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YOAKAM COUNTRY NEWS
WELCOME TO YOAKAM COUNTRY NEWS. DWIGHT HAS BEEN "# 1" WITH ME FOR EVER. FAIR USE NOTICE - This website may contain copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner.This page is operated under the assumption that this non-profit use on the web constitutes a "fair use" of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Laws. Copyright © 2001 - 2004 / DWIGHT-YOAKAM-KY YOAKAM COUNTRY
DWIGHT YOAKAM
DWIGHT -- DWIGHT-YOAKAM-KY, 08:05:33 11/03/01 Sat



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POLLSTAR TOUR UPDATE -- DWIGHT- YOAKAM-KY, 08:02:24 11/03/01 Sat

Dwight Yoakam
All Dates Selected. Limit Date Range
Found 20 Items


Date City Venue

Sat 11/03/01 Austin, TX Paramount Theatre

Sun 11/04/01 McAllen, TX Villa Real Conv. Ctr.

Thu 11/08/01 Columbus, OH PromoWest Pavilion

Fri 11/09/01 Lexington, KY Rupp Arena

Sat 11/10/01 Washington, DC 9:30 Club

Sun 11/11/01 Pitman, NJ Broadway Theatre

Tue 11/13/01 Minneapolis, MN State Theatre

Fri 11/16/01 Dallas, TX Cowboys Red River

Sat 11/17/01 Bryan, TX Texas Hall Of Fame

Fri 11/23/01 Reno, NV Reno Hilton

Tue 11/27/01 Tempe, AZ Rockin Rodeo

Thu 11/29/01 Santa Ynez, CA Chumash Casino

Fri 11/30/01 Tucson, AZ Desert Diamond Casino

Sat 12/01/01 San Bernardino, CA Coussoulis Arena

Sun 12/02/01 San Juan Capistrano, CA Coach House

Tue 12/04/01 Alpine, CA Viejas Dreamcatcher Showroom

Thu 12/06/01 Ogden, UT Dee Events Center

Fri 12/07/01 Las Vegas, NV Paris Hotel & Casino

Sat 12/08/01 Las Vegas, NV Paris Hotel & Casino

Sun 12/09/01 Las Vegas, NV Paris Hotel & Casino


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THE MAN -- Sacred Heart / DWIGHT-YOAKAM-KY, 14:27:32 10/28/01 Sun

The Man


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DWIGHT INFO -- Dwight-Yoakam-KY, 22:43:07 10/25/01 Thu

Born Dwight David Yoakam in Pikeville, KY on October 23, 1956, Dwight was exposed to traditional country music from an early age and when he was very young, his family moved to Ohio. By age 10, he had penned his first song, and by age 18, he was playing in clubs in the Ohio Valley.

In 1977, being inspired by Buck Owens, Dwight packed up and moved to Los Angeles. A year later he formed the Babylonian Cowboys. Pete Anderson, whose arrangements, guitar playing and production have played an important role in Yokam's success joined in 1981.

Even though he had a string of Top Ten hits, like "Little Sister," "Little Ways," "Please, Please Baby," and "Always Late With Your Kisses" it didn't change his outsider status in Nashville. Dwight preferred the Western look, with embroidered jackets and skin-tight jeans. He liked it so much that he invested in a C&W clothing venture with Manual, the western-wear designer who got his start with cowboy couturier Nudie.

In the early Nineties, Dwight ventured into acting, making a cameo in the cult film Red Rock West, with Nicolas Cage. In 1992 he scored the soundtrack for White Sands, and later that same year, recorded his version of "Suspicious Minds" for the soundtrack of Honeymoon in Vegas, again starring Nicolas Cage.

Dwight became interested in acting while in high school, performing in the play, The Miracle Worker. After moving to Los Angeles, Dwight appeared in a theater production in Long Beach, but then went back to music afterwards. It wasn't til he was cast in the play, Southern Rapture in 1993 that the acting bug really bit. After several small films, (see filmography) he played the role of Doyle Hargraves in the 1996 film, Sling Blade. His performance received critical praise, as did the Oscar-winning film.

In 1998, Dwight continued persuing both acting and music, taking on the role of Brentwood Glasscock in The Newton Boys, starring Matthew McConaughey, Skeet Ulrich and Ethan Hawke.

Dwight, along with Billy Bob Thornton formed a production company, "Crossfire Sound and Pictures," to develop projects to produce and direct. This year, Dwight released South of Heaven, West of Hell, in which he made his directorial debut. The picture made its "world premiere" on May 12th at the Cannes Film Festival.

Dwight's Filmography

Red Rock West - 1992 (HBO)

Roswell - The U.F.O. Cover-Up - 1992 (Showtime)

The Little Death - 1995 (Island Pictures)

Painted Hero - 1996 (Cabin Fever)

Don't Look Back - 1996 (HBO)

Sling Blade - 1996 (Miramax)

The Newton Boys - 1998 (20th Century Fox)

When Trumpets Fade - 1998 (HBO)

The Minus Man - 1999

South of Heaven, West of Hell - 2000



Dateline: May 22, 2000

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to have a short interview with Dwight by e-mail. The questions are those from several fans that visit this site as well as my own. Here is what Dwight had to say:

Guide Shelly Fabian:
Of the songs that you've recorded so far, which is your favorite to sing?

Dwight Yoakam:
It varies from night to night. Fortunately any of the songs we've recorded can be extremely fulfilling to perform depending on the variety of circumstances that surround any given show like the concert setting, crowd response, the rapport I'm feeling at the moment with the audience and the execution of the song preceding and following the particular song.

Guide Shelly Fabian:
Who were your biggest musical influences?

Dwight Yoakam:
There are too many and varied to be specific about, but suffice to say geographically foundations from the Ohio and Mississippi Valley's and the adjoining tributaries that run in all directions from the two river valleys.

Guide Shelly Fabian:
What do you think of the future of music on the net?

Dwight Yoakam:
No idea yet. Only beginning to present itself over the horizon.

Guide Shelly Fabian:
Do you have a title for the new CD that will be released this fall?

Dwight Yoakam:
Yes, Tomorrow Sounds Today.

Guide Shelly Fabian:
Do you write songs constantly or do you write songs only when it's time to go back into the recording studio?

Dwight Yoakam:
In the past 3-4 years I've developed a habit of keeping numerous small cassette recorders in my house and in a bag with me so that I'm able to commit to tape memory song ideas on a constant basis. That allows me a greater freedom with my writing instincts and me to feel inspired continuously to create new music.

Guide Shelly Fabian:
What singer(s) would you most like to record a duet with?

Dwight Yoakam:
It varies from song to song, although Buck Owens and I recently collaborated on writing a duet together and am looking forward with a great deal of anticipation to recording that track for the new studio album. In addition, I'm finishing a track for the movie "Waking Up In Reno", but there are numerous other singers I look forward to recording with in the near future.


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Old Concert Review from Louisville -- Jeff, 09:47:50 10/24/01 Wed

Dwight Yoakam started last night's performance at the Louisville Palace with a blast of rave-up hillbilly music that included "Guitars, Cadillacs," "Little Sister" and "I Want You To Want Me." Then the Pikeville, Ky., native dipped into "Home For Sale," a tavern weeper that nailed the crowd as hard as any of the fast stuff.
In less than 15 minutes, Yoakam had plowed through songs that had their roots in honky tonk, rockabilly and pop rock, including two cover songs, and yet it was all signature Yoakam. He owned them, just as he owned the audience.

Yoakam was in stellar form and the band, led by guitarist Pete Anderson, was clearly enjoying itself, but Yoakam twice stopped the show to acknowledge the lives lost and heroism shown in the aftermath of Tuesday's terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.

"We've continued to do shows, hopefully with a sense of defiant respect," Yoakam explained.

It's fitting that Yoakam would choose those words, which also clearly describe his music. Yoakam in concert is as traditional as country gets -- in his song writing, attitude and, especially, his heartbroken singing. But Yoakam and Anderson, who produces all of Yoakam's records, have rarely missed a chance to bring a sense of adventure to country music. They respect the music's roots but don't mind a little tweaking.

For one thing, there's Yoakam's well-documented stage show; his slippery hips and greasy dancing recall the sexuality of James Brown more than Hank Williams. But there are also Anderson's frequent forays into the history of country and rock guitar; he can incorporate 60 years of popular music into a single solo.

What's really fun is when the two go head to head. On one side of the stage there's Yoakam, inspiring squeals with every tilt of his pelvis. On the other is Anderson, banging out a solo and then presenting his guitar to the audience as if saying, "Yeah, I killed it, skinned it, and hung it on my wall. It's mine."

Throw in Yoakam's exceptional songs and you have a show that was much needed, a respite from a week of nonstop tragedy.

Sindacato opened the show with a nearly straight-up set of acoustic bluegrass. The only thing that kept it from being textbook 'grass was the presence of a stripped-down drum kit, and even that had its roots in rockabilly, bluegrass' kissing cousin.

The six-member Sindacato had four players capable of singing the lead and everyone was a fine player, but the band's attitude was perhaps its finest feature. The entire band seemed as down home as a Sunday chicken dinner, and the crowd picked up on its friendly vibe as much as its sharp performance.



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Movie Review -- DYKY, 09:46:06 10/24/01 Wed

Yoakam's 'South of Heaven' Ends Up Going Over the Top

By KEVIN THOMAS, Times Staff Writer

Theaters and showtimes
More Los Angeles Times Reviews

In his directorial debut with the western "South of Heaven, West of Hell," singer-composer-actor Dwight Yoakam displays a genuine depth of feeling for the Old West, only to cancel it out with self-indulgence.
Overlong, overwritten--by Yoakam and Stan Bertheaud--it boasts a formidable roster of actors to whom Yoakam all too often lets loose, leaving an awful lot of chewed scenery in their wake. Alas, "South of Heaven" plays like half-baked Peckinpah.
Not surprisingly, Yoakam has composed a beautiful, elegiac score, a perfect complement to James Glennon's evocative camera work. However, again and again, the film progresses with image, pace and music in graceful, rhythmic sync only to come to a grinding halt to enable the actors to emote their hearts out, and then cranks up again until it finally comes to an end--after a total of 2 hours and 7 minutes.
It seems that Yoakam fell in love with his actors, their characters and their dialogue. It's a lapse at once understandable--and deadly.
Ironically, Yoakam has done well for himself. He plays Valentine Casey, marshal of the tiny New Mexico town of Los Tragos, who seems to spend more time being the object of seductive women than tracking down bad guys. But on Christmas Eve, 1907, that changes drastically, when the town is invaded by the large and vicious Henry Gang, headed by its fiery Bible-banging patriarch Leland Henry (Luke Askew), who also happens to be the orphaned Valentine's estranged foster father.
After Henry and his henchmen--his trigger-happy son (Vince Vaughn) and an assortment of dastardly varmints (Paul Reubens, Michael Jeter, etc.)--arrive, Val retreats to the Arizona desert to break wild horses.
Just as Val comes to the even tinier town of Dunfries to sell his horses to the local blacksmith (Bo Hopkins), the blacksmith's beautiful niece (Bridget Fonda), who has become an actress, returns home on her way to San Francisco. And of course the horrible Henrys are about to descend upon Dunfries just as they did upon Los Tragos.
Will Val take off to the coast with Fonda's Adalyne or this time stand his ground and see that vengeance--"justice" is his word--is done? Is there any doubt?
At heart "South of Heaven" is a classic "a-man's-gotta-do-what-he's-gotta-do" tale, and there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, there's nothing wrong with the film's basic premise, but the story is in dire need of the economy that Yoakam brought to his playing of a terrifying abusive man in Billy Bob Thornton's "Sling Blade."
Thornton is one of many familiar people who pop up in this picture. Wearing a long blond wig, he plays an effete and grandiloquent military man, who with his near-mute associate (Warren Zevon) is Adalyne's traveling companion. Matt Clark is Adalyne's hotel-keeper father, a crazed alcoholic; Scott Wilson is Val's ill-fated deputy; and Peter Fonda is a Buffalo Bill-like showman, a comrade of Val's in the Spanish-American War, who turns up in Dunfries just before all hell breaks loose.
Along with Yoakam, Fonda, playing a woman who's had to overcome a troubled past, and Bud Cort, hilarious as a hapless government agent, fare best, primarily because their parts have a succinctness otherwise almost totally lacking in the other key roles.

MPAA rating: R, for strong violence, language and some sensuality. Times guidelines: The violence is very strong, involving several blood baths.

