By Eleni P. Austin
Country Music has become a lot more inclusive in the last decade. By salting Rock & Roll, Soul and Rap into the mix, artists like Shaboozey, Jelly Roll and Little Nas X happily coexist alongside established hit-makers like Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert and Eric Church. Diversity continues to drive this country. At least, that’s the hope.
Full confession: I haven’t always been a Country Music fan. When I was a kid, my mother and her sisters shared a sincere love of Country & Western, which is what it was called when they were all growing up on a farm in Nebraska. They nearly wore out records by Ray Price, Charlie Rich and Conway Twitty. At the time, I was in the thrall of Top 40 and discovering the more experimental music played on Free-form FM radio. If I was forced to hear “Born To Lose,” “Behind Closed Doors” or the oily seduction of “You’ve Never Been This Far Before,” I was sure I would puke. I didn’t mind Willie, Waylon, Dolly or Kenny, and actually liked Patsy and Loretta. But the watered-down hits of the day, from the likes of Barbara Mandrell, The Oak Ridge Boys and Eddie Rabbit made my teeth ache.
Then in 1981, my forever spiritual boyfriend Elvis Costello recorded Almost Blue, an album featuring his favorite songs, I felt obliged to take the plunge. Thanks to Elvis, I took a deep dive into the music of Hank Williams, Merle Haggard and George Jones. It was then I discovered I had a real affinity for traditional Country Music. Which explains why when I saw Dwight Yoakam in early 1986 (opening for one of my favorite L.A. bands, Los Lobos), I fell deeply in love.
Despite the fact that he has now been a Country recording artist for nearly 40 years, Dwight Yoakam has never really been part of the Nashville establishment. He grew up in Kentucky and Ohio, and when he got serious about a career in music, he relocated to Los Angeles.
The lanky crooner made his bones playing Punk clubs and dive bars alongside Rootsier acts like X, The Blasters, Los Lobos and Rank & File. His take on Country & Western stripped away the glitz and artifice, refining a Hillbilly/Honky-Tonk paradigm pioneered in the ‘30s and perfected in the ‘50s.
Following a self-released EP, Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc., he was signed to Warner Bros. boutique label, Reprise. Adding four extra tracks, the label released his long-player debut under the same title in 1986. Over the next three decades, he released 15 studio albums, one soundtrack, three live sets, a Christmas collection and 10 compilations. He has collaborated with legends like Buck Owens, Ralph Stanley, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Willie Nelson, as well as contemporaries like John Mellencamp, k.d. lang and Beck.
In between making records, he carved out a second career as an actor, appearing in films like Red Rock West, Sling Blade, The Newton Boys, The Panic Room, The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada and Wedding Crashers. He managed to find time to write, star in and direct South Of Heaven, West Of Hell. He even has his own Sirius XM Radio show, Dwight Yoakam And His Bakersfield Beat. The longtime bachelor married for the first time in 2020. Soon after, he and his wife Emily welcomed their first child, a son named Dalton. Now he has returned with his new album, Brighter Days.
His first album since 2016 opens with the one-two punch of “Wide Open Heart,” and “I’ll Pay The Price.” The former peals out of the speakers with speed-shifty rhythm riffs, stinging electric lead riffs and a whipcrack beat. A full-throttle rocker, the automotive-centric lyrics transform his jalopy heart into a hi-octane hot rod: “I hold the pink slip title with her high heel on the gas, she’s got a wide open heart tearing up the road, she took my worn-out luck and plated it in chrome, from red flag stop to revved up rolling start, she’s all mine to love with her wide open heart.” Prickly guitars accelerate through the arrangement’s hair-pin curves, until the song crosses the finish line.
The latter flips the script, downshifting from a pedal-to-the-metal celebration of love to a heartbroken cry for love. Spiraling electric fillips, tender piano notes, pliant Hammond B3 and coiled bass lines connect with a relax-fit, Johnny Cash-tastic boom-chicka-boom beat. Weepy pedal steel colors the melody’s margins, underscoring lachrymose lyrics like “Just to find a way back to you and me, I would gladly pay eternally, I’ll pay the price for you and me, from the start of time to the end of need.”
While Dwight’s inspiration originated with the Classic Country sound introduced by antecedents like Jimmie Rodgers, The Carter Family, Lefty Frizell and Hank Williams, he’s never been afraid to dip his pointy-toed Cowboy boots into other musical genres. Take “California Sky,” a tale of woulda-coulda-shoulda, anchored by skittery guitars, weedy Hammond B3, bendy Fender Rhodes, agile bass lines and a clackity beat. The arrangement is equal parts South Of The Border charmer and West Coast Cool.
Then there’s “A Dream Never Dies.” Chiming Byrdsy guitar chords a backbeat that quickly gathers steam, locking into a Folk-Rock groove. Majestic piano notes are shading by woozy Hammond B3 and sturdy bass. Rather than beg for another chance at a failed romance, lyrics like “If you must go, know that I will understand, but then I will hope for a dream that never ends, and if I awake, I’ll close my eyes and just pretend,” exhibits a hangdog perseverance that feels divorced from reality.”
