concert set, over the 3 first albums - 7 per album, balanced with a mix of honky tonk, Bakersfield Sound and rockabilly. The albums' remaining slots contained covers of vintage classics, which Yoakam also excelled. But by his fourth studio album, he had used up these all but one of his original songs. Consequently, his next album would mostly be a clean slate. This allowed Yoakam to update his sound and try some fresh directions.

"If There Was a Way", released in 1990, was Yoakam's 4th studio album. It features the most diverse set of material he had recorded up to that point, introducing rock and soul influences, while retaining the Bakersfield honky tonk sound that made him famous. It holds the distinction as the first Yoakam album not to reach the top spot on the albums chart. However it hung around and did eventually go platinum like its predecessors. Five of its tracks would rise into the Top 20 in 1991 and 1992, 2 of which made the Top 10. The lead-off single from the album 'Turn It On, Turn It Up, Turn Me Loose'. peaked at #11 in the U.S. and #5 in Canada in 1990.

'Turn It On, Turn It Up, Turn Me Loose' was written by Kostas and Wayland Patton - the only single from the album Yoakam didn’t write - it was producer Pete Anderson who brought the song to Yoakam, telling him, “…this is one song I came across that sounds like something you would have written for yourself.” It introduced this album to radio and follows the signature Dwight Yoakam sound to the letter. quite possibly Dwight Yoakam’s most upbeat heartbreak song as the narrator opts to dance his blues away with a stranger in a honky tonk rather than crying in his beer. When you do as many heartbreakers as Yoakam does it’s probably hard to put a new or different spin on the topic, but this song does the trick perfectly.

The song includes one of the best instrumental interludes of any Yoakam song, featuring Scott Joss’ mandolin solo after the first chorus. The Buck Owens reference in the song’s second verse surely must have been a key in Yoakam choosing this song. Like his first hits, it features a driving bass line alongside a mish-mash of fiddle and steel and sounds almost like a close cousin to ‘Streets of Bakersfield’. It’s a clever lyric with the narrator drowning his sorrows and getting loose to the honky tonk sounds he holds so dear -
"... From her memories driving me lonely, crazy and blue / It helps me to forget her, so the louder, the better /
Hey, mister, turn it on, turn it up, turn me loose." -

'Turn It On, Turn It Up, Turn Me Loose' was nominated for Best Male Vocal Performance at the 1991 Grammy Awards.

The Yoakam penned´You're the One' was released in early 1991 as 2nd single from "If There Was a Way", peaking at #5 in the U.S. and #4 in Canada. Yoakam initially recorded a demo of the song in 1981, 9 years before its inclusion on the album.
A waltzing, romantic slow dance masquerading as a straight-up revenge song. Here, the tables have turned on the couple, and now that she wants him back, he gets to savour the feeling of watching her experience all the heartache she had put him through. The gentle, syrupy strings, smooth melody and delicate instrumentation - not to mention Yoakam's straight-faced delivery - only serve to magnify the bitter overtones. it’s about the least country-sounding track Yoakam ever recorded - bordering on pop-country and my least favourite here - but, probably as a result of its broader commercial appeal, it fared better on the U.S. chart than the other singles from the album -


'The distance Between You and Me' was another penned by Yoakam containing the typical Bakersfield sound. It wasn't released as a single but I'm making another captains call - it's too good to overlook. The song opens with a lone guitar lick and then goes into a classic country riff. A dominant theme found in Yoakam's newer songs is the new aloofness or absence of a lover. I love the illustrations he paints with the lyrics. He is in a dead relationship. The 2 are co-living physically, but they are 2 people who couldn't be farther apart. How far? The lyrics explain -
"... I lie awake and hear you breathing / Only inches from me in this bed /
Not much space but it's all that we needed / To live alone not that out love is dead ..." -


The barroom-ready 'Nothing's Changed Here', another Yoakam and Kostas co-write, was released in 1991 as the 3rd single from the "If There Was a Way" album. It reached # 15 in the U.S, but once again, Yoakam did much better in Canada - again showing better appreciation of real honky tonk - just missing the top spot, peaking at # 2. The raw sound comes from the excellent guitar work of Pete Anderson, giving a bluesy, swaggering arrangement. The effect sounds as if it were out of the Texan honky tonk pioneer, Ernest Tubb songbook, whose own ‘Walkin’ The Floor Over You’ (# 162j is referenced in the lyrics -
"... I hear you walking across the floor / I think that I'm dreaming / 'Til I hear you shut the door /
I wake up crying and calling your name / Nothing's changed here without you / I start every day the same ..." -


Anyone who has read a fair sample of my history would know that I'm very partial to Dwight Yoakam's style of music - honky tonk, Bakersfield sound, rockabilly and traditional country served in a contemporary sound but with a knowing link to its past as its foundation. So there will be more to come from this album and beyond as we proceed in the 1990's.
 
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As we head back to the early 1990's, starting with a couple of further selections from Dwight Yoakam's 1990 "If There Was a Way" album, it's worthwhile to look at the country music context of its release date - which no doubt affected irs sales and that of the singles released from it. For by 1990, the country music world had been stirred, shaken and devoured by the "Class of '89, as it was soon dubbed - the emergence of a talented new bunch of young musicians - led by Garth Brooks, Clint Black, Alan Jackson and Travis Tritt - who, collectively, transformed the genre. In doing so they put a lot of former high charting country stars out of the charts, as we've seen in this history, with many former pop-country stars now relegated to touring as heritage acts to aging audiences.

However, the neo-traditionalists, such as George Strait, Reba McEntire and Randy Travis fared better, still charting succeoly, though they no longer dominated so much as they did in the 1980's. So it was with Dwight Yoakam's. After his first 3 albums all went all the way to # 1, his 1990 "If There Was a Way" album stalled at # 7, nor were the singles from this album, released through 1990 to 1992 quite as successful - though still very good, especially in Canada. However, as it turned out, today will see Yoakam not only withstanding the changes that swept through the industry, but actually thrived.