'South of Heaven, West of Hell'
Dwight Yoakam: Valentine Casey
Bridget Fonda: Adalyne Dunfries
Bud Cort: Agent Otts
Luke Askew: Leland Henry


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Show Dates -- DYKY, 09:44:40 10/24/01 Wed

November 01 El Paso, TX Far West Rodeo
November 02 San Antonio, TX Far West Rodeo
November 03 Austin, TX Paramount Theatre

November 04 McAllen, TX La Villa Real Convention Center
November 08 Columbus, OH Promowest Pavilion
November 09 Lexington, KY Rupp Arena
November 10 Washington, D.C. 9:30 Club
November 11 Pitman, NJ Broadway Theatre
November 13 Minneapolis, MN Historic State Theatre
November 16 Dallas, TX Cowboys
November 23 Reno, NV Reno Hilton
November 27 Tempe, AZ Rockin Rodeo
November 28 Santa Ynez, CA Chumash Casino
November 30 Tucson, AZ Desert Diamond

December 01 San Bernardino, CA Coussoulis Arena

December 02 San Juan Capistrano, CA The Coach House

December 04 Alpine, CA Viejas Casino/Dream Catcher

December 06 Ogden, UT Dee Events Center

December 07 Las Vegas, NV Paris Hotel

December 08 Las Vegas, NV Paris Hotel

December 09 Las Vegas, NV Paris Hotel


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December 31 Bakersfield, CA Crystal Palace
TENTATIVE!



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ALL DATES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE!!!

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Mag Articles -- Helen, 09:43:08 10/24/01 Wed

I used to think the music of Dwight Yoakam was brilliant. Now I know, the music's just the creative sap that oozes from a brilliant tree. It's the man himself. He proved it by making me hate him in Slingblade. In the Newton Boys, he steals the show with an icy criminal resolve. As a soldier in HBO's When Trumpets Fade, he make you cry. Now he's directing Billy Bob Thornton and Peter Fonda in a western he wrote called South Of Heaven, West Of Hell. Is there nothing this genius can't do?

Albums like Gone; This Time; Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc. Etc.; Buenos Noches From A Lonely Room, Hillbilly Deluxe and If There Was A Way are among the best musical statements of the last two decades. Now comes A Long Way Home and it is, so far, The Album of 1998. Producer-guitarist superman Pete Anderson is right there, as always, to make Dwight's sound. He's SO much a part of Dwight's sound that Dwight wouldn't be the Dwight he is today without Pete.

The Dwight tribute album, entitled The Songs of Dwight Yoakam, "Will Sing For Food," A Benefit For The Homeless, features David Ball, Sara Evans, Tim O'Brien, Pete Droge, The Blazers, Kim Richey & Mandy Barnett, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Bonnie Bramlet, The Backsliders, Reckless Kelly, Scott Joss, Jim Matt, Rhonda Vincent and The Lonesome Strangers. Is it any wonder that, to these ears, it's the best tribute album ever? (Except for may the one for Nilsson).

Dwight's track on bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley's new double-album, Clinch Mountain Country, "I've Just Got Wise" is as big a hoot as Stanley's guest appearance on "Traveler's Lantern" off of Dwight's A Long Way Home.
In the conversational clinch, you can hear the wheels turning when Dwight pauses to think. He's reflective, super-intelligent, a musical historian, a natural mathematical mind at work. He'll call you on something stupid. He'll ask why. He'll ponder your question and maybe get oblique, even stop talking to think something through. He's serious. Yet his sense of humor and wonder -- almost childlike and pure -- of the world around him makes him a sponge to soak up the debris of human frailties that crowd his songs.

Ultimately, Dwight is Elvis is Buck Owens is Hank is Lefty is Merle. He's Dwight. An all-encompassing philosophical everyman who embodies and encapsulates all who came before him. His art is life-enriching. He is, I dare say, one of the few true musical country geniuses on the planet in his prime and getting better. Hail Dwight!



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review from 'Profile Magazine, Aug/Sep 98 - Issue #18' by Theresa Donich.
'Philosopher In Boots'

It's 3 o'clock on a Thursday afternoon; the marine layer over L.A. that caused the morning overcast has burned off, leaving a glorious, typically blue sky. "It's about 75 degrees Fahrenheit," says country superstar Dwight Yoakam. "I don't know what that is in Celsius." It's not "beach weather", he says, but it is beautiful, which is what he loves about California.
Born in Kentucky and raised in Ohio, the 41-year-old Yoakam has lived in L.A. for more than half his life, but still hangs on to an endearing drawl. Typically (for the music business), Yoakam is just driving into his office, and his call comes in an hour late. "This is a stereotypical L.A. call," he apologizes, "...from a car."
Between releasing his 11th CD, A Long Way Home, and shooting a new movie called The Minus Man, in which he's landed a supporting role that will keep him on location for several weeks, his schedule is busier than ever. He came to professional acting long after his singing career took off, but his desire to act didn't appear from nowhere; Yoakam started acting in high-school theatre productions. "I had very good teachers," he recalls. "They instilled in me a very strong work ethic."
His success in the music industry is based not only on his talent as a singer/songwriter, but on an easily identifiable style and unique persona. However, the transition from heartthrob honky-tonk country singer to serious actor hasn't come as easily. Ironically, the slick, sexy image of Yoakam in his trademark cowboy hat, designer jacket and breathlessly tight Levi's 517s (asked if they have any stretch to them, he says emphatically, "Nooo, no, no, no") became his biggest hurdle in breaking into the film industry. "I had to strive to convey my sincerity to find roles where I wasn't just asked to play the cowboy singer," he says.
In just a few years, he's done exactly that. Since his acclaimed performance in Sling Blade, where he portrayed an abusive boyfriend, and more recently in The Newton Boys as a criminal compatriot, Yoakam's proved he can deliver with nary a Stetson in sight. He enjoys both acting and music, and has no plans to give up either; it's a juggling act, but his professional halves are now almost co-dependent. "One inspires me to do the other."
That's probably no more evident than in the writing for his new CD, most of which was done in the small Texas hotel room where he stayed while filming The Newton Boys. "It allowed me the space and solitude I needed to listen to my inner voice."
The first single, "Things Change", doesn't stray far from the style his fans have grown accustomed to hearing, described as having a more traditional bent than his previous Under The Covers release. "Covers was an excursion from the genre. It was an illustration of the influence other music had on me," he explains. "A Long Way Home is an introspective album, 'home' being the essential home we all have within ourselves, the place we exist as human beings." He admits that the title cut is one of his favourites.
From album to album, Yoakam's music has evolved; he speaks of the journey as one that changes from moment to moment, day to day. "I don't know where it's going and that's what's exciting, that's what keeps it intriguing," he says. It's also very much in keeping with his life philosophy, which he calls 'momentary absolutism'. Defining the term, he says, "Things are absolutely as they are, until they're not. All the paradigms that we feel are etched in stone, crumble. A rock that is carried downstream by the rushing flood that you never planned on...." In other words, things change.


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Dwight Yoakam Fact Sheet -- DWIGHT- YOAKAM-KY, 08:15:13 10/24/01 Wed

Dwight Yoakam Fact Sheet
updated 2001


"A Thousand Miles From Nowhere" from dwightyoakamacoustic.net is nominated for "Best Male Country Vocal Performance" GRAMMY. The 43rd Annual GRAMMY Awards will be held at the Shrine Auditorium in February.

2000

Tomorrow's Sounds Today & DwightYoakamAcoustic.net made Brian Mansfield's USA Today's Top 10 list.

Jay Leno invited DWIGHT back again on December 19 to perform "Run Run Rudolph" from his 1997 holiday album COME ON CHRISTMAS.

Friday, December 15 marks the Los Angeles opening of DWIGHT'S directorial film debut "South of Heaven, West of Hell" at the Mann Westwood Fourplex. This limited engagement preceeds a national opening of the film in 2001.

CMT's "Hit Trip" films an interview with DWIGHT on location in and around Los Angeles for their final 2000/2001 season episode.

Online retailer CDNow.com just announced their list of "10 Essential Country Albums of 2000" and DWIGHT's Tomorrow's Sounds Toda ranked #2 with Dwightyoakamacoustic.net ranked at #9.

Online retail leader Amazon.com named Grammy-winning country singer and songwriter DWIGHT YOAKAM their "Country Artist Of The Year."

DWIGHT is set to co-star in the film "Panic Room" which goes into production in December 2000. The film will be directed by David Fincher and stars Nicole Kidman and Forrest Whitaker.

KZLA radio in Los Angeles invited DWIGHT to perform at their annual "Country Cookout" concer held at the Universal Amphitheater in Universal City, CA. The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "…the most adventurous performance came from veteran Dwight Yoakam, who always stays true to his honky-tonk roots while stretching boundaries. It was actual artistry during an afternoon and then evening of acts who mostly played a few hits then pushed their newest single."

DWIGHT performs at a benefit concert for My Friend's Place -- a non-profit organization dedicated to helping homeless and impoverished youth move from the street to self-sufficient, productive lives -- on November 4.

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno invited DWIGHT back on November 3 to perform "What Do You Know About Love."

AOL hosts a chat with DWIGHT on November 1 to discuss the release of his new studio album.

DWIGHT's 16th album entitled Tomorrow's Sounds Today was released on Tuesday, October 31, 2000.

The 34th Annual CMA Awards taps DWIGHT to present the "Best Music Video" award on Tuesday, October 3, 2000 from the Opryland Theater in Nashville.

DWIGHT debuts the first single, "What Do You Know About Love," from his forthcoming album Tomorrow's Sounds Today on The Late Show with David Letterman on Monday, September 4, 2000.

Folks in Nashville helped raise funds for the Belcourt Theater and the Nashville Film Festival when tickets sold out to a screening of "South of Heaven, West of Hell" on July 3.

Dwight held his third webchat to discuss "dwightyoakamacoustic.net" with Sonicnet on June 26 from Austin, Texas.

Dwight left his hand and foot prints at the Celebrity Walk of Fame in Fargo, ND on June 16 to commemorate his performance at the Red River Valley Fair.

On Tuesday, June 13, Dwight conducted a webchat with PEOPLE.com on AOL Live! He talked to fans about his new acoustic album, the summer tour and answered questions.

dwightyoakamacoustic.net is released through Reprise Records on May 30. "The idea for this album came as a result of the audience's gracious and enthusiastic response to the acoustic performances I did on our 1999 'Last Chance' Tour," explains Dwight. "The 25 songs on the album span the fifteen years that I have been fortunate enough to spend recording as a singer and songwriter."

"South Of Heaven, West of Hell," Dwight 's directorial film debut will premiere on May 12 in Cannes, France. The film is being distributed in France and Italy by Goldmount Forum Film. Corp.

Dwight performed at a benefit concert for the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch at Floore's Country Store in Helotes, TX along with the DeRailers, Flaco Jiminez, Kinky Friedman and some special guests on Saturday, March 25.

Based on Dwight 's performance with Asleep at The Wheel during their NARAS post-Grammy party, Jay Leno invited them to perform "New San Antonio Rose" on The Tonight Show Tuesday, March 7.

Though Dwight didn't take home a Grammy Award this year for "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," he celebrated the evening's festivities by performing a 30 minute set with Asleep At The Wheel at the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) post-Grammy party held February 23 at the Biltmore hotel. Marty Stuart also joined in.

A special non-competition screening of "South Of Heaven, West of Hell" was shown January 28, 2000 at the Treasure Mountain Inn as part of the indie festival Slamdance (an offshoot of Sundance) in Park City, UT.

Dwight participated in VH1's Storytellers webcast live from Park City, UT on Thursday, January 27. Other artist that are participating include Lisa Loeb, Lyle Lovett, Aimee Mann and John Popper (Blues Traveler).

Country Music Television (CMT) Canada posted their Top 99 of '99 and the video for "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" was listed at #36.

Billboard Magazine's 1999 Year in Music Charts (December 25 - January 1 issue) recapped of Dwight 's accomplishments:

#46 Top Country Artists

#29 Top Country Album Artists

#46 Hot Country Singles & Tracks Artists

#64 "Crazy Little Thing Called Love": Hot Country Singles & Tracks

Dwight 's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" received a Grammy nomination for Best Male Country Vocal Performance. The 42nd annual Grammy Awards was telecast live February 23 from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

1999

On New Year's Eve, DWIGHT rang in the new millennium, performing with Buck Owens at Buck's Crystal Palace in Bakersfield, CA.

The Dwight Yoakam iSong CD-Rom was released November 19. iSong is interactive instruction software that gives players the ability to learn to play directly from the original artist recordings, note for note. It synchs to the original master recordings. Whether you read music or not, iSong offers guitar and keyboard players of all skill levels a revolutionary new way to learn favorite songs. All you need is a computer and basic music skills. Dwight's iSong CD-Rom will feature six iSongs, original recordings, note-accurate transcriptions, animated scores, synched virtual fretboard/keyboard, synched video instruction, looping function, tempo control.

Gibson Guitars issued a DWIGHT YOAKAM signature acoustic guitar called the "Y2K" (Y for Yoakam, 2K for the year 2000), which is an all maple J-200 Jr., approximately 80% of size of the traditional Gibson jumbos. A very limited run of the "Y2K" will be manufactured through the end of the year 2000.

Dwight's triple platinum album "This Time" was named one of the Top 20 LPs of the decade by the Austin American Statesman and was the only country LP to make the list.

DWIGHT was voted one of the Top 20 acts of 1999 by Country Song Round-Up readers.

