CD Odyssey Disc 976: Dwight Yoakam

This next album is a whole lot better than seeing this artist live.

Yes, I’m still bitter about the sound quality at the Dwight Yoakam show earlier this year.

Disc 976 is…If There Was a Way

Artist: Dwight Yoakam

Year of Release: 1990

What’s up with the Cover? A giant head cover – very traditional! Here Dwight Yoakam looks back, no doubt wondering if there is a way to light his entire face instead of just half of it. There is, Dwight! Just adjust the light source or move your head – either one will work!

How I Came To Know It: Back at Disc 796 I reviewed a Greatest Hits package of Dwight Yoakam. This got me thinking I might enjoy hearing his studio albums, so I bought “Buenos Noches From a Lonely Room.” I was really enjoying that when I saw a deal for Yoakam’s first five CDs repackaged together for a great price, so I gave away “Buenos Noches..” and the Greatest Hits package and replaced it with the package deal. “If There Was a Way” was one of those albums.

How It Stacks Up:  I now have 7 Dwight Yoakam albums. I like them all, but “If There Was a Way” is not my favourite and I must reluctantly place it…last. Hey, someone’s gotta be last.

Ratings: 3 stars

For an album that ranks last in my Dwight Yoakam collection, “If There Was a Way” is a pretty solid effort. Its biggest sin is sounding a lot like any other of Dwight’s first five records, but just not quite as good.

All the stuff that makes early Dwight Yoakam enjoyable is here. Yoakam’s signature urban cowboy sound is solidly represented, as is his hurt-infused warble. Yoakam has one of those immediately recognizable voices that makes every one of his own songs timeless and every one of his covers seem like an original. It is a high, twangy voice that nevertheless sounds intrinsically macho. Yoakam’s voice is like his jeans; a bit stretched and strained, but in all the right places and sexy as hell.

“If There Was A Way” is a record that focuses on original content, which is nice, given what an undue amount of Yoakam’s hype surrounds some well-known covers. Yoakam is a gifted songwriter and like Emmylou Harris when he picks songs written by someone else, he has a sixth sense in knowing what works best for him.

After three straight #1 country records on the U.S. charts, the record took a minor step back (climbing only to #7) but still spawned six five top twenty singles. At least according to Wikipedia (which is never wrong). Or is it? Because one of the singles I remember was “It Takes a Lot to Rock You” and it isn’t even listed. I don’t love that song but I remember the video vividly, because it features a lot of scantily clad women dancing about. That sort of video makes an impression on a man. But I digress…

Back to the music! This record also features guitar master Pete Anderson, who is a huge part of Yoakam’s early sound. I didn’t notice Anderson as much on “If There Was a Way” as I do on some other records (Scott Joss’ fiddle filled some of that void), but whenever I listened for guitar, there was Pete, faithfully grounding the song in a mix of honky tonk and class.

While the record isn’t my favourite, it is solid throughout and has a couple of my favourite Yoakam songs (“Sad Sad Music” and “You’re the One”). “You’re the One” in particular is a clever mix of heartbreak and revenge. As I wrote about it on my review of the Greatest Hits record, it is “a nasty break-up song filled with bruised hearts and nasty rejections that are all the more pathetic because they are clearly coming after the other party’s already done the damage.” Well said, former me!

“If There Was a Way” is only 48 minutes long, but at 14 tracks still feels a bit too long, and the final two songs, “Dangerous Man” and “Let’s Work Together” feel tagged on after “You’re The One” had provided the perfect exit. “Dangerous Man” is just a bad song and “Let’s Work Together” has a workin’ man solidarity that is a positive message, but seems out of place amidst all the preceding broken hearts and emptied bottles.

These are minor quibbles, however on what is overall a solid record whose biggest crime is not being quite as good as some of Yoakam’s other records.

Best tracks: Sad Sad Music, Turn It on Turn it Up Turn Me Loose, You’re the One

CD Odyssey Disc 929: Dwight Yoakam

I chose to review this next album in anticipation of also reviewing the live tour that is supporting it. As ill luck would have it, tonight’s concert has been postponed. Since I don’t know the reasons behind it, I’m not going to call Mr. Yoakam out; something serious could have happened.

While that show can’t go on, this one must so let’s get to it!