Now back to his music, starting with 'It Only Hurts When I Cry' released in December 1991 as the 4th single from his album "If There Was a Way". It peaked at #7 in the U.S. and #4 in Canada. Sometimes it’s just about classic country songwriting, especially when you write with Roger Miller (posts # 479-482). In fact, 'It Only Hurts When I Cry' was one of the very last songs the legendary Nashville songwriter penned before his death in 1992 at the early age of 56 from lung and throat cancer. It must have been such an honour for Yoakam to pen a song with one of the genre’s greatest songwriters. Out of the legend’s playbook is how this song can be so almost peppy in its sadness. Just the phrasing in the chorus is straight out of Miller’s brilliant playbook -
“...The only time I feel the pain / Is in the sunshine or the rain / And I don’t feel no hurt at all /
Unless you count when teardrops fall / I tell the truth ‘cept when I lie / It only hurts me when I cry” -


'The Heart That You Own' is one of the saddest things I’ve ever heard, especially with the longing croon in which Yoakam delivers it. It’s a Merle Haggard-esque bit of songwriting and performing if I’ve ever heard it, which is to truly say it’s utterly brilliant in its melancholy. This song truly should’ve been a bigger hit than it was (only reaching # 18), but its throwback appeal most likely hurt it among the larger suburban market -
“I pay rent on a rundown place / There ain’t no view, but there’s lots of space / In my heart, the heart that you own /
I pay the rent, pay it right on time / Baby, I pay you every single dime / For my heart, the heart that you own ...”


The 1968 Mark James penned 'Suspicious Minds' is one of the best covers Elvis Presley ever recorded (it's a fact Elvis mostly only recorded covers), taking it to the top of the pop chart. Being not only a master student of country music history but just the incredibly cool cat he is and supreme Elvis fan (as we saw 2 days back with his cover of 'Little Sister'), Yoakam cut this for the soundtrack to the 1992 movie Honeymoon in Vegas. In some ways seemed to have one-upped even the King (not bad, considering Rolling Stone ranked Elvis’ version as one of the 100 greatest songs of all-time). It’s a song that just fits the Yoakam modus operandi – narrator trapped in a less than ideal relationship in which trust issues are key.

Elvis is likely one of the most covered artists of all-time, but I doubt you'll hear a better one than this -the very best cover of an Elvis song I’ve ever heard, remaining quite faithful to Elvis' version, backing singers and all, but driven by a more muscular accompaniment, featuring Pete Anderson's hard riffing guitar work to the strong beat of the drums -


After a 3 year recording hiatus (apart from his singular contribution to the Honeymoon in Vegas soundtrack), during which Yoakam spent not only touring but acting, songwriting and honing in on an updated sound, "This Time", Yoakam's 5th studio album, was released in 1993. Any thoughts that Yoakam might be a spent force, yet another '80's star swept aside by the tsunami of the "Class of '89, were well and truly put to rest. Yoakam took his hard-edged country influences from Buck Owens, Johnny Horton, Ray Price, Lefty Frizzell and Merle Haggard and expanded them to include new instruments and textures as well as voices - one can hear in his broken love songs the voice of Gene Pitney as well - and come up with something new again.

I prefer Yoakam's more basic first 3 albums, but most critics seem to agree that "This Time" represents Yoakam's artistic peak, both in his songwriting and delivery, cementing a unique sound that moved beyond the sum of its parts to become Dwight alone. It's the album you should get if you only want one Yoakam record. Every so often, it turns out that an artist’s best work )if the experts are right) is also their most popular, and so it was with "This Time", both his most critically acclaimed and although it climbed only as high as #4, it kept on selling and selling, and with 3 plus-million copies sold, it was and remains Yoakam’s bestselling album of all time, going triple platinum. Five of its 11 songs were major hits, with 3 of the tracks barely missing the top spot, each peaking at #2. Yoakam wrote or co-wrote every song on the album. Five songs were collaborations with Kostas, who was a hot commodity in Nashville at the time.

'Ain’t That Lonely Yet' was the first of them. Outside of his own pen, Yoakam had developed a huge love of the songwriting of Kostas, who co-penned this 1993 single with the talented James House. The track was a little more modern sounding than Yoakam’s previous work, and country radio responded, making this song one of his biggest hits, peaking at # 2 in the U.S. and yet another # 1 in Canada, Yoakam's 5th there. In a string-swept ballad that describes a familiar post-breakup scenario - an ex trying to make amends, Yoakam’s honky-tonk tale had him leaving his lover due to the drama and pain she put him through, making it clear to her he’s not lonely enough yet to go back to her -
"... After what you put me through / I ain't that lonely yet ..." Yoakam sings, with wistfulness and longing in his voice. Soon after, however, we discover why he resists - "Once there was this spider in my bed / I got caught up in her web /
Of love and lies / She spun her chains around my heart and soul / Never to let go, oh, but I survived ..." -


'Ain’t That Lonely Yet' earned Yoakam a Grammy Award for Best Male Vocal Performance.

The album's 2nd single, 'A Thousand Miles From Nowhere' nearly didn’t make the album, as both Yoakam & producer Pete Anderson felt it might be too experimental. In the end, good sense prevailed. Yoakam again narrowly missed the top spot, with another U.S # 2 and it peaked at # 3 in Canada. Rippling guitar lines roll out from a winning melody and heartbreaking lyrics. It features a gorgeous extended two-guitar coda (Anderson overdubbing himself), creating the effect of 2 jets soaring in tandem, According to Anderson, the outro was inspired by another extended two-guitar coda - Eric Clapton and Duane Allman’s on the last few minutes of Derek & The Dominos’´Layla'.