DWIGHT contributed two songs for the Daddy & Them soundtrack -- the forthcoming film directed by and starring Billy Bob Thornton -- including "Ghost Riders In The Sky" and "Riding On A Dream," which also features guest vocals by Sheryl Crow. Both tracks were produced by Marty Stuart.

DWIGHT presented the Hard Rock award to Limp Bizkit at the first annual ARTISTDirect Awards that were netcast live through ARTISTDirect.com. The award program was held at the House of Blues in Los Angeles on October 7.

On October 2, DWIGHT appeared on the Merle Haggard Pay-Per-View program from the Las Vegas Hilton performing "Swinging Doors" and some other surprises. This show will air again on TNN November 23 and December 29.



Since wrapping up his "Last Chance For A Thousand Years" tour in September, DWIGHT has been busy putting the final touches on South Of Heaven, West Of Hell, his feature film directorial debut, which he also stars in and co-wrote with Stan Berthheaud. Shot on location earlier in the year, the film is a gothic western which also stars Billy Bob Thornton, Peter Fonda, Bridget Fonda, Vince Vaughn, Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman) and Michael Jeter.

DWIGHT is featured on Ride With Bob, the all-star Asleep At The Wheel tribute album, with the track "San Antonio Rose," available on Dreamworks.

DWIGHT'S on "Bakersfield Biscuits" will be launching a website soon at www.bakersfieldbiscuits.com. For now, biscuits can be purchased by phoning 1 (800) 794 0611 between 8 am and 5 pm (Pacific).

Dwight appeared in a new feature film, "The Minus Man" which debuted in Los Angeles and New York on September 10 and opened nationwide on September 24. The film also starred Owen Wilson, Janeane Garofalo, and Sheryl Crow.

On September 22, DWIGHT performed "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" on the 1999 CMA Awards. That same evening, "Same Old Train," from the record "Tribute To Tradition," received a CMA Vocal Event nomination. The cut featured a who's who in country music including Marty Stuart, Clint Black, Joe Diffie, Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, Patty Loveless, Earl Scruggs, Pam Tillis, Randy Travis, Travis Tritt, Dwight Yoakam and Ricky Skaggs. "Same Old Train" previously won a Grammy Award for best country collaboration with vocals and best bluegrass album in February 1999.

DWIGHT's Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc. Etc. was certified double platinum by the RIAA on September 22.

On August 19, DWIGHT performed "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" on the Late Show With David Letterman.

In August, CMT aired DWIGHT's video biography.

On June 3, DWIGHT performed "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" on The Tonight Show.

DWIGHT released Last Chance For A Thousand Years: Dwight Yoakam's Greatest Hits From The 90's on May 18.

In the May 13th issue of Rolling Stone, DWIGHT's album If There Was A Way was names one of the top 5 country albums of the decade.

On April 18, DWIGHT released A Long Way From Home: Twelve Years of Words (Hyperion), a complete book collection of 61 song lyrics which DWIGHT wrote or co-wrote, including an introduction from the man himself.

DWIGHT recording Queen's hit "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" for THE GAP clothing store. The commercial premiered March 21 during the 1999 Academy Awards.

At the 1999 Grammy Awards on February 24, DWIGHT won a Grammy for "Best Country Collaboration" for "Same Old Train" along with Clint Black, Joe Diffie, Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, Patty Loveless, Earl Scruggs, Ricky Skaggs, Marty Stuart, Pam Tillis, Randy Travis and Travis Tritt.

1998

On December 5, 1998, DWIGHT performed "Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain" and segued into "Hello Walls" at the Kennedy Center Honors for Lifetime Achievements Awards at the Kennedy Center For the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. honoring Willie Nelson. The show aired nationally December 30, 1998.

DWIGHT participated in a 13-hour, CBS-produced documentary that aired on TNN entitled A Century Of Country. It is the network's definitive history of the music and its makers for the next millennium.. CBS felt DWIGHT's music was such a strong example of how modern country can build upon tradition. In particular, DWIGHT discussed his interpretations of 1950's honky-tonk and the 1960's Bakersfield-sound, and how his own style defies any attempt at labeling.

Hallway Entertainment produced the authorized documentary on the music and life of Roy Orbison. The program was endorsed by Mrs. Barbara Orbison and was released worldwide as a television special and home video. The documentary chronicled Roy's career and life with classic performances, footage, personal home videos and photos and featured interviews, comments and anecdotes from friends, peers, collaborators and associates, including DWIGHT.

In preparation for his second single "These Arms" from his critically acclaimed album A Long Way Home, DWIGHT once again directed his own video. The single, musically described by YOAKAM as "kind of a classic, hillbilly shuffle," was released early September. According to the Los Angeles Times, "'These Arms' voices a single-minded yearning for love like vintage Buck Owens."

E! Entertainment Television produced and "Extreme Close Up" episode on DWIGHT. "ECU" is a series of original, half-hour programs.

On June 27, the HBO film "When Trumpets Fade" premiered starring DWIGHT alongside Ron Eldard and Frank Whaley. (The film was shot on location in Budapest in November '97.)

DWIGHT performed with Buck Owens on July 4th drawing thousands of people to the KNIX Free Radio show in Phoenix, Arizona.

DWIGHT performed "Things Change" on the Tonight Show June 12.

DWIGHT released A Long Way Home June 9.

CMT named DWIGHT "Artist of the Month" for June.

DWIGHT directed three versions of the video "Things Change," the first single from A Long Way Home.

DWIGHT performed the Everly Bros./Linda Rondstadt classic "When Will I Be Loved" with Tish Hinajosa on the Alma Awards which broadcasted June 8 on ABC.

DWIGHT contributed "Cattle Call" to The Horse Whisperer soundtrack. (Robert Redford produced, directed and starred in the film.)



On March 27, The Newton Boys, directed by Richard Linklatter opened nationwide starring DWIGHT alongside Matthew McConaughey, Ethan Hawke, Skeet Ulrich, Vincent D'Onofrio, Julianna Margulies and Chloe Webb. According to a review in Rolling Stone: "Stealing the show is country singer DWIGHT YOAKAM (Sling Blade), who plays explosives expert Brent Glasscock with sly mischief. Brent helps out the boys on a train robbery that leads to their capture and the film's action highlight."

At the 1998 Grammy Awards in January, DWIGHT received a nomination for Best Country Album for his 1997 release Under The Covers.

DWIGHT recorded "Rapid City South Dakota" for the Kinky Friedman Tribute Album (due 1998).

1997

On December 21, 1997, DWIGHT performed his second benefit concert for the Los Angeles Mission at Billboard Live in West Hollywood.


On December 18, DWIGHT again appeared on the Tonight Show, performing "Silver Bells" from Come On Christmas.

DWIGHT recorded "T For Texas" for Jimmie Rodgers: A Tribute, the first release from Bob Dylan's own label Egyptian Records (distributed via Sony Music Entertainment).


DWIGHT went on location mid-November to Budapest to film the World War II drama "When Trumpets Fade," an HBO production also starring Ron Eldard and Frank Whaley.

On December 19, DWIGHT performed several songs from Come On Christmas on CNN's "Showbiz Today".


On December 10, DWIGHT performed "Run Rudolph Run", "I'll Be Home For Christmas" and a duet with Buck Owens of "Santa Looks A Lot Like Daddy," for "Prime Time Country" in Las Vegas.


DWIGHT made an appearance on the Tonight Show on August 1 of this year where he performed "Claudette" from his release Under the Covers.


DWIGHT taped a duet of "It Only Hurts When I Cry" with Dean Miller for a Roger Miller Remembered Tribute Special to air in January of 1998. DWIGHT and Roger co-wrote this song for DWIGHT'S album If There Was A Way.

DWIGHT released two albums in 1997. On July 15th, the critically acclaimed Under the Covers, and in the Fall, Come on Christmas was released just in time for the holidays. Come on Christmas includes two original songs by DWIGHT, as well as holiday favorites.


On April 30, DWIGHT appeared in the coming-out episode of "Ellen" along with Laura Dern, k.d. lang, Billy Bob Thornton and Melissa Etheridge.

In March, DWIGHT joined Matthew McConaughey, Ethan Hawke, Skeet Ulrich, Vincent D'Onofrio, Julianna Margulies and Chloe Webb in Texas to film The Newton Boys, a true Midwestern tale of bank robbers in the 1920's directed by Richard Linklatter (Suburbia, Dazed and Confused, Before Sunrise). While on location, DWIGHT penned many of the songs for A Long Way Home (released in 1999)

At the 1997 Grammy Awards, DWIGHT received a nomination for Best Country Album for his 1996 release Gone.

1996


On October 10, 1996, DWIGHT YOAKAM received the Premiere Performance Award (recognizing outstanding breakthrough performances in film) at the 57th Annual Motion Picture Club Awards in New York for his role as Doyle Hargraves in the Miramax Academy Award winning feature Sling Blade. The film was written and directed by Billy Bob Thornton (One False Move), who also stars. Additionally, Sling Blade features Robert Duvall, J.T. Walsh and John Ritter.


At the 30th Annual CMA Awards in Nashville, DWIGHT presented Buck Owens with an induction into the Country Music Hall Of Fame and the two performed their hit duet "Streets Of Bakersfield."


The Kentucky Tourism Development Cabinet and the Kentucky Governor's office dedicated a stretch of Highway U.S. 23, newly designated "Country Music Highway," in Floyd County, KY in honor of YOAKAM.


DWIGHT and his band performed "Sorry You Asked" on the Tonight Show on May 9, 1996, just prior to launching their North American "GONE Tour `96" with a show in Tucson, AZ on May 16. The tour continued through the summer with a show at Los Angeles' Universal Amphitheater June 13.

The Disney Channel broadcast the world premiere of DWIGHT's first-ever television special Dwight Live on May 5, 1996. The 60-minute show featured live concert footage and conversational interludes between YOAKAM and actor Dennis Hopper as they haunted various Hollywood locales including the landmark Roosevelt Hotel. Following the special, DWIGHT's "Sorry You Asked" video was aired in its entirety.


DWIGHT presented a moving, emotional tribute to the late Minnie Pearl at the Academy Of Country Music Awards held April 24, 1996 at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles.


YOAKAM's self-directed music video for "Sorry You Asked" is a seven-plus minute film short starring Harry Dean Stanton and Bo Hopkins which was shot on location at a roller skating rink in California's San Gabriel Valley. The two videos which preceded, "Nothing" and "Gone," were also directed by DWIGHT. (DWIGHT co-directed videos previously for "A Thousand Miles From Nowhere," "Ain't That Lonely Yet" and "Try Not To Look So Pretty" from This Time.)


On February 28, 1996, DWIGHT performed "Fast As You" at the 38th Annual Grammy Awards where Dwight Live was nominated for "Best Country Album" and "A Thousand Miles From Nowhere (live)" was nominated in the "Best Male Country Vocal Performance" category. YOAKAM's first ever live album was also certified gold, signifying 500,000 sales in the U.S.


Gone (released October 31, 1995) was certified gold by the R.I.A.A. coinciding with the release of the album's second single and title track "Gone (That'll Be Me)" which DWIGHT and his band performed on the Late Show With David Letterman on February 1, 1996.

1995


DWIGHT's December 19, 1995 sold-out benefit show at L.A.'s Viper Room raised money for the Los Angeles Mission, an organization for the homeless, and the L.A. Firemen's Relief Fund for widows, orphans and disabled firefighters.


The double impact of Dwight Live and Gone in 1995 earned YOAKAM a spot on Rolling Stone's critics' poll as the #2 country artist of the year, while USA Today's David Zimmerman cited Gone as the second best country album of the year.


YOAKAM's November 1, 1995 Tonight Show performance--an inspired rendition of "Nothing" (the first single from Gone)--was complete with strings, horns and a painting by Swiss-born painter Hans Burkhardt.

October 31, 1995 marked the release of DWIGHT's seventh full-length studio album, Gone, featuring 10 self-penned gems (two co-written with Kostas) that make up his most diverse album to date. In a 3-1/2 star USA Today review, David Zimmerman noted that YOAKAM "pushed the buttons of a classic jukebox, a little Beatles, some Yardbirds, a little mariachi, some 50's rock and 60's country...He's here for the long haul."


On October 4, 1995 DWIGHT performed "Nothing" (from Gone), on the 29th Annual Country Music Association Awards in Nashville, accompanied by his band, four back-up vocalists, 12 string players and a five-piece horn section. Later that evening, DWIGHT reappeared to play "It Only Hurts When I Cry," joining Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Marty Stuart and Dolly Parton in a tribute to the late songwriting pioneer Roger Miller, with whom he co-wrote the song.

In 1995, CMT aired DWIGHT's Gone special several times in Europe and the U.S.


Gone received critical praise from an array of publications including Rolling Stone, Spin, Musician, Newsweek, CD Review, People, Us, Billboard, USA Today, Country Music, New Country, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Dallas Morning News, The Boston Globe, The Tennessean, The Houston Chronicle and The San Francisco Chronicle, among others.