Meanwhile, “I Spell Love” echoes the spartan approach that Elvis Presley perfected during his tenure at Sun Records. A slap-back beat lines up with shimmering guitars, strutting upright bass and shadowy Hammond B3. Swapping out heartbreak for happiness, blissful lyrics seem to offer an encomium to a committed relationship from a formerly confirmed bachelor: “The world I made, such a vacant place, a life lived alone, left for a joy I’ve never known… Now this journey is shared through your eyes and each morning awakes to show new reasons why I spell why I spell love L-O-V-U.”
Three cover songs dot the record. Just as he reconfigured massive hits like Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and Cheap Trick’s “I Want You To Want Me,” Dwight puts his own spin on these tracks. First up is “Bound Away” from alt.rock band Cake. While the original leaned in on a Country/Bluegrass hybrid, he gives it more of a Pop flavor. A sprightly guitar figure, reminiscent of the sugary riffs found on The Beach Boys’ “Sloop John B.” wraps around shivery pedal steel, brawny rhythm guitars and a thwoking beat. Lyrics limn the tedious and often solitary existence of a traveling musician: “Traveling, unraveling, I’m staying on track, my plastic utensil has broken in half…there’s low visibility, gusty wind, and there’s rain, my carry-on luggage is still on the plane/Seconds turn to minutes, minutes turn to hours, hours give you a lifetime, then there’s a grave with Pink flowers.”
It’s no secret that Dwight has a deep and abiding love for The Byrds, so it feels wildly apropos that he tackles their Younger Than Yesterday deep cut, “Time Between.” Ringing electric riffs, jangly acoustic arpeggios and spidery bass lines are tethered to a clip-clop gait. A twangy two-step, it’s accented by sparkly mandolin and swirly guitars.
“Keep On The Sunny Side” was originally popularized nearly 100 years ago by the first family of Country, Mother Maybelle, A.P. Carter and Sara Carter. Dwight includes a snippet of the original, before transforming the song into a scorching rocker. Stonesy guitars collide with tumbling piano, loose-limbed bass and a walloping backbeat. Exp[ectations are tempered by lyrics like “Oh the storm and it’s fury broke today, crushing hopes that we cherish so dear, clouds and storms will in time, pass away, the sun will shine bright and clear,” seem tailor-made for these dystopian days.
The best tracks hopscotch across the record. First up is the Honky-Tonk stomp of “Can’t Be Wrong.” Knotty rhythm guitar partners with slashing power chords, sinewy bass lines, flinty Hammond B3 and a knockabout beat. Dwight’s mien is playful as he joins the proceedings- seemingly in mid-conversation, offering some romantic reassurance: “So it’s me and you cause me and her woulda never worked out or been this good thing together, Baby you know why, cause everything right now, is custom fit for you and I.” A swivel-hipped guitar solo is meant with whoops and hoots on the first break, by the second, the finger-picked riffs are more ornate. This rollicking rave-up is impossible to resist.
Next up is the title track, which Dwight co-wrote with his young son Dalton. A breezy two-step, it’s powered by lonesome pedal steel, a veritable guitar army, honeyed Hammond B3, rubbery bass and a percolating beat. Cheerful lyrics offer a glass half-full attitude: “Brighter Days won’t take too long, with brighter days, the clouds move on, then leave a soft, warm light that sets us free.” Prickly guitar solo and puckish pedal steel intertwine on the break, but Dalton gets the last word.
Finally, “I Don’t Know What To Say (Bang, Bang, Boom, Boom)” is a bit of a barn-burner. Dwight trades verses with rapper Post Malone, who cements his C&W bona fides with his nuanced performance. Grand Ol’ Opry fiddle and growling baritone guitars ride roughshod atop barrelhouse keys, tensile bass and a propulsive beat. Commiserating lyrics find the pair sharing their mutual heartache: “Bang bang, boom boom, there’s nothing left here but sadness, and bang bang, boom boom is how a broken heart beats on.”
Other interesting tracks include the mid-tempo groover “If Only” and the churchy “Hand Me Down Heart.” The album closes on a high note with the frisky “Every Night.” It lands somewhere between Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and Patsy Cline’s “Walking After Midnight.” Stacked guitars acoustic and electric guitars are bookended by pounding piano, Hammond B3 colors and a rat-a-tat beat. Lyrics make a bargain: “You can take my soul for a long love ride, spin it upside down, tease and bend my mind, just as long as that goes on baby, every night.” It’s a rambunctious finish to another great album.
Dwight Yoakam never bothered to conform to Nashville’s rigid rules, and nearly 40 years in, he continues to march to the beat of his own drum. Brighter Days is already climbing the charts. His music remains consistently authentic, tried and true. And yes, in case you care, I still love him.
