This guy has always had a certain crossover-appeal, hasn't he, all the while maintaining his somewhat traditional image? Any love for the man and his jeans?
― Mule, Wednesday, 30 March 2011 10:04 (2 years ago) Permalink
Trad country has and always will maintain a crossover appeal, but a lot of Yoakam's appeal outside of the regular country realm is that he just seems like a cool dude and an engaging performer. He's good at going big and he's good at dialing back and showing tenderness, which is something missing in a lot of contemporary country (a medium based on loudness and hooks).
― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 30 March 2011 10:09 (2 years ago) Permalink
I think you're spot on. And those jeans...
Plus, he does great covers. IMO, his I Want You to Want Me is way superior to Cheap Trick's.
― Mule, Wednesday, 30 March 2011 10:33 (2 years ago) Permalink
I have his first three albums (Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc., which is a fantastic album title btw, Hillbilly Deluxe and Buenas Noches From A Lonely Room) and they're great. I lose track after that, but I have his most recent one, too, Dwight Sings Buck (Owens), and that's really solid, too.
― that's not funny. (unperson), Wednesday, 30 March 2011 10:48 (2 years ago) Permalink
I like pretty much every Dwight record up through "Gone." And then it was mostly just a matter of losing track. When his acting career took off, and when his own directing, etc. career ("career") distracted him, it seemed like he lost interest in music for a while. Certainly there suddenly seemed to be a lot of cover albums, b-sides collections, soundtracks, unplugged discs, hits collections and a boxed set, all in a row.
He is a great actor, though. Beyond perfect in "Sling Blade," "The Newton Boys," "Panic Room." Seem to recall him being funny in "Wedding Crashers" (?), don't remember him in "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada." but "Wedding Crashers" also started his annoying friendship with Vince Vaughan.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 30 March 2011 11:57 (2 years ago) Permalink
This is my favorite music thing he's ever done, btw. I remember seeing it during the tv broadcast and being awestruck by it. Almost six years later, I still go check out the youtube of it and it does the same trick every time. They need to release that tribute concert on cd, ffs.
― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 30 March 2011 12:02 (2 years ago) Permalink
That's really beautiful.
Makes you wonder, though, if it's really a tribute to June & Johnny, or to Hardin's song? I guess it doesn't really matter, but I really like how classics like this live on, through all the different versions that are done.
― Mule, Wednesday, 30 March 2011 16:20 (2 years ago) Permalink
I listened to "Nothing" over and over again when I was 8 until my mom told me to stop.
― blapsolutely (absolutely clean glasses), Wednesday, 30 March 2011 16:28 (2 years ago) Permalink
He was my gateway into country music back in the late 1980s, on the advice of a friend who was mostly into punk rock. Apparently Yoakam opened for Husker Du? He was sold as an alternative to pop country like Kenny Rogers, which turns out to have been pretty savvy: when I arrived in Texas in the early 90s a local mall had a store named "Guitar, Cadillacs" selling "authentic" Texas-y chintz. The albums don't sound radical to me now: the songs with Buck Owens & Johnny Cash, murder ballads... Gone was a pretty tight record iirc, a bunch of tightly honed songs, get in, do their thing, get out quickly: I always thought it was like an early Beatles album that way.
― Euler, Wednesday, 30 March 2011 16:36 (2 years ago) Permalink
A good friend who doesn't, er, usually buy country records loves Guitar, Cadillacs, and, tbh, that's why I haven't investigated further.
― Hey Look More Than Five Years Has Passed And You Have A C (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 30 March 2011 16:47 (2 years ago) Permalink
The title track from Buenos Noches From a Lonely Room is pretty great.
I need some help with the nineties albums though. Is that comp The Very Best worth owning?
― Hey Look More Than Five Years Has Passed And You Have A C (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 30 March 2011 22:30 (2 years ago) Permalink
Yoakam is one of the handful of artists for whom I go the full-on "completist" route, so I'll go ahead and lay out that bias up front.