SJS Entertainment Radio network broadcast a live DWIGHT YOAKAM concert nationwide via satellite on Monday, May 22 at 7 pm (pacific), the eve of his new Reprise Records release Dwight Live. The 90 minute set, part of SJS' "Country In Concert" series, emanated from Hollywood's Capitol Recording studio and entertained an audience of 40 people. The show was hosted by KZLA-FM (Los Angeles) afternoon personality, Shawn Parr and was broadcast to over 200 SJS affiliate country stations. Dwight Live marks YOAKAM's first-ever live album. It was recorded at the final stop on his sold-out and critically-acclaimed "This Time" tour -- July 30, 1994 at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco -- and features 17 songs by the trail-blazing songwriter and Grammy Award winner.

DWIGHT made a surprise guest appearance March 8, 1995 at the House Of Blues in Los Angeles, dueting on the Rolling Stones classic, "The Last Time," with the evening's headliner, Tom Jones. The performance was taped for later broadcast on the TBS concert series, Live From The House Of Blues.


DWIGHT's single, "Pocket Of A Clown," was nominated for "Best Country Vocal Performance, Male" at the 37th Annual Grammy Awards (1994), in the same category that he won the year before with "Ain't That Lonely Yet," off the same album, This Time. DWIGHT also presented the award for "Country Album Of The Year" at the ceremonies which were held at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium on March 1, 1995.


N.A.R.A.S./B.M.I. honored DWIGHT with a star on the Country Star Restaurant "Boot Walk Of Fame" in a presentation held at Universal Studios City Walk on February 26, 1995. Accepting his own star alongside DWIGHT, was his friend and mentor, the legendary Buck Owens.

In January 1995, DWIGHT toured Australia for the first time in support of Gone.

1994


On November 10, 1994, while celebrating his 10th anniversary as a recording artist with a reception and performance at L.A.'s historic Palomino club, DWIGHT accepted a double platinum award for This Time, in addition to platinum awards for both Hillbilly Deluxe (his second album) and the greatest hits package, Just Lookin' For A Hit. The evening included a testament to DWIGHT's musical achievements from Warner Bros. Records Chairman of the Board Mo Ostin and a congratulatory telegram from Merle Haggard. Proceeds benefited the economically hard-hit venue and the L.A. Fireman's Relief Association.


DWIGHT's performance of "Mystery Train" at the Elvis: The Tribute pay-per-view concert in Memphis on October 8, 1994, was singled out by critics as one of the event's highlights. As Chris Willman noted in the Los Angeles Times, DWIGHT "definitely had a little Elvis in him." Other performers included Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Tony Bennett, Iggy Pop, Chet Atkins, Melissa Etheridge and Michael Bolton with Pricilla Presley, Lisa Marie Presley Jackson and Michael Jackson in attendance. DWIGHT's performance also landed on the Mercury/Polydor live album, It's Now Or Never: The Tribute to Elvis, and ABC-TV's prime-time broadcast, which aired December 15, 1994.


DWIGHT co-starred with Kyle MacLachlan and Martin Sheen in Showtime's production of Roswell which aired in the summer of '94. He played Mac Brazel, a rancher who discovers the crash site of a UFO on his land. It's a dramatized account of a true story which took place in Roswell, NM in '47.


DWIGHT's concert on July 30, 1994, at San Francisco's historic Warfield Theater, was marked by extraordinary energy, partly because it was the last date on the second leg of the "This Time Tour" (in support of DWIGHT's This Time album), and also because it was recorded for DWIGHT's first-ever live album, Dwight Live (released in mid-1995).


DWIGHT's version of "Holding Things Together" appears on Tulare Dust: A Songwriter's Tribute to Merle Haggard.

Along with Pete Anderson, DWIGHT served as music supervisor on the motion picture soundtrack, Chasers (in theaters during the summer 1994), featuring such diverse artists as Buck Owens and the Meat Puppets, along with tracks by Pete and DWIGHT.


DWIGHT received two nominations for the Academy of Country Music's 29th Annual Awards (1993)--"Single Record Of The Year" for "Ain't That Lonely Yet," as well as "Album Of The Year" for This Time. DWIGHT also performed during the ceremonies at the Universal Amphitheater May 3, 1994.


DWIGHT earned his first Grammy at the 36th Annual Grammy Awards for "Best Country Vocal Performance, Male" for "Ain't That Lonely Yet," the first single released from the double-platinum This Time. He was also nominated for "Country Vocal Collaboration" with Ralph Stanley for their version of the YOAKAM original "Miner's Prayer" on Stanley's album Saturday Night & Sunday Morning.


DWIGHT made his big screen acting debut in early '94 in John Dahl's Red Rock West with Nicholas Cage and Dennis Hopper. "John Dahl's terrific film noir Red Rock West brings to mind the Coen brothers' Blood Simple, Carl Colpaert's Delusion and his own Kill Me Again in its clever plotting and wide open-spaces setting," noted The Los Angeles Times in a review. Interestingly, the film made an unusual journey from its initial theatrical release, to video, and back to an impressive run in art-house theatres across the U.S.

1993


In conjunction with This Time, DWIGHT performed on Saturday Night Live (in `94), twice on the Late Show With David Letterman (in '93) and once on the Tonight Show (in '93).


DWIGHT played to sold-out crowds on a five-month 90 city full-scale North American tour in '93. It was his first full-fledged tour in four years and by far his most successful. DWIGHT followed up in the summer of `94 by doing a limited U.S. tour (15 cities), in addition to an extensive European tour.

DWIGHT is responsible for the most successful CMT (Country Music Television) sweepstakes ever sponsored by the network, earning them a Midsouth Regional Emmy award. In a CMT cross-promotion with Musicland/Sam Goody, (the grand prize of which was DWIGHT's 1964 classic Cadillac Coupe De Ville) over 125,000 entry forms were received between Thanksgiving and Christmas of '93, more than doubling the entries submitted for any other previous promotion.


CMT Europe named YOAKAM their "Artist Of The Year" for 1993.


Along with VJ Duff, DWIGHT co-hosted MTV's very first country music special "Knockin' The Boots," which aired twice in November 1993. This prime-time 60-minute program featured country videos, interviews and live performances. YOAKAM was seen in three videos--including "Fast As You" and "A Thousand Miles From Nowhere" from This Time, plus "Suspicious Minds" from the Honeymoon In Vegas soundtrack--as well as in live concert footage from a Houston show filmed in late September.


Rolling Stone featured DWIGHT in their summer of '93 "College Issue" in a major five-page profile. In a four-star lead review of This Time in Rolling Stone, Don McLeese wrote: "Though YOAKAM is rarely mentioned with Randy Travis or John Anderson among the first rank of neotraditionalist vocal virtuosos, This Time suggests that he has no contemporary peer, that his emotional precision and command of nuance have attained a kind of perfection--if one can imagine Buck Owens and Johnny Horton as spiritual mentors."


DWIGHT was featured in an array of publications from the cover of Country Guitar, Country Fever, Country Music, Modern Screen's Country Music, Country Music Foundation, Country Music Roundup, Country Music USA, Music Connection, Music Express, to the cover of the life section of USA Today, to major features in Us, Creem, People and LA Style, to stories in Musician and Interview, a feature in Buzz with photos of his Corvette, and nearly everything and everywhere in between.

DWIGHT performed on the internationally broadcast '93 Country Music Awards in Nashville.


As testament to DWIGHT's vast popularity in the mainstream, he was named "Artist Of The Month" by VH1 for April '93 following Sade (January), Prince (February) and Sting (March).


DWIGHT made his critically acclaimed theatrical debut in April '93, starring in "Southern Rapture," an original play at the MET Theatre in Los Angeles. Director Peter Fonda was quoted in the Los Angeles Daily News regarding DWIGHT's performance: "Audiences won't see a singer trying to look like he knows how to act. You're going to come out having watched an actor who also knows how to sing."


On April 4, 1993, DWIGHT made the cover of the Los Angeles Times Sunday Calendar section, in a feature (headlined "Outlaw In A White Hat") written by Richard Cromelin.


DWIGHT opened an exciting new chapter in March '93 with the release of his sixth album, This Time, his most successful to date, which remained among the Top 20 Country Albums after 75 weeks on the chart. Two singles hit #1--"Ain't That Lonely Yet" and "A Thousand Miles From Nowhere"--and "Fast As You" went #2. The fourth single, "Try Not To Look So Pretty" and the fifth, "Pocket Of A Clown," both reached the Top 20.


On This Time, there are clear-cut excursions down several stylistic avenues, from the pure psychobilly country of the title track to the folk-rock feel of "A Thousand Miles From Nowhere," from the lovely acoustic ballad, "Try Not To Look So Pretty," to "Wild Ride," with its echoes of the vintage Stones. There is also the honky tonk heartache of "Lonesome Roads," the bluesy, riff-anchored fire of "Fast As You," and the moody, Spanish-tinged "Home For Sale." Special guests on the album include: Skip Edwards, Al Perkins and Jim Lauderdale. This Time was produced and arranged by longtime associate Pete Anderson and mixed by David Leonard. It includes six songs penned by DWIGHT, four co-written by DWIGHT and Kostas and one composed by Kostas and James House.


Five singles released from the previous platinum-plus If There Was A Way went Top 10: "Turn It On, Turn It Up, Turn Me Loose," "You're The One," "It Only Hurts When I Cry" (written with Roger Miller), "Nothing's Changed Here" and "The Heart That You Own."

1992

DWIGHT was invited by John Mellencamp to perform a song, "Common Day Man," on the soundtrack to Falling From Grace -- Mellencamp's directorial film debut.

DWIGHT's recording of "Suspicious Minds" for the Castle Rock film soundtrack Honeymoon In Vegas, starring Nicolas Cage, successfully charted as a single and hit the television/cable airwaves as a widely seen video..


DWIGHT participated in MTV's '92 "Rock The Vote" campaign, filming two different PSAs.

Photos of DWIGHT were included in a "coffee table" art/photo book from famed European lensmaster Anton Corbijn, known for his photographs of U2.


DWIGHT's great visibility on the video airwaves was underlined when his video for "It Only Hurts When I Cry" was named one of 1992's Top Ten videos by CMT.


In an Atlanta Journal story on Keith Richards, the Rolling Stones guitarist said, when asked about the country music crossover, "What's happening now is the realization of the vision Gram Parsons had 20 years ago. He and DWIGHT and Garth Brooks are the architects of what's happening now." (11/27/92)

DWIGHT also performed on the TNN special, "Minnie Pearl Tribute: Hats Off To Minnie", at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, which aired October 26, 1992.


DWIGHT spent the Fourth Of July in 110 degree heat, where he drew over 150,000 people to the grounds of the AZ State Capital in downtown Phoenix.

On June 8, DWIGHT appeared on The Arsenio Hall Show and led The Posse, Arsenio's house band, in a set of songs designed to fit the theme of this special show. The show focused on "Youth In Crisis," the problems facing young Americans including drug abuse, self-esteem and problems relating to the L.A. riots. These issues were discussed by Arsenio and guests Jesse Jackson, Gloria Steinem and DWIGHT (when he took the couch). The show concluded with the Crenshaw high School Choir, a 42 member choir including rapper Young M.C.

DWIGHT turned in a rousing rendition of a Warren Zevon song, "Carmelita" for the new Partners album by acclaimed accordion player Flaco Jiminez. The album was released in June on Reprise Records.

DWIGHT made his motion picture acting debut this year in the film Red Rocks West starring Nicholas Cage and Dennis Hopper.

DWIGHT was joined by Ry Cooder for his acoustic set at a May 16th benefit concert for the Gene Autry Museum in L.A., saluting singing cowboys like Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Rex Allen and Autry himself. TNN aired the event later in the year as a special "Music of the West: A Tribute To The Singing Cowboys." The event, held on the lawn adjacent to the Gene Autry Museum in Griffith Park, brought out some 4,000 western fans and also featured Emmylou Harris and Clint Black.

DWIGHT performed "The Heart That You Own" on The Arsenio Hall Show May 14th.

On May 6th, Dwight participated in the taping of the star-studded Minnie Pearl tribute "Hats Off To Minnie!" at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville. TNN broadcast the special.


On April 29, DWIGHT performed the national anthem at the Hollywood Park Racetrack opening day to kick off the season.

TNN aired "Dwight Yoakam In Concert" on April 28, taped at the Ventura Theater in California.

DWIGHT's TNN special, Dwight Yoakam: In The Spotlight, aired on April 27, 1992. The show featured concert footage which originally aired on DWIGHT's December/January pay-per-view special plus new footage and videos. This special was re-aired on July 6 and September 4, 1992.

DWIGHT hosted the season premiere of TNN's American Music Shop on April 18, 1992, performing with guests Emmylou Harris, Patty Loveless, Kelly Willis and Ralph Stanley.

DWIGHT appeared in a McDonald's commercial that ran on network television. The spot was filmed on Dwight's ranch and was part of a new McDonald's ad campaign.