Disc 929 is….Swimmin’ Pools, Movie Stars…

Artist: Dwight Yoakam

Year of Release: 2016

What’s up with the Cover? A place where palm trees grow, rents are low and (given the album’s content) Dwight Yoakam is obviously thinking ‘bout makin’ his way back. Bonus points for identifying that musical reference. Hint: it’s not Dwight Yoakam.

How I Came To Know It: I read a review of it and it sounded intriguing enough that, coupled with knowing I was going to see him live, caused me to buy it.

How It Stacks Up:  A year ago I reviewed (and then gave away) my Dwight Yoakam compilation album (back at Disc 796). I have since purchased 7 of his studio albums. I must regrettably put this one last.

Ratings: 3 stars

It is always great to see a musician late in their career that isn’t afraid to experiment with their sound, and “Swimmin’ Pools, Movie Stars…” finds a 60 year old Dwight Yoakam trading in his urban cowboy country for a more traditional bluegrass sound. I like it, but I wish he had gone even further down that road.

The songs are not new, but are selected from previous albums ranging from 1986’s “Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc. Etc.” through 200’s “Tomorrow’s Sounds Today.” Yoakam makes a nice selection, mixing in major hits (“Guitars, Cadillacs,” “Please Please Baby”), minor hits (“These Arms”, “Gone (That’ll Be Me)” and a half-dozen deep cuts.

Since I never listened to mainstream country radio (or any other radio, for that matter), the deep cuts didn’t feel very deep. Half the songs I’ve been listening to over the past year. The other half are off albums I haven’t purchased yet, and were new to me. Regardless, whether you are a casual fan or a die-hard “own everything” type, these are all solid selections.

When I first started writing this review I was intending to bemoan that the songs are not sufficiently different from the originals and that is still true in part. The bones of the songs are left alone, and a big part of it all is the new instrumentation. A mandolin replaces a drum to keep time, and the banjo and the fiddle get more love in the arrangement. Of course, everyone is unplugged.

The big change is the way the music is played; something I didn’t clue into until I played the six original tracks I have on previous albums side-by-side with their “Swimmin’ Pools, Movie Stars…” versions. Country music tends to play off the back of the beat, whereas bluegrass plays off the front. This means country tends to mosey and bluegrass sounds sprightlier. I know this because my guitar teacher taught me in the bluegrass style. He did this partly because it is very unforgiving when keeping time (and therefore teaches you to do it better) and partly because he loves bluegrass. But I digress…

The point of all that music nerdery, is that even though there aren’t a lot of other changes, just playing the songs as bluegrass songs changes their sound. On songs that are country dirges like “Sad Sad Music” or “Home For Sale” it doesn’t work quite as well, but apart from those two the songs are equal to – and sometimes better than – the originals, with the bluegrass timing often giving them a bit more jump.

Yoakam’s voice, with his high plaintive power, is still the star of the show. Thirty years into his career it is impressive how he can still generate such a unique and emotionally evocative tone. I would have liked to hear him in concert so I could assess just how much of that is post-production (the show is still being rescheduled) but I suspect he’s still got ‘it’.

 The only new content to Yoakam’s catalogue is (ironically) a cover. Yoakam gives Prince’s classic “Purple Rain” a bluegrass makeover. I’ve always felt that it is a shame that Yoakam is known so much for his covers, and less so for his original material, which is solid on its own. That said, Yoakam owns “Purple Rain”. Prince has always constructed beautiful songs, but hearing it reimagined as bluegrass made me wish it had always been this way. Mandolin, banjo and violin solos all fit right in like the song was made for them. It is a fitting tribute to a musical legend lost to us before his time.

Because the album stand on the shoulders of previously released on other records, I’m putting it at the bottom of my Dwight Yoakam collection but there is no shame in that. I started off grumpy with this lack of original content but it has grown on me with every listen. I’ve come to appreciate both the musicianship of the backing band, and also the subtle transformation the style works on the material.

Best tracks: Free to Go, Listen, Guitars Cadillacs, Purple Rain

CD Odyssey Disc 796: Dwight Yoakam

I’ve been on a bit of a run of late eighties/early nineties country music with KD Lang and now this next review.

Disc 796 is….The Essentials

Artist: Dwight Yoakam

Year of Release: 2005 but with music from 1987 to 1993

What’s up with the Cover? Dwight looks old school here, and just a little stoned. I love the jacket. When we were in Nashville last month Sheila and I went in a store that made one-of-a-kind jackets like this. I wanted to get one but while they look casual, they ain’t cheap.