The two-disc The Very Best Of comp is solid and would definitely be worth picking up for those in the market for his singles. Which is a fine thing to be in the market for, since Yoakam is easily the most consistent singles artist from his generation of country acts. It includes the majority of his big radio hits, some on-point covers, and "The Back of Your Hand," which is my favorite of his ballads.
Of his studio albums, A Long Way Home and Tomorrow's Sounds Today are the thinnest, but they'd both still rate among the strongest country albums of their respective years. They just aren't up to Yoakam's typical standards, and the singles from those albums are on that best-of comp.
Gone and Blame the Vain are his two most ambitious albums from a production standpoint, and he's smart and self-aware enough to know what kinds of stylistic experiments fit in his overall aesthetic. I'd say they're his two best overall albums, but that's really a matter of splitting hairs.
― jon_oh, Wednesday, 30 March 2011 23:41 (2 years ago) Permalink
"Ain't That Lonely Yet" would be great if the drumming weren't so flat.
― Hey Look More Than Five Years Has Passed And You Have A C (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 01:30 (2 years ago) Permalink
I've been on quite a Yoakam kick. If There Was a Way drifts in the middle before righting itself with its trio of terrific closers. This Time boasts the best singles qua singles, but rhythmically they're inert ("A Thousand Miles From Nowhere," "Ain't That Lonely Yet").
― My mom is all about capital gains tax butthurtedness (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 24 April 2011 14:27 (2 years ago) Permalink
That's a nice point, that they're rhythmically inert. I'd never thought of them that way before. Might he not say in their defense that that's the point, that the songs depict inertness, and by giving that to the rhythm it lets him dance atop that with enough frills to keep things interesting? In country music there's a long tradition of this: you want the beat to sound like a train, going on and on along a long expanse of the heart.
― Euler, Sunday, 24 April 2011 14:56 (2 years ago) Permalink
It doesn't stop those singles from working like motherfuckers, but "Streets of Bakersfield" and "You're The One" moved, y'know? The emphasis shifts on the later singles. If "Ain't That Lonely Yet" works, all credit to Yoakam's vocal; he's never sung better.
― My mom is all about capital gains tax butthurtedness (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 24 April 2011 14:59 (2 years ago) Permalink
He knows how to swing. At the time I thought of those records as retro but it's funny how those kinds of judgments slip away, as the horizon of the now slips. And I understand the self-reflexivity of country music better now too, and appreciate it too. I guess that's just another way of making the point that genres have their own values, and for all of Dwight's outsider image, he knew those values, so that when he played with them it wasn't to break on through but rather to give them new life.
― Euler, Sunday, 24 April 2011 15:09 (2 years ago) Permalink
Population Me is damn good, and so damn fleet and efficient.
― Anakin Ska Walker (AKA Skarth Vader) (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 7 September 2011 01:45 (1 year ago) Permalink
Not a great recording, but I really love this song:
― reggae night staple center (Eazy), Wednesday, 7 September 2011 01:52 (1 year ago) Permalink
New album out, "3 Pears" and it's fucking great!
― Mule, Sunday, 16 September 2012 11:14 (9 months ago) Permalink
This doesn't actually come out until Tuesday 9/18 - it was on the shelf at my local Target this morning, though, and/but when I brought it to the register they wouldn't sell it to me! Bastards...
― 誤訳侮辱, Sunday, 16 September 2012 15:19 (9 months ago) Permalink
Aha, different dates in Europe and the US, then. It was released in Norway on Friday. You're in for a treat. He sounds very hungry now. It's sort of a comeback, almost, as it's been7 years since his last album.
― Mule, Sunday, 16 September 2012 19:15 (9 months ago) Permalink
yeah, it's been ages! Didn't even know a new album was in the works! Looking forward..
― Stormy Davis, Sunday, 16 September 2012 23:51 (9 months ago) Permalink
Wait, Beck is on this thing? That doesn't bode well.
I lost track of Yoakam somewhere in the late '90s, maybe around "Long Way Home," because suddenly there was this endless stream of best-ofs, compilations, acoustic re-makes, boxed sets, Christmas albums and the like, like he was treading water while dealing with movie stuff. Not sure I heard "Population Me" and "Blame the Vain." Were they any good? I'm sure "Dwight Sings Buck" was solid, but at the same time it seemed like another stopgap move. Does he even really tour anymore?