On April 17th, DWIGHT appeared on the CNN talk show Sonya Live, via satellite from Hollywood with guest host Bobby Batista.

The video for "The Heart That You Own" made its network television debut on Entertainment Tonight on Friday, April 17th.

DWIGHT's video "It Only Hurts When I Cry" went to #1 on both The Country Music Channel and The Nashville Network

Coming off four Top 10 singles from his gold-plus If There Was A Way album DWIGHT YOAKAM released the much-acclaimed "The Heart That You Own" as the fifth single which was tapped by director Roger Donaldson for his film White Sands as a featured song on the film's soundtrack. The film, released April 24th, is an intriguing murder mystery starring Willem Dafoe as a backwater New Mexico Deputy Sheriff and Mickey Rourke as a charismatic arms dealer.


In 1992, DWIGHT performed at festivals in Japan and Switzerland, as well as performing to a packed house at the Hammersmith Odeon in London, attended by Mick Jagger, Jerry Hall and Ron Wood.

DWIGHT -- whose If There Was A Way disc marks his fifth consecutive gold album -- won "Best Country Artist" at the L.A. Music Awards.

In mid-February, Dwight participated in a photo shoot for the Ebel Watch company.


In February and March of '92, DWIGHT performed four, unplugged-type, acoustic dates at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, one at the Ventura Theater, as well as a show at The Palace in Hollywood, where he was joined by Ralph Stanley--the legendary bluegrass guitarist. All of the California shows were sold out.

1991

DWIGHT recorded a distinctive version of "Truckin" for the Grateful Dead tribute album Deadicated, and was personally invited by the band to open for them at RFK stadium in Washington, D.C. in 1991.

DWIGHT made his television acting debut on the CBS detective series "P.S. I Love You" in the Fall of '91.


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REVIEWS -- dwight-yoakam-usa, 08:13:06 10/24/01 Wed

Some are old,but some people may not have seen the reviews.

MUSIC REVIEWS OF A FEW OF DWIGHT'S CD'S:

dwightyoakamacoustic.net (Reprise)


dwightyoakamacoustic.net
At first listen, this collection of 25 songs from Yoakam's 15-year career as a country recording artist sounds like a modest effort, a memento aimed at hardcore Yoakam-ites to tide them over until the next studio blast.

But Yoakam pours considerable soul into the project. Accompanied only by his own guitar, with an occasional second from producer/guitarist Pete Anderson, Yoakam's voice carries the outing. With his trademark vocal breaks, pinch-offs, yodels and vibrato, he sings convincingly about coal miners, whiskey, Cadillacs and Kentucky, proving once again that although he makes his home in Southern California and appears frequently in the movies, he's no drugstore cowboy.

Near the end of the collection Yoakam reworks "Fast as You," from his 1993 album, This Time. He slows down the song a little and turns it into a hiccuping rockabilly tune, demonstrating that he owes a great debt to Elvis Presley and other early rock 'n' rollers. He ends the album with an a cappella version of one of his earliest songs, "Guitars, Cadillacs," sounding like an old-time mountain balladeer, timeless and heartfelt. -- Jay Orr


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Tomorrow's Sounds Today (Reprise) by: Amy Linden



It might have a catchy kitsch, swinging modern feel to it, but in calling his latest album Tomorrow's Sounds Today, Dwight Yoakam is just flat-out wrong. If anything, Yoakam's latest takes listeners back to the past rather than forward to the future, no matter what the space-age bachelor-pad title might imply. Better title? Yesterday's Sounds Right Now, because on this dandy collection the always-solid Yoakam's approach is closer to the Bakersfield blues and early western-swing grooves he first cooked up when he came on the scene back in 1986. Set your ears for fiddles, quasi-rockabilly and a laid-back, ungimmicky feel that reminds you why Yoakam is the most satisfying and consistent artist in country and why the neo-traditional movement he helped usher in (Rodney Crowell, white courtesy phone) still ranks as the high point of the contemporary country-music era.

Yes, our boy Dwight has got his pointy-toed boots firmly in cowpoke territory as he turns even a cover of Cheap Trick's "I Want You To Want Me" (RealAudio excerpt) into a rodeo-worthy roundup with everything but the "yee-hah"s. As he did with his rendition of Queen's Gap-ad-appropriate "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," Yoakam plays it tongue-in-cheek but also shows that "I Want You To Want Me" is, at its heart, a killer pop song, one that can withstand any form of musical interpretation. And, of course, Yoakam shows he can still let it rock.

Twangy guitars, melancholy pedal steel and mournful, high country fiddles abound on this collection, the former providing a characteristically Yoakam-ish bite and snap to the opening track, "Love Caught Up to Me" (RealAudio excerpt) — "Baby I couldn't hide, no matter how hard I tried .../ By the time I got free, love caught up with me." As for the fiddles, listen to the beautiful Celtic-meets-Appalachia strains of "For Love's Sake" (RealAudio excerpt), with its waltz-time rhythms and its time-honored tale of a good man caught up in the web of a hopefully evolving love. Romance, as usual, is the main theme, not only the good true love of "For Love's Sake," but also love gone wrong (the piquant raver "What Do You Know About Love," which declares "What do you know 'bout how it feels/ What do you know! 'bout if it's real...") and love that often ends in heartache (e.g. the last-call-for-alcohol two-step blues of "A Promise You Can't Keep").

Produced as always by Yoakam's guitarist Pete Anderson, the man behind those ripping rodeo chords and the surfing-in-the-Mississippi flair that has made Yoakam's sound palatable to retro-rockers and Nashville cats alike, Tomorrow's Sounds Today forgoes the livelier and more genre-bending studio tricks that pushed mid-'90s albums such as Gone and This Time into brave new sonic realms. This time around, as it was in the beginning, the mood is modest, the sound is sparse and sans embellishments. Dwight and band create country music that does the art form proud by refusing to play by Nashville's current set of stifling rules.


TOMORROW'S SOUNDS TODAY
by: Daniel Durchholz



Dwight Yoakam has been making records for a long time now, so the fact that he sometimes repeats himself or puts forth an effort that is less than his best is hardly worthy of a news bulletin. Still, it can be galling to fans when they sense a favorite artist is beginning to mail his performances in, and Yoakam followers couldn't have been encouraged by dwightyoakamacoustic.net, his "unplugged" album from earlier this year that was no fun at all.
Tomorrow's Sounds Today belies its promising title by breaking no new ground, and, in fact, retracing some pretty well-known boot-scootin' steps. Yoakam raised a few eyebrows a while back with his rockabilly take on Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," which also served as the soundtrack for a Gap commercial. That was fine, but here, Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me" gets a similar treatment, and while the track is pleasant enough, it does leave a been-there-done-that aftertaste.

Similarly, the CD's bonus tracks feature Yoakam dueting with his friend and inspiration Buck Owens. It's great to hear the old Buckaroo coming out of retirement to share the vocals on the Tex-Mex "Alright, I'm Wrong" and the gospel-based "I Was There," but of course, these two have shared a microphone before, on 1988's "Streets of Bakersfield." So again, it's the past, not the future that is being dealt with here.

Elsewhere, tracks like "What Do You Know About Love" (the album's first single), "Dreams of Clay," and "Love Caught Up to Me" have a lot of energy but don't really stand out from Yoakam's previous up-tempo hits. Even the torrid "A Promise You Can't Keep" fails to leave much of a lasting impression. Somewhat better are some of the slow songs, such as "Time Spent Missing You" and "A Place to Cry," that let country-as-it-oughta-be instrumentation — fiddle, mandolin, steel guitar, and hard-twanging six-string — shine through. If nothing else, it's still a pleasure to hear on Tomorrow's Sounds Today what producer and guitarist extraordinaire Pete Anderson can do with material that is only average.

Yoakam has been cruising along in the same comfortable groove for some time now. Hopefully he can jump out of it before even his most ardent fans decide he's stuck in a rut.



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REVIEWS -- DWIGHT- YOAKAM-KY, 08:10:51 10/24/01 Wed

MORE REVIEWS OF DWIGHT'S CD'S:
: Last Chance For a Thousand Years: Dwight Yoakam's Greatest Hits >From the 90's (Reprise)
by: Josh Deere

All the old ones, plus new recordings
How appropriate for a CountryCool.com album review. Dwight Yoakam probably has more "cool" in his pinky than most people have in their whole bodies. I mean, only he could sing Sometimes I miss the warm, bright lights/Sometimes I miss the crowds/Sometimes I miss the women I wrapped each song around. Few have done Elvis, and fewer have done him well. Dwight did—twice ("Little Sister," "Suspicious Minds"). How about his cover of Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love." Imagine that, Freddie Mercury in a honky-tonk. But Dwight pulls it off with style. After all, that's what he's all about. Even The Gap clothing stores, who corner the market on trendiness, included the song in a television commercial. The greatest hits package even has a cool title: Last Chance For A Thousand Years. Something tells me James Dean is smiling up there somewhere—he probably has a new favorite album.





dwightyoakamacoustic.net (Reprise) by: Grant Alden


Alone in a studio with his guitar, his still unquenched ambition, a decade's worth of hits (and, apparently, a modem), Dwight Yoakam has chosen to reprise a generous 25 songs for public re-consumption. The production of dwightyoakamacoustic.net is so barren and understated that the album sounds almost like songwriting demos.
Sure, acoustic.net is a curious offering, coming on the heels of a greatest hits summary earlier this month, but once you get past the informality of their setting, Yoakam's newest reading of these songs seems oddly automatic; they don't ache anymore. Indeed, his vocals have become so cluttered with flourishes, especially on "A Thousand Miles From Nowhere," that Yoakam comes to resemble Reba McEntire. "It Won't Hurt" ("when I fall down from this bar stool") is classic, heart-broke country, but Yoakam turns its melody into a pretext to exercise his repertoire of vocal tricks, instead of settling into the words.

Throughout, Yoakam, who has developed something of a film career in recent years, lets his voice runs the full gamut of its well-rehearsed gestures — swoops, breaks, swallowed growels — but it still has that glorious, nasal resonance. And regardless, his selection of songs drips with emotion, even if Yoakam himself doesn't deliver in that respect. How can the failed marriage of "Nothing's Changed Here" not hurt, and deeply? How can there be no attack to an oddly plaintive "Big Sister?" Occasionally, as with "Readin', Rightin', Rt. 23," Yoakam sings simply enough to invest himself in these songs, but for the most part, he sits back, and lets the material speak for itself.


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TOMORROW'S SOUNDS TODAY
by: Jay Orr



The irony hangs heavy in the title of this strong outing. Yoakam -- whose creative base is Hollywood rather than Nashville's Music Row -- has understood since the start of his career that great new country music can come from a crafty blend of the past and the present.
Tomorrow's Sounds Today is presented as utterly contemporary and hip. Yoakam sits in a suspended bubble chair on the cover. In the insert booklet he poses in front of speakers fashioned out of whitewashed, nude female forms. The music itself sounds fresh, but classically familiar at the same time.

Producer Pete Anderson works with an intriguingly broad sonic palette, enlisting Chris Hillman to play mandolin on "Time Spent Missing You," adding Flaco Jimenez's accordion and Skip Edwards' Augie Meyers-style organ to the Yoakam-Buck Owens duet "Alright, I'm Wrong." Owens, a key Yoakam influence, sings harmony on "The Sad Side of Town," a honky-tonk weeper the two wrote together, and he duets with Yoakam on "I Was There," an Owens original.

Yoakam keeps things interesting elsewhere by using an "I Fought the Law" cadence on "Dreams of Clay" by adding a taste of reggae to "For Love's Sake" and by referencing classic Hank Williams Sr. on "The Heartaches Are Free." Recalling his 1997 collection of remakes, Under the Covers, he also includes a country version of Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me." Gary Morse's pedal steel, especially, helps achieve a fetching transformation of the rock classic.

So Yoakam delivers a dose of tomorrow's sounds all right, but by incorporating plenty of timeless musical touches, he also proves that some things never go out of style.


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Forum has been opened -- DWIGHT- YOAKAM-KY, 07:14:01 10/24/01 Wed

This forum has been opened so that anyone may post news about Dwight, his shows or info on him and the band.


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DWIGHT INFO -- No name, 12:16:44 10/16/01 Tue

On rare occasions, a sense of the past is mated with a fierce, intransigent vision of the future, and something new is born. Something new like the music of Dwight Yoakam.

In all his recorded work and stage performances, Dwight Yoakam's music has been marked by an abiding affection for the purity of traditional country's precedent, but never has it been straitjacketed by a mindless fidelity that creates a vacuum in which a song withers and dies. Dwight's understanding of country's past is one of the great virtues of his music; his will to go the past one better -- to up the ante emotionally, to jump the energy level up several notches -- is an equally important virtue in the Yoakam canon. And his vision as a songwriter continues to set him apart.