In classic, honky-tonk style, the aftermath of a broken-up relationship caused the narrator to feel a combination of apathy, sadness, loneliness, and loss, the singer lamenting the sadness and despair he feels after the breakup of his relationship. The mood is very murky and mysterious, which lent itself to the anguish that he was singing about - It's the right blend of memorable guitar riffs and sadly relatable lyrics, in the mold of some of Merle Haggard's best songs -
"... I’ve got bruises on my memory / I’ve got tear stains on my hands /
And in the mirror there’s a vision / Of what used to be a man ...” -


One of Yoakam’s finest vocals, 'A Thousand Miles From Nowhere' got him nominated for Grammy Awards on 2 separate occasions - first for his live performance on 1996’s “Dwight Live” album and then an acoustic version from his 2000 album “dwightyoakamacoustic.net".

The music video was directed by Dwight Yoakam and features Yoakam riding on a Copper Basin Railway train across the Arizona desert. Fellow musician Kelly Willis does a cameo appearance as the young woman standing in a shallow stream. ´A Thousand Miles from Nowhere´ was featured as the closing credits music for the movie Red Rock West - filmed prior to the release of This Time using a studio demo recording, and in which Yoakam also made his film acting debut. It was also featured on the 1994 comedy Chasers.

So we leave off again halfway through an album - this time in 1993 and Yoakam's most successful album ever, "This Time". Stay tuned for more, with Yoakam now at his artistic peak, picking up a couple of Grammys (but still crickets from the CMA), having both modified and diversified his sound while still - mostly - staying to his honky tonk and country roots.
 
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Monocle said:
I was so sad, actually I was super pissed and disappointed when Justin Townes Earle, died of his fentanyl-laced cocaine addiction.

He had an unbelievable grasp on the musical blend of music that encapsulated that mix: of country, soul, blues and how he captured Appalachian music to its core.

For the record I though Justin was extremely talented, I happen to be very fond of these songs of his:

Harlem River Blues
Look The Other Way
Halfway to Jackson
(Cant believe he was only 15 when he wrote Halfway To Jackson - check out the lyrics, man a 15 year old should not be able to or be put in a situation whereby they can craft ( through experience ), such pros, from real life experience at only 15.

And my favourite.

Maybe a Moment

I though he was trending in a high trajectory and believed that it was only a matter of time that he himself had a "Copperhead Road' song that he was to write and share with us all.

Sadly he never came back from that dangerous rabbit hole that his father often visited, and somehow managed to escape with life still intact, Justin was not so lucky.

I got and still am a very angry, that I never got to hear the best of his musical talent, as DRUGS, claimed another life way too soon.
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I love Justin, was lucky enough to share a few beers with him and Jason Isbell when they toured together, Justin wore his heart on his sleeve and was genuinely engaging.

I saw him live five or six times, each was different, each was great. I listen to him regularly and find myself blinking back the odd tear at times. Truly sad that he's gone and went the way he did.
 
blackshadow said:
I love Justin, was lucky enough to share a few beers with him and Jason Isbell when they toured together, Justin wore his heart on his sleeve and was genuinely engaging.

I saw him live five or six times, each was different, each was great. I listen to him regularly and find myself blinking back the odd tear at times. Truly sad that he's gone and went the way he did.
Click to expand...

Wow lucky you and they are a couple of great musicians, I'm pretty envious of that, as you were able to share time and life, with these guys.

Wish I had seen Justin live, but alas, my time the last 40 years has been spent, setting up a home, raising a family, putting food on the table and taking care of all thats precious to me "family", oh and saving hard for life after my working days are done, missed a lot of concerts and other stuff, but when you became a parent, you sort of park your dreams and look after you own.

Now I am an empty nester and a few weeks shy of retirement, bought myself a new Telecaster and few other toys, so time for myself and Mrs Monocle ( 43 year married) to step out and spread our wings.

So a few concert might just be on the cards.

Have some bucket list items too, that I would love to tick off and very close to top of the list are these two:

1. Would love to visit the Ryman Auditorium.

2. See a show at the "Grand Ole Opry".


A visit to the Mother Church of Country Music would be something quite special. :thumbsu:
 
Monocle said:
Wow lucky you and they are a couple of great musicians, I'm pretty envious of that, as you were able to share time and life, with these guys.

Wish I had seen Justin live, but alas, my time the last 40 years has been spent, setting up a home, raising a family, putting food on the table and taking care of all thats precious to me "family", oh and saving hard for life after my working days are done, missed a lot of concerts and other stuff, but when you became a parent, you sort of park your dreams and look after you own.

Now I am an empty nester and a few weeks shy of retirement, bought myself a new Telecaster and few other toys, so time for myself and Mrs Monocle ( 43 year married) to step out and spread our wings.

So a few concert might just be on the cards.

Have some bucket list items too, that I would love to tick off and very close to top of the list are these two:

1. Would love to visit the Ryman Auditorium.

2. See a show at the "Grand Ole Opry".


A visit to the Mother Church of Country Music would be something quite special. :thumbsu:
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What tele?

I bought myself a surf green 50s Vintera Modified - she's a beaut!

Enjoy your guitar and enjoy some gigs!
 

🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.

blackshadow said:
What tele?

I bought myself a surf green 50s Vintera Modified - she's a beaut!

Enjoy your guitar and enjoy some gigs!
Click to expand...




download.webp


Just got to learn and practice so I play a bit more than feed back and distortion.

Been years since I played so I am actually going to get some lessons.

If I do improve I am going to really splash out $$$$$$ and spoil myself with a Gretsch G6120 BS Chet Atkins Hollow Body Blue Burst.



gretsch-g6120bs-pro-chet-atkins-hollow-body-blue-burst-electric-guitar__88324.webp


That distinctive twang of a good Tele or a Gretsch is so special, and it's part of the sound that made me fall in love with country music.
 
blackshadow said:
I love Justin, was lucky enough to share a few beers with him and Jason Isbell when they toured together, Justin wore his heart on his sleeve and was genuinely engaging.

