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Date Posted: 13:14:33 10/16/01 Tue
Author: No name
Subject: Full Length Chat with Dwight

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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