Initially, the Kentucky native burst onto the scene in the early '80s by driving an alternate route of his own invention. Hailed as a "Renaissance Man" by Time magazine, Dwight creates music that, according to the Los Angeles Times, is "rooted in the rawest of country traditions (Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, et al), but it's aggressively contemporary without pandering to fleeting pop trends." Vanity Fair has also noted: "Yoakam strides the divide between rock's lust and country's lament."

Dwight realized in the early days of his career that he might need to find an alternate highway for his music. So he brought his music to an unlikely audience -- the roots rock fans of Los Angeles, who were becoming conversant with a new breed of traditionalist through the work of such local bands as Los Lobos, the Blasters and Lone Justice, all of whom shared stages with Dwight.

It was strange chemistry, certainly, but Dwight stuck by his guns and achieved a new audience for his heady combination of gutsy country emotion and rock 'n' roll electricity. That combination was also on view in his six-song 1984 debut EP Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. -- a record that attracted the attention of devotees of rock's most progressive sounds.

Guitars, Cadillacs, issued independently by a small Hollywood label, was re-released in 1986, augmented by four new songs, on Reprise Records. That album, and the six studio sets that followed it, encapsulate Dwight's uncompromising approach to modern country. They are: Hillbilly Deluxe (1987), Buenas Noches From a Lonely Room (1988), Just Lookin' for a Hit (1989), If There Was a Way (1990) -- all of which have sold more than 1 million units -- plus This Time (1993), Dwight's double-platinum bestseller, GONE (1995).

Writing about the milestone This Time in a four-star Rolling Stone lead review, Don McLeese noted that the album "suggests that he has no contemporary peer, that his emotional precision and command of nuance have attained a kind of perfection." Listeners within the music industry concurred: "Ain't That Lonely Yet," the #1 top-selling single drawn from that album, won a 1993 Grammy for best country vocal performance, male, while the album's "Pocket of a Clown" received a Grammy nomination in the same category a year later.

Dwight summed up his career to date with 1995's Dwight Live, a smoking document of the last dates on his '94 "This Time Tour" recorded at San Francisco's Warfield Theater. Like all its precursors, this energetic concert recording captured his dramatic melding of country roots and contemporary fervor.


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Albums By DWIGHT -- No name, 12:15:40 10/16/01 Tue

TITLE (LABEL) YEAR
South Of Heaven, West Of Hell (Sdtk) * Reprise 2001
Dwightyoakam.net (Justguitar@dogbone) Reprise 2000
Tomorrow's Sounds Today Reprise 2000
Last Chance...Greatest Hits From The 90's Reprise 1999
A Long Way Home Reprise 1998
Under The Covers Reprise 1997
Come On Christmas Reprise 1997
Dwight Live Reprise 1995
Gone Reprise 1995
Nothing [Single] Reprise 1995
Pieces Of Time [VIDEO] Warner Reprise Video 1994
Try Not To Look So Pretty [Single] Reprise 1994
Ain't That Lonely Yet [Single] Reprise 1993
Fast As You [Single] Reprise 1993
One Thousand Miles From Nowhere [Single] Reprise 1993
This Time Reprise 1993
If There Was A Way Reprise 1990
Just Lookin' For A Hit Reprise 1989
Buenas Noches From A Lonely Room Reprise 1988
Hillbilly Deluxe Reprise 1987
Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. Reprise 1986
Just Lookin' For A Hit [VHS] [VIDEO] Warner Reprise Video N/A
These Arms [Single] Reprise N/A


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Full Length Chat with Dwight -- No name, 12:14:33 10/16/01 Tue

Dwight Yoakam
Chat:
sonicnethost: Dwight's latest album, dwightyoakamacoustic.net, contains 25 songs that span 15 years

sn_guest_dwight_yoakam: Hi! Welcome to the chat, everybody!

bigsister47 asks: how do you come up with all of your songs you write? are they from experience or imagination?

sn_guest_dwight_yoakam: They are usually a composite of my own experiences with other people, then a bit of fictionalized writing. I don't know that there is any one song, from beginning to end which is a literal experience...more like a composite, from the starting part to the end, which takes into account other observed experiences at times.

swireels asks: Hey Dwight...I noticed your singing style is really tonic, and doesn't stray too far away from the root note of the chord...where did you get this style from??? You're great by the way!

sn_guest_dwight_yoakam: Popular music generally stays within a short distance of the tonic. It's an extension of what I heard naturally…musically...the exposure I had young to country music, rural Appalachian music, as well as popular music of the late '70s when I was growing up. I don't find it to interesting to do things to with chordal dissonance.

sonicnethost: Visit Dwight's official site at www.dwightyoakam.com

dreamlover_555 asks: will you be coming out with a new cd anytime soon, I think you are great

sn_guest_dwight_yoakam: In fact, the new CD is out at the end of the summer. We just finished recording that new studio album the day we left to begin a tour. There are 14 new tracks on that album. We were recording some vocals with Buck Owens before we left for Vegas. Buck and I actually wrote a song together for the first time. The title of the album is Tomorrow Sounds Today. We're in the process of mixing and mastering now. Probably a single will be released before the end of summer. We are performing 5 of the 14 songs every night during our current tour.

rokinrus asks: do you ever tend to step out side the traditionalcountry music boundries with your writing and add more pop or rock

sn_guest_dwight_yoakam: Yes, I have. It's evident throughout the catalog by the obvious cuts removed from traditional country music. A song like "Fast as You" off this album… It's a natural extension of my influence, or the influence country music has had on me from a child. It's a cornerstone or foundation of rock and roll. Another example of departure would be evident in the music we performed on the Under the Covers Albumin 1997. There are numerous cuts that move outside genre boundaries. As well, there is a Christmas album titled Come On Christmas. The title track, my own composition, was an attempt to pay homage to Chet Baker and his stylings as a musician.

chicken_feet_10010 asks: What is the motivation behind the internet only album?

sn_guest_dwight_yoakam: It's not an Internet only album. It was an outgrowth of performing more songs with just the acoustic guitar on last year's tour. The positive response the audience gave led to my producer, Pete Anderson, and myself, as well as the label, doing an entire collection of songs...stripped down...coming full circle to the way the songs began. Originally, it was meant to be about 12 tracks. I enjoyed singing so much in the studio, and kept singing songs...27 were mixed, 2 of which made available only for downloading. The other 25 were put on the CD. Warner [Bros] then decided to release it through retail outlets as well.

sonicnethost: To buy Dwight's album dwightyoakamacoustic.net, go to www.dwightyoakam.com

mind_to_reality asks: How do you get into those marvolous pants????

sn_guest_dwight_yoakam: One leg at a time...

meweddington asks: dwight, I thought you did an excellent job in Slingblade....how did you find acting?..did you like it as much as performing your music?

sn_guest_dwight_yoakam: Thank you. I really enjoyed acting in the movie because it was so well written and received from the beginning. I met Billy Bob about 6 months before. I had just come off an experience from another film which I wasn't overwhelmed about. I was fortunate to see his short and was very taken by his ability as a writer and actor. I knew I wanted to meet with him. I got a finished script about a month or so later and thought it had the possibility of being special. Once on set in Arkansas, I could tell I was a part of something special. The success is due his talent as a writer, that's why it is so fully realized.

nperry22 asks: Dwight...how old were you when you got your first guitar?

sn_guest_dwight_yoakam: I don't know for certain....I've been told about 18 months because that was about the time my dad had come back. He had been discharged from the Army, and brought an "F hole" guitar home with him. They have early pictures of me with it, emulating what I refer to 50's guitar slingers that I had seen on television. Those pictures are on the back and part of the package of the 1989 album, Just Looking for a Hit. My grandmother is holding it, balancing it for me. There are other pictures, at various times with a guitar in my hands. It always has been a companion to me.

drummer5960 asks: dwight you have been my biggest inspiration in music since Buck and Waylon when things in the band get to you what do you do to relax and stay focused

sn_guest_dwight_yoakam: I try to rely upon the integrity of the song. I rely heavily on the talent and musicianship of my band members, as well as Pete Anderson, my lead guitar player and producer, to buoy me.

Tim_H_02 asks: We are all fans of yours....I think we all wanna know, Who are you a fan of?

sn_guest_dwight_yoakam: Musically, I'm a huge fan of Ralph Stanley and the works with his brother Carter...the later versions of Ralph's band...the Clinch Mountain Boys. At various times it included Keith Whitley as well as Ricky Scaggs sharing vocals and instrumental duties. I'm an also an enormous fan of Chet Baker and his profoundly revealing and disarming emotional style as a vocalist and a trumpet player. There are numerous others that would consume 10 minutes to expound upon.

sonicnethost: Visit Dwight's official site at www.dwightyoakam.com

blonde_nurse_01 asks: what is your most memorable concert?

sn_guest_dwight_yoakam: I honestly can't recall the single most memorable. There are moments of every concert that linger with me. It would be hard to distill it to a single most memorable. I have a plethora of performance memories, and look forward to continuing to create new memories.

rezbabe49 asks: When are you gonna cut a CD with G.Strait?

sn_guest_dwight_yoakam: That idea has never been presented to myself or to George that I know of, not that I have an aversion to it. It's never been suggested to my knowledge. I don't know if anyone's thought of it before.

omega_62450 asks: Where are you at now chatting??

sn_guest_dwight_yoakam: I'm in Austin, TX. We have a day off...we perform here tomorrow night.

themayor_37205 asks: Given your feelings about Nashville, what were your feelings about playing the Ryman Auditorium last year?

sn_guest_dwight_yoakam: My feelings are not specifically about Nashville. My feelings that I expressed early on in my career were about the state of country music as an industry. The geographic center of that industry happened to be in Nashville. I had a great reverence for, and still do, the legacy of the music that was made in Nashville, in particular, an enormous respect for the legacy that was performed for so many years in the Ryman Audoritorium. The Carter Family...Hank Williams, Sr…Bill Monroe…to Kitty Wells....Web Pierce...Carl Smith...Ray Price...and numerous others that influenced me. It was with enormous pride and respect that we performed at the Ryman Auditorium last summer. I was very flattered to be asked to perform there.

sonicnethost: Visit Dwight's official site at www.dwightyoakam.com

chellfish69 asks: Dwight, do you ever read the message board over at DwightYoakam.net?

sn_guest_dwight_yoakam: When I'm home…and they take samplings and fax them out to me.

ianenovotny asks: Dwight, do you still donate to the L.A. Mission?

sn_guest_dwight_yoakam: Yes, I continue to try and support it. We've done benefit shows in the past and hope to do so again in the future. We're also doing a benefit show for a youth shelter in Hollywood called "My Friend's Place."

thechev90 asks: Were you popular in high school? If not were you strong in the band geek department?

sn_guest_dwight_yoakam: I was kind of quiet...unnoticed, I think, through Junior High and Senior High first year. I had been involved in the music departments and began to become involved in theater. Someone took notice, the other students, to performances I gave. I formed a rockabilly act that was known as "Dwight and the Greasers" that performed at the annual talent show. We gained a good deal of popularity in the high school. I was probably more of a wallflower than a geek.

sonicnethost: To buy dwightyoakamacoustic.net, visit Dwight's official site at www.dwightyoakam.com

lady711999 asks: so if you could do anything to help out the world what would it be and why?

sn_guest_dwight_yoakam: This feels like I'm in a beauty pageant all of a sudden. I continue to struggle to come to a better understanding of myself and enhance the sympathy I have toward every other human being on an ongoing basis, vis a vis, self-understanding.

sn_guest_dwight_yoakam: Thanks to everybody for coming by and for indulging my rambling answers to your questions.


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Tomorrow's Sounds Today, Dwight Yoakam -- No name, 12:13:13 10/16/01 Tue

Tomorrow's Sounds Today, Dwight Yoakam
( Reprise)




Hillbilly Deluxe

By Amy Linden

It might have a catchy kitsch, swinging modern feel to it, but in calling his latest album Tomorrow's Sounds Today, Dwight Yoakam is just flat-out wrong. If anything, Yoakam's latest takes listeners back to the past rather than forward to the future, no matter what the space-age bachelor-pad title might imply. Better title? Yesterday's Sounds Right Now, because on this dandy collection the always-solid Yoakam's approach is closer to the Bakersfield blues and early western-swing grooves he first cooked up when he came on the scene back in 1986. Set your ears for fiddles, quasi-rockabilly and a laid-back, ungimmicky feel that reminds you why Yoakam is the most satisfying and consistent artist in country and why the neo-traditional movement he helped usher in (Rodney Crowell, white courtesy phone) still ranks as the high point of the contemporary country-music era. This album reminds you why Dwight Yoakam is the most satisfying and consistent artist in country.





Yes, our boy Dwight has got his pointy-toed boots firmly in cowpoke territory as he turns even a cover of Cheap Trick's "I Want You To Want Me" (RealAudio excerpt) into a rodeo-worthy roundup with everything but the "yee-hah"s. As he did with his rendition of Queen's Gap-ad-appropriate "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," Yoakam plays it tongue-in-cheek but also shows that "I Want You To Want Me" is, at its heart, a killer pop song, one that can withstand any form of musical interpretation. And, of course, Yoakam shows he can still let it rock.