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 17 September 2012 01:28 (9 months ago) Permalink
my introduction to him was perhaps the most horribly titled record of all time: dwightyoakamacoustic.net
it's pretty grebt tho
― mookieproof, Monday, 17 September 2012 01:38 (9 months ago) Permalink
Population Me is a damn good album.
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 17 September 2012 01:43 (9 months ago) Permalink
I had a hunch; Yoakam doesn't really have many (any?) misfires. But he lost control of the direction of his career there for a while. Reminded me of this run of Nanci Griffith collections - best ofs, covers, orchestra, rarities, Christmas - that similarly overshadowed her actual comeback album. Not that I really like her or equate her with Yoakam. Just a similar mess of a discography.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 17 September 2012 01:47 (9 months ago) Permalink
Listening to the new one on Spotify now. It really is pretty damn good.
― 誤訳侮辱, Tuesday, 18 September 2012 14:24 (9 months ago) Permalink
I know. Been playing it lots the last few days. And Josh, re your question a few posts up, he does tour, atleast a bit. Saw him in Oslo in June. Pretty tight show, but expensive as hell. Tickets $ 100 plus.
― Mule, Tuesday, 18 September 2012 19:29 (9 months ago) Permalink
If I had a big giraffe, he'd have to take a real long bath, and that's why waterfalls are really neat
― some dude, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 20:30 (8 months ago) Permalink
He tore shit up on Letterman a few weeks ago and I almost bought the new album immediately afterwards, but the 30 second previews on Amazon made me hesitate. Will probably cave and get Spotify eventually for situations like this.
― cwkiii, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 20:43 (8 months ago) Permalink
don't hesitate! the whole thing sounds so so rich and full
― some dude, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 20:45 (8 months ago) Permalink
one of the year's best imo.
― the ones that I'm near most: fellow outcasts and ilxors (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 20:49 (8 months ago) Permalink
and, yeah, "Waterfall" (the one ship alludes to) and "Rock It All Away" are as good as anything he's done -- plus, he's playing all the guitar and I don't even miss Pete Anderson.
― the ones that I'm near most: fellow outcasts and ilxors (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 20:51 (8 months ago) Permalink
OK, I'm convinced; will definitely check this out!
― cwkiii, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 20:59 (8 months ago) Permalink
bad ass:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzChx-3sqXk
― the ones that I'm near most: fellow outcasts and ilxors (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 21:04 (8 months ago) Permalink
on Kimmel tonight!
― some dude, Thursday, 11 October 2012 03:36 (8 months ago) Permalink
"Missing Heart" is the best song he's ever written. I've been waiting for him to do a gut-level personal song.
― FunkyTonk, Tuesday, 13 November 2012 08:22 (7 months ago) Permalink
And with the sound of 3 Pears he re/invented hard country for the digital age.
― FunkyTonk, Tuesday, 13 November 2012 10:25 (7 months ago) Permalink
"Nothing But Love"!
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 13 November 2012 11:51 (7 months ago) Permalink
This 1987 Betsy Layne, KY Yoakam concert recording is pretty great so far.I wonder how many of the Kentuckians present at the show knew that the players were longtime Angelenos. I wonder if they could hear that the music had a distinctly Californian flavor.
http://www.lostonmyowntrack.com/Dwight-Audio/BetsyLayne1987/
― FunkyTonk, Monday, 17 December 2012 02:04 (6 months ago) Permalink
Dwight's southern Ohio roots get him Kentucky cred.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 17 December 2012 02:16 (6 months ago) Permalink
Oh I know, I'm not questioning his credentials- I just know that when I first listened to him I thought he had such a deep country sound. I sure never would have guessed that it came from LA.
― FunkyTonk, Monday, 17 December 2012 02:27 (6 months ago) Permalink
Close to a year later,'3 Pears' still sounds fucking amazing. I play it all the time. What a great record!
― Mule, Monday, 22 April 2013 16:19 (1 month ago) Permalink
otm! I played it in the car last week.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 22 April 2013 16:21 (1 month ago) Permalink