I saw him live five or six times, each was different, each was great. I listen to him regularly and find myself blinking back the odd tear at times. Truly sad that he's gone and went the way he did.
Click to expand...
Like Monocle, I envy the time you spent with Justin and Jason. If you have anything you feel you may say here about these conversations, particularly from Justin, please feel free to share
 
Monocle said:
Wow lucky you and they are a couple of great musicians, I'm pretty envious of that, as you were able to share time and life, with these guys.

Wish I had seen Justin live, but alas, my time the last 40 years has been spent, setting up a home, raising a family, putting food on the table and taking care of all thats precious to me "family", oh and saving hard for life after my working days are done, missed a lot of concerts and other stuff, but when you became a parent, you sort of park your dreams and look after you own.

Now I am an empty nester and a few weeks shy of retirement, bought myself a new Telecaster and few other toys, so time for myself and Mrs Monocle ( 43 year married) to step out and spread our wings.

So a few concert might just be on the cards.

Have some bucket list items too, that I would love to tick off and very close to top of the list are these two:

1. Would love to visit the Ryman Auditorium.

2. See a show at the "Grand Ole Opry".


A visit to the Mother Church of Country Music would be something quite special. :thumbsu:
Click to expand...
You've already achieved the most important goals in life (I wish I can say the same, but I'll take the blame) - now the rest will be the cherry on top of the cake.

I have traveled often (too often) and very extensively and have been fortunate enough to have my photo taken on the Ryman stage and attended the Opry. My partner was pissed because she missed Keith Urban by one day - but I was happy.

I would also include Memphis on your list - Sun Studio, Stax Studio (an excellent, interesting museum), Beale St at night for the blues clubs and, of course, Graceland - even if you're not a big Elvis fan, it's fascinating, with lots to see apart from the house itself.

And if you have an appetite and opportunity for more, you could include New Orleans (best way is to follow the blues trail from Memphis through the Mississippi Delta region to Louisiana). After New Orleans head to Texas - the honky tonks and dancehalls of Austin, San Antonio and Fort Worth. From there, you can fly direct back to Australia or via LA.

Good luck on your retirement and mastering the guitar.
 
Back when I introduced Dwight Yoakam a few days back, I wrote he "... became a fixture at the legendary North Hollywood honky tonk, The Palomino (more on this famous venue to come later)...". Well, I better fulfill that promise now. Once dubbed the Grand Ole Opry of the West, The Palomino was, at it's peak from the mid 1950's to the mid 1980's, the most important country music venue after the Ryman Auditorium. Originally opened as a working-class bar under the influence of Western swing pioneer Hank Penny, it evolved into a full-fledged honky-tonk that emphasised traditional country and western acts, focused on affordable cover charges and beer service, establishing it as a hub for its original working-class music fans and performers in the San Fernando Valley.

The Palomino flourished during a time when country music exploded in popularity in the LS urban area, spurred by mass migration form Southerners in the 1930's dustbowl era and then by Midwesterners who had arrived seeking better-paying occupations in war plants and assembly-line factories. Many early patrons were WW2 veterans who had passed through the city on the way to the Pacific Front and then returned in peacetime. They sought refuge in the cheap San Fernando Valley, where movie studios like Republic invented the singing cowboy, and barn dance shows and Western yodeled proliferated on the radio (see Elton Britt, posts # 159-160). After Texan Bob Wills migrated to California in 1943, Western swing soared up the charts. Music performer and entertainer Cliffie Stone, explained - “Just like the war brought these Southern boys into the armed forces and spread the music around, the people who worked out here in the factories brought their banjos and guitars - and a large number settled in the San Fernando Valley.”

The club was located in North Hollywood - but don't be fooled by that name - there's no glamour attached. North Hollywood lies on the other (wrong) side of the hills from Hollywood proper, and if some of it has been gentrified in recent years, back in the day it was just a mix of ugly light industrial areas and poor working class neighbourhoods, with a lot of ticky-tacky made apartments (think old fibro sheds). The neighbourhood never had any pretensions, not even when music’s elite came cruising past the liquor stores, auto body shops and assorted collection of ugly sheds lining the stretch of Lankershim Boulevard where the club was located.

Back then the ugliest building in the ugliest part of the suburb - a smallish, squat, low-slung shed was the Palomino - a very simple honky tonk with whiskey-stained and odoured floors, smoke-filled and stained walls and garish decoration. Yet in its heyday, the Palomino was, by far the most popular country music club in Southern California, a honky-tonk that would reign for more than 40 years as LA's top country spot. On the outside, it featured a massive neon sign, a rearing bronco balanced in an upturned horseshoe, which was visible for miles against the Valley’s night sky until its dismantling in 1995.

Those who performed at the Palomino include a who who of stars, including Ernest Tubb, Lefty Frizzell, Everly Brothers, Marty Robbins, Kitty Wells, Jerry Lee Lewis, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, George Jones, Charley Pride, Glen Campbell, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Emmylou Harris, the Flying Burrito Brothers with Gram Parson, Linda Ronstadt, Crystal Gayle, Asleep at the Wheel, Kenny Rogers and Barbara Mandrell. Most importantly, the relatively nearby Bakersfield pair of Merle Haggard and Buck Owens regularly graced the Palomino’s stage.

Growing beyond its traditional working class clientele, in the 1960's the Palomino started becoming a fashionable "cool" place for movie stars to be seen, mixing with the plebs and by the 1980's, it was the sort of place where people like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, George Harrison and other musical figures could be found hovering by the bar. On one night in the mid-’80s, Harrison, Dylan and John Fogerty stepped on stage to jam through a few songs.

Thanks to the club’s lived-in look, movie stars came calling in the late 1970s in need of an authentic roadhouse feel for big-screen projects. Long a favorite with movie cowboy extras, stunt men and rodeo riders for its rough-and-tumble atmosphere, the Palomino added gritty texture to several films and TV shows. Action star and club regular Clint Eastwood filmed scenes for his comic films Every Which Way But Loose and Any Which Way You Can at the iconic location, as did popular leading man Burt Reynolds with his film Hooper. Such TV shows as Adam-12, CHiPs and T.J. Hooker also employed the club as a location.