Twangy guitars, melancholy pedal steel and mournful, high country fiddles abound on this collection, the former providing a characteristically Yoakam-ish bite and snap to the opening track, "Love Caught Up to Me" (RealAudio excerpt) — "Baby I couldn't hide, no matter how hard I tried .../ By the time I got free, love caught up with me." As for the fiddles, listen to the beautiful Celtic-meets-Appalachia strains of "For Love's Sake" (RealAudio excerpt), with its waltz-time rhythms and its time-honored tale of a good man caught up in the web of a hopefully evolving love. Romance, as usual, is the main theme, not only the good true love of "For Love's Sake," but also love gone wrong (the piquant raver "What Do You Know About Love," which declares "What do you know 'bout how it feels/ What do you know 'bout if it's real...") and love that often ends in heartache (e.g. the last-call-for-alcohol two-step blues of "A Promise You Can't Keep").


Produced as always by Yoakam's guitarist Pete Anderson, the man behind those ripping rodeo chords and the surfing-in-the-Mississippi flair that has made Yoakam's sound palatable to retro-rockers and Nashville cats alike, Tomorrow's Sounds Today forgoes the livelier and more genre-bending studio tricks that pushed mid-'90s albums such as Gone and This Time into brave new sonic realms. This time around, as it was in the beginning, the mood is modest, the sound is sparse and sans embellishments. Dwight and band create country music that does the art form proud by refusing to play by Nashville's current set of stifling rules.


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The Story of Biscuit Boy -- No name, 09:23:48 10/16/01 Tue

BOY was born in Oklahoma in 1952, just outside of the Seneca-Cayuga Indian Reservation. BOY was the second of four kids born in to Carmel Carl and Charlene's family of traveling carnies who worked the midways, carnivals and fairs throughout the Midwest and south with their concession business selling caramel apples, cotton candy, funnel cakes, and roasted ears of corn on the cob (when in season). When the family business grew to include Charlene's Chicken and Biscuits, BOY learned at his momma's knee her time-tested recipe for buttermilk biscuits and showed such a knack for making them that he came to be known as Biscuit BOY.

When Biscuit Boy was about 16, he fell in love with Dori Rae Rattliffe who was out canvassing for the evangelical crusade of Reverend Ernest Fellows and his Traveling Flock of the Sacred Wounded (The Reverend annointed her the "Flower Child" who would pass out the token Roses of Sharon to the newly-saved converts who came forward during each service.) Boy followed his lovesick heart, leaving Carmel Carl and Charlene to join Fellows' Flock, taking his momma's biscuit recipe with him. For fifteen years Biscuit BOY stayed with the flock as an assistant shepherd, serving up his biscuits at tent meetings, until, atone fateful revival in Bakersfield, CA, the Reverend's oldest boy from a previous marriage spilled a story about his father's current double-marriage and shady history of handling donations, the news of which soon found Rev. Fellows serving a chunk of time for Income Tax Fraud.

Biscuit Boy, finding himself on his own in Bakersfield, was looking for work at a music store (since he used to tune guitars for his uncle's band that played the carnivals) when he happened to meet up with Dwight Yoakam who was buying some strings and a guitar strap. Dwight was in town for the Grand opening of Buck Owens' Crystal Palace nightclub and restaurant and, after learning of Boy’s inherited talent for food, got him hired on as a cook at the Crystal Palace. Dwight asked Biscuit Boy if he couldn't whip up a little something special for Buck to celebrate the Grand Opening, so the two of them took Biscuit Boy’s special recipe, incorporated a few of Dwight's own ideas, and prepared a batch of buttermilk biscuits. The folks liked 'em so much, they just had to keep making 'em.

And that's how Dwight Yoakam's Bakersfield Biscuits came to be served at Buck Owen's Crystal Palace, and NOW, available by mail order. Just heat'em and eat'em.

Click here to visit the Bakersfield Biscuit Store

© 1999 Dwight Yoakam,


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RECIPES FROM DWIGHT -- No name, 09:18:55 10/16/01 Tue

DWIGHT YOAKAM’S MOTHER'S recipe for Stewed Squirrel with Gravy and all the trimmings

Squirrels:
Clean squirrels and cut into pieces. Add to salted water in stew pot and cook slowly for 60 minutes (until tender). Remove squirrels from stock and reserve stock for gravy.


Gravy:
Mix 3 T flour with enough water to make a paste. Set aside.
Add 2 C milk to squirrel stock over medium heat. Gradually add flour paste and thicken to desired consistency.
Serve over squirrel with mashed potatoes.


Apples:
-Medium Macintosh or Winesap apples
-1 t Virgin Olive Oil
-Honey

Peel apples and cut into quarters, removing core.
Heat oil in iron skillet.
Add apples and cover, cooking over medium low heat for 5 minutes (turn apple pieces twice). Pour Honey over apples and gently turn until coated. Continue cooking over medium heat 10 minutes, turning approx. every three minutes.


Kentucky Green Beans:
-String Beans
-Virgin Olive Oil
-Salt

Rinse stringed and broken beans and place in heavy pot with lid. Cover with water, add oil and salt. Bring to boil, then turn down heat, simmering one hour. (During cooking, check to make sure water covers beans, adding water as necessary.) After one hour, taste bean broth and add salt to taste. Simmer another 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.


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The following recipes were created by Master Chef Francois' Moyet.


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Biscuits Monte Cristo

Makes 4 servings

4 Bakersfield Biscuits (Sliced in half)
2 eggs
1 oz. Milk
8 slices of ham
8 slices of Provolone Cheese
2 oz. Orange Marmalade
1 T. Butter

Time: 10 Minutes

Preparation:
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
Mix the eggs and the milk together. Warm up in a pan with butter. Dip the biscuit halves into the mix and pan fry it on both sides (like French Toast). Place a slice of ham and a slice of cheese on each and bake for 5 minutes. Close the biscuits as a sandwich and serve with Marmalade.


Deep-Fried Biscuits with Beef-Barley Soup

Makes 4 servings

4 Bakersfield Biscuits
1 quart of frying oil
1 3/4 can of Campbell's barley soup
4 sprigs of parsley

Time 10 min

Preparation:
With a spoon remove inside of biscuit.
Boil oil in a pot (or fryer if you have one)
Gently place biscuit in oil for five minutes
Remove biscuit from oil and place on paper towel to absorb oil
Warm soup in pot
Place biscuit atop plate and pour soup in fried biscuit.
Top with parsley.


Biscuit Burgers with Cheese and Bacon "Country Style"

Makes 4 servings

4 Bakersfield Biscuits
4 five ounce beef patties
1 tomato
1 cup shredded Iceberg lettuce
2 tsp. mayonnaise
4 slices of cheddar cheese
8 slices of smoked bacon

Prep time 10 min.

Open biscuit; place on grill to keep warm
Cook burger and bacon.
Place mayo, lettuce, tomato, beef bacon and cheese on the top like a traditional hamburger.



Fococcia Biscuits

Makes 4 servings

4 Bakersfield Biscuits
1 jumbo yellow onion
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 portabella mushroom
1 Roma tomato
1 clove garlic
1 cup shredded Mozzarella
1 oz. extra virgin olive oil

Prep time 10 min

Prep: clean, peel and slice all vegetables as thin as possible.
Cut biscuit in half, brush with olive oil
Top with shredded vegetable and mozzarella
Bake in oven at 400 degrees for 7 minutes.


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A LONG WAY HOME -- DWIGHT- YOAKAM-KY, 21:56:34 10/15/01 Mon

Dwight Yoakam
A LONG WAY HOME, the 11th release from DWIGHT YOAKAM, is a celebratory return to the hard-driving honky-tonk and plaintive balladry that established him as a major country force over 12 years ago. In another outstanding collaboration with producer-guitarist Pete Anderson, the singer/songwriter has painstakingly assembled what is clearly his most personal, inward-looking collection of songs to date. It's his first album of all-new material in nearly three years, one that echoes all the sonic hallmarks of classic country while honoring YOAKAM's own singular, forward-looking artistic vision--a flawless combination that makes for an adventurous earful.
Recently, the multi-talented, Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter has been pursuing different paths of artistic expression and these explorations have been highly rewarding, as evidenced by his acclaimed performance in the Academy-Award winning motion picture Sling Blade and the current Richard Linklater-directed 20th Century Fox film The Newton Boys, where he has a major role alongside Matthew McConaughey, Ethan Hawke and Skeet Ulrich. Musically, 1997's freewheeling country, pop and rock safari Under the Covers and the solid, sentimental holiday set Come On Christmas also found YOAKAM breaking new ground. When he arrived in Austin, Texas last year for The Newton Boys three-month location shoot, YOAKAM was so wrapped up in preparing for the role that he didn't even bring his guitar along. Perhaps not surprisingly, A LONG WAY HOME is an album that seemed almost to create itself. Significantly, this is also the first album consisting entirely of songs written without any collaborators. The emotions herein are YOAKAM's alone, and the intimate feel was also borne out of the acoustic orientation of these songs. As YOAKAM explains, "There are songs on Gone that I wrote on acoustic guitar, but this album, specifically, had a lot of acoustic guitar catalyst riffs."

"I arrived in Austin assuming that I would be so focused working on the film that I'd turn to writing this album when I got home," YOAKAM says. "But as it turned out, we were shooting five days a week and I would work maybe three of those days, and I found myself wanting to play music--it was naive of me to think I'd be there for three months and not feel the overwhelming pull to make music. So I went and bought an acoustic and an electric guitar and began exploring the things that I was hearing, musically, in my mind at the time, while staring out of the hotel window watching the river go by and the big Texas thunderstorms at night. I'm always trying to seek out the necessary isolated solace to be able to be still long enough so that I can hear the sounds that lead to my writing a song." While the remarkable process by which these "things I was hearing in my mind" are transformed into finished recordings is a crucial part of YOAKAM and Anderson's methods, the core of this set is its unflinching examination of the all-consuming mystery of romance. A LONG WAY HOME approaches the subject from a variety of perspectives, some rich with irony, others bruised and pleading, but all are unerringly centered on the heart.

The opening track "Same Fool," urged on by the terrific Ralph Mooney-style steel guitar of Marty Rifkin, commands immediate attention via its irresistible sound and the double edged-lyric. As YOAKAM says, "It's a hard driving rhythm, a relentless bass line, that never stops moving. To me, it's making a self-deprecating observation, `I've been the fool' and it's also a statement of emancipation." "The Curse," a moody exercise in the Johnny Cash vein, demonstrates that "We fall under the spell of love, and it's horrible," YOAKAM says. "The moment you cross that threshold and enter the magic garden that romantic love exists in, you are doomed to be subjected to its curses. I think that at first glance it could seem bitter, so I hope that people catch the sardonic element in it."

With its chiming guitars, the first single "Things Change" is a bittersweet anatomy of a faltering relationship in which YOAKAM sings: "Forever's a promise/We couldn't survive/Hey, I may be slow/But I ain't blind." Next is the stunning Bakersfield-style weeper "Yet To Succeed," of which YOAKAM says, "A few friends have told me they have the impulse to drink immediately as soon as the song starts! That's how country music came to us, from juke joints, road houses, saloons, and it reflects that legacy in a certain sense, but also incorporates an almost operatic melodrama in the production."

The brash, upbeat "I Wouldn't Put It Past Me" is, the singer explains, all about "that fever you get caught up in when pursuing anything with such passion that you become blind to the fact that you might be using a blowtorch to light a match, in terms of overuse of energy or funds or love in this case, where anything that you may get will never replenish what you spent in arriving at that place." The classic honky-tonk shuffle "These Arms" is gilded with shimmering strings that underscore "a lyric that is about futility, absolute, abject futility, and the greatest tragedy to know that you have brought about your own demise, and we all seem to be capable of that but we also are capable simultaneously of being our own savior from that self-inflicted destruction."

"That's Okay" is also steeped in irony, with its bright, Merle Travis-style guitar picking serving counterpoint to a gloomy lyric of false bravado: "What this guy is thinking is, `If I could just get out of this room with my dignity intact,' but he's saying `no, no everything is fine, but I'll just go out and collapse in a heap on the street and crawl home but everything is really fine.'" YOAKAM continues this double-edged upshift with the hard-hitting roadhouse romp "Only Want You More," which is, he says, "A self-flagellistic moment on the album and it's steeped in this raging, almost brutal kind of tempo and groove, of hillbilly boogie that just won't let up--hillbillies on pills. It's recklessly wild and that's the emotion, `go on and hurt me baby, it only makes me want you more.'"

The steel and fiddle-limned ballad "I'll Just Take These" perfectly captures the pain of losing everything but a handful of happy memories, while the title track "A Long Way Home" embodies the theme of the album--which, says YOAKAM, "is hope in the face of self-inflicted despair, hope in spite of one's self, and the admonition to ourselves to feel obligated to give ourselves hope."