How I Came To Know It: I’d heard Dwight Yoakam here and there over the years and thought I’d take a chance. I didn’t like him enough to go buy all his records, but I liked him enough to get a compilation record.

How It Stacks Up: Compilation albums don’t “stack up” since they aren’t true albums.

Ratings: Compilation albums don’t get a rating – they compete unfairly with all their hits and what-not.

Dwight Yoakam has been quietly making albums for almost thirty years, which makes me wonder why a 2005 album called “The Essentials” only has music from 1986 to 1993. ‘Essential’ apparently only applies to his first five studio albums.

While I look forward to finding out for myself what I think of Dwight’s full discography (yes, Sheila, that’s going to happen), I can’t fault the choices made; the tracks here definitely feel essential. I expect ‘best of’ albums to be higher quality but “Essentials” has really outdone itself, with one great song after another.

The first thing I noticed was how fresh Yoakam sounds – not like anything else country music had offered to that point. Yoakam apparently called it ‘hillbilly’ style, but I think a better term is ‘urban cowboy’. It sounds like a combination of Hank Williams and fifties rock and roll. There’s a nasal drawl in Yoakam’s voice that lays on the hurt just like Hank, but the guitar sound is that of an electric being dragged through country progressions a step slower than it wants. The resulting protest in each note is the perfect match to Yoakam’s vocal delivery.

A big part of this working is lead guitarist Pete Anderson, who is an absolute master of all the multiple influences Yoakam brings to these songs. I’m not sure this stuff would have even worked without Anderson’s signature twang standing side by side with Yoakam’s hillbilly vocals.

These are not songs about being home on the range, or going to the country dance. These are songs about moving to the city; feeling lonely and broke while you wear your cowboy boots out on the pavement. Through it all, Dwight makes it a pleasure to wallow alongside him. It is expressed beautifully on the slow and mournful, “I Sang Dixie”:

“He said way down yonder in the land of cotton, old times there ain't near as rotten

As they are on this damned old L.A. street

Then he drew a dying breath, and laid his head against my chest

Please Lord, take his soul back home to Dixie.”

This song even throws in some traditional southern fiddle and steel guitar, making Yoakam’s allegiance clear when it comes to what kind of artist he is, despite the absence of cows and log cabins.

A lot of Dwight’s early fame came from doing memorable covers. “The Essentials” has him doing Elvis’ “Little Sister,” Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and Johnny Horton’s “Honky Tonk Man.” He also does a fine version of “Streets of Bakersfield” as a duet with original artist Buck Owen which I remember being an early hit for him. In every case, Yoakam makes the song his own and even equal to the original. In the case of “Little Sister” I think it’s better. Since Elvis didn’t write it I’ve decided it now belongs to Dwight Yoakam.

For all that, my “best songs” entries below have none of these. The truth is that Yoakam’s original material is brilliant stuff, and if you decide to go listen to any of these songs, I’d prefer you choose those. “Guitars, Cadillacs” and “I Got You” are both so timeless I was sure they were old covers anyway, but both are Dwight Yoakam originals.

“Ain’t That Lonely Yet,” “You’re the One” and “Fast As You” are all nasty break-up songs filled with bruised hearts and nasty rejections that are all the more pathetic because they are clearly coming after the other party’s already done the damage. They are all brilliant songs, but “Fast As You” is my favourite, if only because of its promise of revenge sex that is simultaneously vitriolic and a little hollow. It is like Dwight couldn’t bring himself to do it, but really wanted to.

“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”

The whole song has a bass line that is very close to “Pretty Woman” and gives the song the same nervous energy. Even if the similarity is deliberate it just makes it better, as Yoakam imagines he’ll be the one ‘walking down the street’ this time. But all those ‘maybes’ undercut the whole threat. A broken heart can really make you wonder just what you’re going to do.

“A Thousand Miles From Nowhere” shows the influence of Gram Parsons and the Byrds, blending that easy hippy rock quality into Yoakam’s urban cowboy vision. If Gram were alive in 1993 when this came out, he would be happy to know his dream of marrying the best of rock and country was alive and well.

This may just be a ‘best of’ album, but it has definitely inspired me to delve deeper into Dwight Yoakam’s discography. It even makes me feel a little guilty I don’t own anything else. I’ll make it up to you, Dwight.

Best tracks:  Ain’t That Lonely Yet, You’re the One, Guitars Cadillacs, Fast as You, I Sang Dixie, A Thousand Miles from Nowhere, I Got You