By then1980's, upright (or uptight) businessmen, preppy college students, pushy talent agents and slick record exes were as likely to attend concerts as longtime assembly-line workers, truckers and bikers. The club evolved from a friendly working class neighbourhood hangout to an industry essential, hosting live music broadcasts, corporate meetings and shindigs and serving as a local bar for professional athletes, entertainers and politicians.

Star performers like Buck Owens to Merle Haggard and Gram Parsons to Dwight Yoakam recognised the difference in the freedom, lifestyle and the California upbeat sound that originated from the Palomino. And, as already noted, it was seminal in the development of the 1980's "cowpunk" scene that gave birth to acts like Lone Justice, the Blasters, X and, of course, the rise of Dwight Yoakam.

Thanks to a combination of changing times, changes in ownership and bad management décidons, the Palomino closed in 1995. Now it’s just an ugly looking banquet hall in a light industrial backlocks that’s seen better days. However, Yoakam, always one to appreciate the past, performed in its carpark in 2008 and then in a one-off concert in the venue in 2019. So that's a brief summary of the famed Palomino Club. Many still live in hope of it re-opening, but modern day health regulations that would limit any potential crowd to 400, instead of the 1,000 that used to cram in, make that unlikely.

It's now time to get back to the music. As much as traditional country was a part of his sound, Yoakam had cut his teeth on the LA punk rock or cowpunk scene. He captured that sound with the rollicking 'Faster Than You' was the third single from Yoakam’s "This Time" album. Released in 1993. It was the 3rd consecutive # 2 hit, all of them just missing the top spot. This served as his final Top 10 U.S. single - so far, though there are more Top 5 Canadian hits to come.

Rockabilly at its finest, this fast-paced revenge wish features a narrator mired in the throes of a tough breakup. To soften the emotional blow, he imagines that one day his ex will feel just as lousy. Slow-boiling music with subtle organ and a rumbling groove underscore the song's vengeful undertones -
"... Maybe I'll be as fast as you / Maybe I'll break hearts too / But I think that you'll slow down /
When your turn to hurt comes around / Maybe I'll break hearts / And be as fast as you" -


'Try Not To Look So Pretty', another Yoakam and Kostas co-write, was released in early 1994 as the 4th single from his "This Time" album, peaking at number 14 in the U.S., but climbing up to # 4 in Canada. This is pure country - a beautiful, simple understated, fiddle-led ballad about the world's most dangerous creature - an irresistibly pretty woman walking into a bar. It’s Merle Haggard-esque in both its performance and lyrical content. It’s also solid proof that Yoakam would have been just as popular in the 1950's and ‘60s as he was in the ‘80s and ‘90s -
" ... You walk in and steal my mind / But who gave you the right / To treat me like some useless thought / You throw away each night / Please don't look so pretty / You're lovely but it's just cruel / Try not to look so pretty / And I'll try not to be your fool ..." -


The shuffling honky tonk tune 'Pocket of a Clown' was released in 1994 as the 5th and final single from the "This Time" album. It tapped out at # 22 in the U.S. but once again he did far better in Canada, peaking at # 4. The song has some great imagery and is probably one of Yoakam’s better written songs. Yoakam’s tailored worn pining on the chorus just hits home the sombreness of the whole thing. It’s surprising to me that the song wasn’t more of a hit in the U.S. than it was, failing to reach even the top 20 in 1994. The relatively poor U.S. chart performance (it still did very well in Canada) may have been a result of less promotional support by the label for a 5th single, but I suspect the somewhat jarring background vocals are to blame.

I really like the song, but here, Yoakam, always eager to revive aspects of country music's rich heritage, incorporated some Nashville Sound additions with the backing vocals, just as he did with his cover of Lefty Frizzell's classic 'Always Late With Your Kisses, that we saw a few days back. Just like then, it made for a more entertaining music video but I would think many, not appreciating the historical context Yoakam had added, would've liked it a better if the “do-wah, do wha’s” were toned down or eliminated altogether. Canadians, however, obviously got it -
“... Inside a memory from the past / Lives every love that didn't last / And sweet dreams can start to fade real fast /
Inside a memory from the past / Is a real sad place to hang around / Inside the pocket of a clown” -


As outlined yesterday, Yoakam introduced new elements into his 1993 "This Time" album, to stay relevant and not just be locked to his 1980's sound, no matter how innovative his '80's sound was. But it’s fair to say the new album presented some challenges to some of his established classic country fan base. Of course, Yoakam’s approach has always been out-of-step with whatever the rest of country is shuffling to, starting from his cowpunk beginnings in LA. But more than anything, the Kentucky native was always, albeit in his very own style, a neo traditionalist at heart. He offered some changes in his sound but not of attitude and perspective.

Based on the album’s first 3singles, and in particular '. ´, which had pop elements entirely absent from his normal repertoire, some radio listeners assumed Yoakam was distancing himself from his traditionalist roots. But in fact, this was decidedly not the case, for the remainder of the album cuts are rock-solid country gems. A common criticism of the album was that it was too diverse, lacking consistency. But this criticism misses the point that this diversity was deliberate - it was Yoakam exploring and reviving different styles of authentic country music - even the maligned but by now historic Nashville Sound.

Having just done, yesterday and today, all 5 singles released from the "This Time" album, I decided to offer just two more not released as a single. It was damn hard to pick from my favourites among them, but the two main contenders were the honky tonk weepers ´Home For Sale' and 'Two Doors Down', both stripped down to basics, crying in your beer songs, the likes of which we hear all too rarely today. Of the two, 'Two Door Downs', another Yoakam/Kosyas co-write, got me crying into my beer the most -

If you liked this, you would also like 'Two Doors Down' (and if you don't, you won't).