"Listen," couched in a richly colored, full arrangement, offers more of that wistful hope, while the straight gospel-tinged mountain lament "Traveler's Lantern," featuring bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley on banjo and vocals, has a message that could apply not only to the song's protagonist but country music as a whole; it's about "not just saving myself but illuminating the path, putting out a beacon, a traveler's lantern, in terms of the collective journey we have with each other." The set closes with "Maybe You Like It, Maybe You Don't," which is actually a brawny reworking of "Only Want You More" with a nod to the King (or as YOAKAM says, "there's a little sheepish Elvis impersonation for you") and delivered with the depth of skill and feeling that characterizes YOAKAM and Anderson's work.

A LONG WAY HOME is an altogether arresting collection, one that YOAKAM summarizes as "late 20th century, fastback muscle-car country music, it's absolutely country and country-rock in its total scope. Musically, the approach to it and everything we're doing doesn't really deviate from that--it stays pure and embraces that with as much passion as I've had for several years." Such passion is not to be taken lightly, and here YOAKAM is hitting a powerful new artistic stride. As anyone listening to A LONG WAY HOME would agree, it's a journey worth taking.


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DWIGHT FACTS -- Mary Sacred Heart, 12:43:29 10/15/01 Mon

Although born in Kentucky and raised in Ohio, Dwight Yoakam is associated with a Californian sound combining twang with pop. Part Buck Owens and part Buddy Holly, Yoakam won a Grammy Award in 1993 for "Ain't That Lonely Yet," and has won numerous awards from the Country Music Association. As an actor, Yoakam proved to be more than a hack with his role in Billy Bob Thornton's Sling Blade.

Born:
23 October 1956
Birthplace:
Pikeville, Kentucky
Death:
Still kicking
Best Known As:
Country-pop singer




November 01 El Paso, TX Far West Rodeo
November 02 San Antonio, TX Far West Rodeo
November 03 Austin, TX Paramount Theatre
November 04 McAllen, TX La Villa Real Convention Center
November 08 Columbus, OH Promowest Pavilion
November 09 Lexington, KY Rupp Arena
November 10 Washington, D.C. 9:30 Club
November 11 Pitman, NJ Broadway Theatre
November 16 Dallas, TX Cowboys Red River
November 23 Reno, NV Reno Hilton
November 28 Phoenix, AZ Celebrity Theatre
November 29 Santa Ynez, CA Chumash Casino
November 30 Tucson, AZ Desert Diamond Casino

December 07 San Juan Capistrano, CA The Coach House

December 07 Las Vegas, NV Paris Hotel

December 08 Las Vegas, NV Paris Hotel

December 09 Las Vegas, NV Paris Hotel


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DWIGHT -- No name, 08:07:41 10/15/01 Mon

DWIGHT YOAKAM
"TOMORROW'S SOUNDS TODAY"
BIOGRAPHY


Grammy-winning California-based country singer DWIGHT YOAKAM has met the turn of the century head-on with an unprecedented burst of creativity. In the past year, DWIGHT has undertaken a kaleidoscopic range of concurrent projects--recording and touring in support of a critically acclaimed solo CD set, dwightyoakamacoustic.net, re-visiting the best material from DWIGHT’s remarkable career; scripting and directing his forthcoming motion picture "South of Heaven, West of Hell"; launching his dwightyoakam.net website; and now, the release of TOMORROW'S SOUNDS TODAY, produced by longtime collaborator Pete Anderson, caps off this remarkable period with a considerable flourish.

Openers "Love Caught Up To Me" and "What Do You Know About Love" (the first single) set the tone for this mostly upbeat set, bristling with steel guitar runs and a vocal that makes clear DWIGHT is once again speaking directly from the heart and creating his own bold type of country music.
DWIGHT's musical instinct and approach have continually sharpened, attaining a consistence and clarity that is flat-out exhilarating. On "A Place To Cry,” DWIGHT’s gritty rockabilly-style vocal leads into an eruption of extended jamming, a gleeful, gutbucket-groove finale that's near dizzying--as is his use of contemporary street hustler vernacular ("straight up need to score...what I'm jones'n for"). "Dreams Of Clay," a fascinatingly subtle piece of writing urged on by some Buddy Holly's Crickets-style rhythm, demonstrates DWIGHT the writer is far from dry on the perennial subject every tunesmith endlessly confronts--the love song. His ability to present romance with entirely new perspective and understanding is extraordinary; he knows that the best country lyrics rarely depend on facile happiness and here, even with upbeat messages, he deftly applies layers of conflict--whether the song’s protagonist is wary, cynical or elated, each experience is tempered with shadows of reality and an evident joy in the use of language itself, crafting a series of affecting and impressive tales.

DWIGHT and Anderson's seemingly effortless facility in transposing and expanding country's various sub-genres, whether it's a hard shuffle, rockabilly passion, or the odd curl of a Cajun-style steel guitar figure, is downright wild--they pluck diverse elements seemingly out of the air, weaving them into gleaming new creations. The remarkable process is bolstered by contributions from some stellar guests--Buck Owens, Flaco Jimenez, country-rock originator Chris Hillman (Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers) and esteemed singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale--not to mention DWIGHT's high voltage band, with Anderson's guitar, Scott Joss' fiddle and steel guitarist Gary Morse each contributing brilliantly to the mix. They dig into the music with verve and passion, from classic modern Southwestern Country to hardcore old school, resulting in the most luxuriously brash DWIGHT album yet. It's a terrific set on several levels: there's more warmth and joy in the vocals, the stories told by the songs themselves are brighter and the band even tighter then ever. But it's DWIGHT's pure country style and the manner in which he expands a rich musical tradition that gives the album its remarkably exuberant character, all stirred up into a sort of joyful, momentous groove that sounds as if the band just can not stop playing--simply because it feels so good.

The ability to put across "The Heartaches Are Free," a dead center Hank Sr. Drifting Cowboys-style lament, replete with tense, vintage Williams phrasing, and not sound like a waxwork-phony speaks to the intense purity of DWIGHT’s vision, just as the flashes of Elvis influence on "A World of Blue" hit the ear, not as playful homage but as perfectly natural outgrowth of American music. DWIGHT also looks far beyond country's established heritage and boundaries with the chugging reggae rhythm and dub break of "For Love’s Sake"; his straight, sweet reading of Cheap Trick's "I Want You To Want Me,” provides the opportunity to extend both his own appeal and, in the process, country music as a whole.

One of DWIGHT's finest past historical moments--wooing legendary Bakersfield hit-maker Buck Owens out of a decade of retirement to duet with him on DWIGHT’s 1988 #1 hit "Streets Of Bakersfield"--continues to pay off, with Owens contributing his magnificently stylized vocals and considerable songwriting skills: "The Sad Side of Town," a classic weeper co-written by DWIGHT and Buck and performed with the veteran star, is a bittersweet gem; Owens himself comes up with his own tradition-based twist, taking his "I Was There" ("when love crashed and burned") loosely from the old gospel "Were You There?" ("when they crucified my Lord?") and fashioning an atmospheric, deceptively simple piece of country emotioneering. The Hall of Famer also joins DWIGHT for the giddy Tex-Mex romp "Alright, I'm Wrong," with legendary norte patriarch Flaco Jimenez sweetly momentous accordion urging the tune along. This marks the first time since "Streets Of Bakersfield" that DWIGHT, Buck and Flaco have performed together.

Of writing "The Sad Side Of Town" with Buck, DWIGHT recalls: "Buck and I were together for the millennium New Year's show in Bakersfield and we were sitting there in the afternoon lamenting the fact that we had never written a song together. I said, 'Buck if you've got an idea for something, I'm wide open' and he began to play the opening of a melody. The thought was there and when he started to play it, I realized it was the song we had to write together. A couple of months later, I went back up there and we got together and resurrected it. I said, 'Remember New Year's Eve, that melody and he played the idea he'd had and I said, "I've got a title I think would work for this and we began writing the first verse and came up with the general idea for the song. And from there it just sort of wrote itself. A couple of months later, we recorded the song "The Sad Side Of Town." DWIGHT adds: "The thing I'm proudest of is that it reminded me--the melodic idea--immediately, of a Buck Owens song in the classic form from around 1966. I'm proud to have written something like that with Buck, and for him to come down to the studio and sing the harmony on it with me was an added bonus. This was a very special opportunity to make music with Buck Owens again in the 21st century."

DWIGHT's unstoppable drive rates him as one of the most encouraging forces in his chosen field, and TOMORROW'S SOUNDS TODAY is quite possibly his finest album to date. DWIGHT's gift for updating and restructuring established forms into vibrant new styles only highlights both this singular performer's natural gift and the crucial role he plays in country music--not as mere tradition bearer, but as an aggressive artist whose ongoing career is one of the very few that's not just continually evolving but, more importantly, ascending to new heights.



The Kentucky Tourism Development Cabinet and the Kentucky Governor's office dedicated a stretch of Highway U.S. 23, newly designated "Country Music Highway," in Floyd County, KY in honor of YOAKAM.


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"DWIGHT YOAKAM -- No name, 08:06:16 10/15/01 Mon

With his stripped-down approach to traditional honky tonk and Bakersfield country, Dwight Yoakam helped return country music to its roots in the late '80s. Like his idols Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, and Hank Williams, Yoakam never played by Nashville's roots; consequently, 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, he twists around the form enough to make it seem like he doesn't respect all of country's traditions. Appropriately, his core audience was composed mainly of roots-rock and rock & roll fans, not the mainstream country audience. Nevertheless, he was frequently able to chart in the country Top Ten, and he remained one of the most respected and adventurous recording country artists well into the '90s.

Born in Kentucky but raised in Ohio, Yoakam learned how to play guitar at the age of six. As a child, he listened to his mother's record collection, honing in on the traditional country of Hank Williams and Johnny Cash, as well as the Bakersfield honky tonk of Buck Owens. When he was in high school, Dwight played with a variety of bands, playing everything from country to rock & roll. After completing high school, Yoakam briefly attended Ohio State University, but he dropped out and moved to Nashville in the late '70s with the intent of becoming a recording artist.

At the time he moved to Nashville, the town was in the throes of the pop-oriented Urban Cowboy movement and had no interested in his updated honky tonk. While in Nashville, he met guitarist Pete Anderson, who shared a similar taste in music. The pair moved out to Los Angeles, where they found a more appreciative audience than they did in Nashville. In LA, Yoakam and Anderson didn't just play country clubs -- they 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, the Blasters, and Los Angeles was similar musical influences -- they all drew from '50s rock & roll and country. In comparison to the polished music coming out of Nashville, Dwight's stripped-down, direct revivalism seemed radical. The cowpunks, as they were called, that attended Yoakam's shows provided an invaluable support for his fledgling career.

Yoakam released an independent EP, A Town South of Bakersfield, in 1984, which received substantial airplay on Los Angeles college and alternative radio stations. The EP also helped him land a record contract with Reprise Records. Dwight's full-length debut album, Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc., was released in 1986 and was an instant sensation. Rock and country critics praised it and it earned airplay on college stations across America. More importantly, it was a hit on the country charts, as its first single, a cover of Johnny Horton's "Honky Tonk Man, " climbed to number three in the spring, followed by the number four "Guitars, Cadillacs" in the summer. The album would eventually go platinum.

Hillbilly Deluxe, Dwight's 1987 follow-up, was equally successful, spawning four Top Ten hits -- "Little Sister, " "Little Ways, " "Please, Please Baby, " and "Always Late with Your Kisses." In 1988, Yoakam had his first number one hit with "Streets of Bakersfield, " a cover of a Buck Owens song recorded with Buck himself. It was the first single off his third album, Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room, which continued his streak of Top Ten hits. "I Sang Dixie, " the album's second single, went to number one, and "I Got You" reached number five. In 1989, Yoakam released a compilation album, Just Lookin' for a Hit, which went gold. "Long White Cadillac, " taken from the collection, stalled at number 35 in the fall of 1989.

Although his 1990 album If There Was a Way didn't have as many Top Ten hits, it was a major success -- it was his first album since his debut to go platinum. This Time, released in the spring of 1993, was an even bigger hit, spawning three number two singles -- "Ain't That Lonely Yet, " "A Thousand Miles from Nowhere, " and "Fast As You" -- and going platinum. After its release, Yoakam was silent for two years, returning in the summer of 1995 with Dwight Live, which didn't set the charts on fire. In the fall of that year, he released his sixth album, Gone, which went gold by the spring of 1996, although it didn't produce any major country hits. After 1997's Under the Covers, a collection of cover songs, Yoakam returned with the all-new A Long Way Home in 1998. Another compilation, Last Chance for a Thousand Years: Greatest Hits from the '90s, was released in 1999; its newly recorded version of Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" became Yoakam's biggest hit in six years, even hitting the lower reaches of the pop charts thanks to its exposure in a khakis commercial. Two albums followed in 2000: dwightyoakamacoustic.net, a bare-bones, all-acoustic revisitation of Yoakam's back catalog, and the more standard studio project Tomorrow's Sounds Today, which featured further collaborations with Buck Owens and a cover of Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me." ~


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