The next and last selection choice was even tougher, as it was between two very distinctly different styles - one being a heavily percussive Bakersfield Sound, the other having a bluesy bluegrass influence (that's part of the albums diversity I spoke of above). As outlined a couple of days back, Yoakam was inspired “... by Buck Owens’s band sound - that bar-band, honky-tonk, roadhouse approach to making a record”. The album's title track 'This Time' is the obligatory Bakersfield tribute, on which Buck Owens’ influence can be plainly heard - but a bit too plainly. It's as if Buck Owen's himself was belting out the chorus. And for this reason, I very reluctantly passed over it for being too faithful to the sound it was paying tribute to - if that makes any sense at all. In short, it was real good to listen to - but the sound didn't quite offer enough new.

So it was that the bluegrassy Yoakam penned 'Lonesome Roads', which brings the album to a satisfying close, was my final pick. A song of unrelenting loneliness and alienation. It's like he pulled a dark time in my life out and shared it with the world. It makes one feel one's not alone in this mess called life. I love the obscure allusion to the movie, “A Face In the Crowd” in which Andy Griffith played a celebrity con man named “Lonesome Rhodes”. So, top up your whiskey, beer or wine and enjoy -


And so another day is done. Yoakam is a singer-songwriter and performer who understands, perhaps more than most other major artists, that country music is both an on-going tradition and a living, evolving art form.
 
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In Dwight Yoakam's introduction, some days back now, I mentioned his interest in theatre and how this interest infused his image - the hat pulled low, the hip‑hugging tight jeans, dance moves, guitar slings and swaggering stance. Yoakam’s visual presence is as iconic as his sound - a reminder that style, when authentic, becomes part of the art. But Yoakams interest in theatre went far beyond mere appearance and image. Right from when he arrived in LA, he made attempts to break into acting, like thousands of others chasing a break. Initially swatted aside as yet another unknown lacking serious acting experience, he inevitably turned heads in the TV and movie trade once he became a major music star - and based in LA. Starting with music videos, in which he typically (and for me, annoyingly) started with a minute or two of "dramatic" build-up to the actual song, he finally landed serious acting roles - one of his first was a recurring role in the 1991 CBS crime drama P.S. I Luv U.

While many musicians dabble in acting, as we've seen in this history - most notably Kris Kristofferson who became a genuine movie star in his own right, Yoakam took it seriously - and it showed. He brought nuance to roles in 1993's Red Rock West and his performance in the 1996 Billy Bob Thornton cast Sling Blade remains one of the more chilling portrayals of an abusive antagonist. He appeared in the Richard Linklater 1998 movie The Newton Boys and wrote most of the songs for his "A Long Way Home" album at this film's shooting locations throughout Austin. His acting roles deepened his cultural footprint and introduced him to audiences who might never have encountered his music otherwise

However, on the music front, after the critical acclaim and commercial success of his 1993 album, "This Time", Yoakam was silent for 2 years, concentrating on his acting career, not even doing any touring, before returning in mid 1995 with "Dwight Live", recorded live in San Francisco. However, lacking promotion by either Warner or by his touring, it didn't set the charts on fire.

His next studio album, 1995’s "Gone" was the result of Yoakam experimenting even more with his sound and expanding is musical boundaries even more than his previous "This Time" album - but this time he went a bridge too far. "Gone", dépite peaking at # 5, marked his fall from commercial grace. Produced, as before, by Pete Anderson, there was a marked change in style to an even more diverse rock-influenced sound. Yoakam wrote 8 out of the 10 songs alone - the other 2 he co-wrote with Kostas - and directed all the videos for the singles alone, so all the choices made were his. His budding acting career was also distracting his music attention - unlike the release of his first 4 albums, due to his acting commitments, he had been off the touring road during the shelf life of both “Dwight Live” and “Gone,” so neither album received the benefit of tour support.

Yoakam's longtime producer and guitarist Pete Anderson laid the blame at the feet of Warner Bros Nashville for its lack of promotion - "We went from a triple platinum record to a record that sold 350,000 copies ... What does that tell you? It tells me people didn't even know the record was out". But others contend that "Gone" went further from his country roots than some listeners - and country radio - were willing to go, with key critic, Thom Jurek warning - "...it's true that those who long for Yoakam's purely honky-tonk style may be lost a bit here".

"Gone" is, at least lyrically, themed entirely about a romantic breakup - making for some pretty bleak lyrics in some, though
not all, songs. Yoakam described it as "the most disparate collection of songs that I’d created for a given album, yet ironically
this is the most connected album I think I’ve ever done in terms of how the individual songs play to each other". Ironic because, although linked by a lyrical theme, musically it was all over the place. Instead of just his usual honky tonk, rockabilly and Bakersfield sound base, he added early 1960's R&B, soul and pure rock. It seemed he was trying to appeal to everyone - and in so doing, fully satisfied few.

I suppose one should applaud Yoakam for not resting on his laurels and choosing to make challenging musical choices rather than playing it safe. But it proved a massive misstep in terms of his career. In a remarkable turnaround from the multi-platinum sales of "This Time", "Gone" only achieved gold status, and he was never to regain his status as a mainstay of country radio, although he still had very high quality, albeit no longer high charting, music in his future.

Back before the internet - which was still in its fledgling phase when "Gone":was released, it was particularly important to carefully choose what was likely to be the most commercially song for an albums first single - for the commercial success of the album in part depended on what the public assumed would be its best song. As such, ‘Nothing’ was a terrible choice for the lead single - I rate it as the albums weakest track. It starts slowly, promising to build to ... something, but it gets lost along the way and never arrives anywhere, ending up as nothing more than a rather boring soul-influenced ballad. It barely reached the Top 20 in both the U.S. and Canada– a major disappointment given the success of Yoakam's previous studio album.

'Nothing' limps along with intrusive backing vocals and busy production and I decided not to select it here. It no doubt put many off buying the album at the time. It was a major mistake as a single choice, as country radio rarely touched Yoaham afterwards. Yoakam has been off the road so far during the shelf life of both “Dwight Live” and “Gone,” so neither album has received the benefit of tour support yet.And so it was that, combined with Yoakam's lack of touring as he concentrated more and more on a movie carrer, the album started Yoakam’s commercial - though not aesthetic - decline.

"Gone" fully integrates the early-'60s grooving rock and R&B of Doc Pomus and Lieber and Stoller with the hard honky tonk of the Bakersfield sound with added regional touches that had become so prevalent on his records. This was most notable on the album's opening track and 3rd single release, 'Sorry You Asked?', with its mariachi horns in the refrains and bridge and Cajun driven blues. Although it was the best song and closer to the style Yoakam had developed over previous albums, ‘Sorry You Asked?’ failed to make it into the top 50 in 1996. With its bright horn section and pained vocal, bending the ears of a sympathetic friend asking about his relationship breakup, had this been the first single released instead of 'Nothing', the chart history might have been distinctly different. It contains a masterpiece of a lyric - nothing less than transcribed conversation; a trick that’s much, much harder to pull off than it sounds, especially when it’s also dead pan hilarious -
"... Okay we both have the tendency to overreact / so I can't really tell you who's at fault /
but there were certain third parties, well her sister for one / who helped bring our reconciling to a drop-dead halt ..." -


The album's 4th single release - another Kostas co-write - is the attractively loping ‘Heart Of Stone’, which didn’t chart at all. It deserved better. It's an interesting take - starting with the classic Ray Price 4x4 shuffle beat, the first part starts as something straight from a 1950's Texan honky tonk. But at about 1.30 in, Nashville Sound elements are added - first some backing singers, then lush strings. It works for me, but I can see how this didn't chart - it offends both traditionalists and progressives -


There were 2 tracks from the "Gone" album" that may have done better if released as singles, but I only have room for one. Therefore. The up-beat, light-hearted Texas spoof, 'Baby Why Not', didn't make the cut. Instead I went with 'This Much I Know'. Focused on the emotional aftermath of a broken relationship and the effects of too much grief, it includes spot-on harmonies from Beth Anderson, with the mood being set by the almost military Jim arrangement -


1998 saw the release of "A Long Way Home", Dwight’s first complete album of entirely self-penned material - no co-writes with Kostas, no classic covers. Mostly written while hanging around on the Texas set of Richard Linklater’s The Newton Boys movie, the new songs were a return to the more straightforward country music of Yoakam's earlier records. a return to a more palatable country sound compared to some of the (too) ambitious material on Yoakam's previous 1995 studio album "Gone" and the 1997 cover album "Under the Covers", which contained rock, pop, soul, and Motown influences. Yoakam later admitted - "... we knew we’d probably taken it as far as it could go. I’m proud of the other things, but...you could feel that the journey was completed".
"A Long Way Home" doesn’t contain any hardcore honky tonk numbers like his early albums, but it does contain a diverse mix of rockabilly and Bakersfield sound, along with some more mainstream, albeit retro-sounding (i.e. retro at that time) fare.

However, the album's first single, 'Things Change', still missed the Top 10, while a second single, 'These Arms', bombed completely, stalling at #57. It had far more to do with the country music climate at the time than the quality of the songs.
In his biography of Dwight Yoakam, A Thousand Miles from Nowhere, writer Don McClesse notes, "As long as Dwight sold a
ton of product, he was worth the trouble, but as soon as he didn’t, he wasn’t. There was more money to be made in country
music in the 1990s than ever before, but the music had reverted to the sort of formula that Dwight had resisted from the start".

In other words - by the late 1990's pop-country was back in favour - and would mostly remain so for the next 20 years beyond. This, of course, meant that Yoakam's music was out of fashion. But it didn't mean his music was no longer top quality authentic country - none more so than the first single from the "A Long Way Home" album, one of his final hits at country radio, tapping
out at # 17. The singer details how his point of view on a former relationship has evolved over time as the pain began to heal somewhat. There was a definite air of self-assuredness that Yoakam pulled off beautifully -


Released as the album’s second and final single, 'These Arms' starts out sounding like a tribute to the almost identically themed Ray Price classic 'Crazy Arms' (post # 269) including the standard Ray Price 4x4 shuffle beat, opening with a fiddle, rhythm guitar and piano. But, of course, Yoakam then inserts his own interpretation as the production suddenly changes direction by the song’s first bridge, with amped up electric guitars, drums and a swelling string section, before reverting back to the original instrumentation for the next verse. The song alternates between the 2 styles for its duration. It’s a great song, but some traditionalists may find the production changes somewhat jarring and would have preferred a more traditional approach throughout. It stalled at # 57 but
I rather like it -


Tomorrow, or the day after, will extend Dwight Yoakam's career, now past his commercial peak, aged in his forties, but still retaining a youthful image and moves, as it moves to the end of the 1990's.
Edit - it'll be the day after - Wednesday. Been too busy.
 
Last edited:
The previous opening piece was on Dwight Yoakam's budding acting career, which started in earnest inThe mid 1990's. By 1999, it was evident that cinema-struck Yoakam was too busy prioritising trying to boost his movie career over his music. Yoakam and Sheryl Crow appeared in the thriller The Minus Man in 1999. Ironically, given his well earned remuas being one of the amiable "good guys" in country music, he appeared in critically-acclaimed performances as a “bad man” - most memorably the malevolent Doyle Hargraves in Sling Blade and an outlaw bank robber in 1998 movie The Newton Boys.

Yoakam's public image as a cool looking dude, always looking years younger than his 42 years, was also altered by appearing on films without his ubiquitous hat - thus revealing he was quite bald over the top of his scone! But more importantly to his music career, he was spending less time either writing songs or in the recording studio. However, this didn't mean he stopped recording altogether, or had lost any of his touch.

So it was that in I1999, Yoakam brought out his second compilation album - "Last Chance for a Thousand Years: Dwight Yoakam's Greatest Hits from the 90's". It includes 11 of his 1990's hit singles from the 1990s, but it did offer 3 new recordings - all 3 of them covers and all 3 of 'em rippers - so good, in fact, I've included them all here. They once again shows Yoakam's ability to choose the right songs to cover and proceeds to put his own mark on them. The album made the U.S. albums Top 10 - and the Top 5 in Canada.

We've seen that Yoakam is quite the Elvis Presley fan. Curiously, it was a specific aspect of Elvis Presley’s music, not the music itself (whose impact, no doubt, is too obvious for Yoakam to have bothered to mention), that had the most effect on Yoakam, namely, the image, burned into little Dwight’s impressionable brain, of Elvis’s use of his guitar as a prop, something more to be brandished than played. Although Yoakam was a fine, deft flat-picker on his big Martin D-18, whereas Presley could barely play, it makes perfect sense that his onstage dandling of his guitar - pointing it at the ceiling, at the floor, at the audience, virtually tossing it up in the air - that this elaborately mannered choreography, which had long ago became a sort of his ironic self-parody, comes straight out of the Elvis playbook - “I had a guitar from as far back as I can remember. ... And I just didn’t escape that influence, that infatuation, with the visual image of Elvis Presley with his guitar.”

The most successful example of Yoakam looking outside the works of country legends for song material remains his honky-tonk re-imagining of Queen. 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' became the Queen’s first U.S. # 1 single in 1980. However, 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' is a song that always sounded like it could have been an Elvis song in its rockabilly style - and in fact, Freddie Mercury wrote it as a tribute to the late Presley. It's Elvis-esque 1950's rockabilly quality enamoured Yoakam and led him to cut it himself for his 1999 album, "Last Chance for a Thousand Years: Dwight Yoakam’s Greatest Hits from the 90’s".

The popularity of Yoakam’s version saw it appear on Gap TV ads at the time the album was released and it later showed up in the 2006 movie, The Break-Up. It climbed as high as # 12 at the U.S in 1999, but in Canada it went all the way to # 1, Yoakam's 6th # 1 Canadian hit. It also became Yoakam’s first hit in the UK, peaking at # 35 on the pop chart - which in the UK includes country music. It’s another one of those effortlessly cool Yoakam covers that some argue is just as good, or even, better than the original - it does at least suit his country and rockabilly vocal better - but you can make up your own mind -

The music video here betrays the line-dance craze that, for better or for worse, exploded in the 1990's (a lot of the blame lies with Miley Cyrus' dad) and has hung round ever since. Me, I prefer to swing and give the girls a whirl.

The album's other new recordings reaffirm Yoakam as one of the best exponents of classic country. 'I'll Go Back To Her' is a Waylon Jennings song about a man hoping to get back with his former partner. Meanwhile 'Thinking About Leaving', a co-write between Yoakam and Rodney Crowell, is based on the direct opposite scenario!

For 'Thinking About Leaving',Yoakam added new lyrics and changed the arrangement of this Rodney Crowell song, which had originally appeared on Crowell's "Jewel of the South" album. Yoakam's re-write, which he did with Crowell, along with his vocals and band, really lifted this song from obscurity, turning it into the confessional of a man torn between a life on the road and making a home with the woman who finally has him wanting to settle down -


The Waylon written 'I'll Go Back To Her' originally appeared on Jennings 1976 album, "Are You Ready For the Country". Yoakam, like Waylon, delivers it with a traditional country sound but keeps it much more rthymic with the accompaniment more prominent. This arrangement, with acoustic guitars by Yoakam and Dean Parks, electric, as always, by Pete Anderson, pedal steel guitar by Gary Morse and Fiddle: Scott Joss, along with the very simple but masterfully effective keyboard by Skip Edwards turns Jennings slow weeper into true honky tonk fare -


Released in 2000, Yoakam’s final album for Reprise, the ironically titled, "Tomorrow’s Sounds Today", again comprised mostly of self-penned material. The irony is because this album, as well as much of Yoakam's entire catalog,could be dubbed "Yesterday's Sounds Today". A few months earlier, Yoakam had re-imagined many of his earlier hits on dwightyoakamacoustic.net, but this album was a conscious attempt to look forward to a new phase of his career - entrenching himself in all things retro. The crying steel guitars, jaunty mandolins and plaintive fiddles that drive this rootsy country & western could have been recorded in the 1950s and only the tasty electric guitar licks of longtime producer/cohort Pete Anderson bring the music up to date. The sound mixes traditional country with prominent fiddle and steel on many tracks, but also includes 3 collaborations with Dwight’s mentor Buck Owens with rock influences - a distinctive combination which probably only Yoakam could have made. However, it proved to be an album out of its time, coming out just as country music declined into glossy pop

'The catchy ‘What Do You Know About Love’ has a typically insistent Dwight groove - a lasting trait from his years developing his sound playing in the LA "Cowpunk" clubs, but it sounds quite contemporary for 2,000 and was the album’s only (modest) hit single, peaking at #26. It was his last ever time in the Top 40, but is a pretty good song and should have done better than it did -


Yoakam certainly had a talent to spot pop songs that could really do with a country makeover. His cover of the popular 1977 Cheap Trick rock song 'I Want You To Want Me', the second single from "Tomorrow’s Sounds Today" is another of his cool covers and one I reckon is better than the original. Granted I’m not at all keen on cheesy arena rock bands like Cheap Trick, but Yoakam stripped much of the inherent cheesiness of this track and turned it into something that’s more yearning for love than begging for it. Yoakam’s version rs the definitive version for me, though it is, admittedly, typically of this type of simple pop, repetitive and doesn't really stand out. As such, it wasn't as successful as the superior song, 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' barely scraped into the top 50 -


As we are now ready into the 21 century, Dwight Yoakam, at age 43, was more determined than ever to be just a big a player as a Hollywood actor as he already was in his long established music career. This desire led him to his biggest career crisis - but that's all for tomorrow or the day after.
 

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