DWIGHT YOAKAM “3 Pears” (Warner Brothers/Via Records)

Despite the fact that he’s been a Country recording artist
for more than 25 years, Dwight Yoakam has never been part of
the Nashville establishment.
Yoakam grew up in Kentucky and Ohio, but he began his
music career in the early 80s in Los Angeles. Yoakam honed his chops
in Punk clubs playing alongside Roots-Rock bands like X, Los Lobos,
The Blasters and Rank & File.
Yoakam’s take on Country music stripped away the glitz and
artifice, hewing more closely to the Hillbilly and Honky Tonk paradigm
that was big in the 50s. Although he rocked a traditional cowboy hat,
Yoakam’s tight jeans and swivel-hipped moves were more of an homage
to Elvis Presley, than 80s Country king Kenny Rogers.
His 1986 debut, Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc, Etc was completely
embraced by the Rock cognoscenti. In fact, Yoakam was the first (and
probably the last) Country artist to be played on MTV.
17 albums later Yoakam has released 3 Pears. This is his
first album of original material in seven years and his most ambitious
effort to date.
3 Pears opens with the trademark twang of “Take Hold
Of My Hand.” Thumping funk/punk bass lines propel this rollicking
tale of romantic faith: “I’ve lusted for love but lust is so blind, and
trust for a heart is a hard thing to find/But what’s left of yours
might help to heal mine.”
The Beatles loom large on a couple of the songs here.
Anchored by an echo-y big beat and Countrypolitan twang, the title
track is a twisty tribute to both John Lennon and George Harrison.
On “Trying,” the bare bones of the melody recalls the Fab Four’s
“From Me To You.” Stuttery drums and a walking bass line flesh out
this account of love gone wrong.
Yoakam creates a new hybrid on “It’s Never Alright.”
The arrangement blends plaintive vocals and lush piano fills with
full string and horn sections. The result is Baroque Honkytonk
(Kind of George Jones meets 70s Elton John!)
Yoakam hands over the production reins to Beck on
“Heart Like Mine” and “Missing Heart” and they are the best
tracks on the album.
The former weds circuitous acoustic guitar riffs to a
ramshackle handclap rhythm, (similar to the Monkees’ “Last
Train To Clarksville”). It’s an anguished story of heartbreak cloaked
in a jangly 60s style pop confection.
The latter is an intoxicating mixture of spiraling acoustic and
electric fills with high lonesome steel guitar. Yoakam’s vocals match
the yearning intensity of the desolate lyrics: “I am an open wound,
I searched so long/ And all I found is now gone, because anywhere
I looked was always wrong.”
Other standout tracks include “Dim Lights, Thick Smoke,”
a yowling roadhouse rocker that expands on the themes first explored
on Hank Thompson’s “Wild Side Of Life” and Kitty Wells’ answer
tune, “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.”
“Waterfall” lassos whimsical, almost Seuss-ian lyrics to an
irresistible melody. “Nothing But Love” is positively yodel-riffic!
Finally on “Rock It All Away,” Yoakam drops the cynical façade
long enough to actually fall in love.
The album closes with the tender evocation of “Long
Way To Go.” Spare and mournful, it’s a showcase for just vocals
and piano. The mood mirrors the melancholy mien of Jackson
Browne’s “The Load Out.”
These days most Country superstars draw their inspiration from
ancient sources like the Eagles and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Luckily Yoakam
still carries the torch for innovators like Hank Williams, the Carter Family
and Jimmie Rodgers. 3 Pears is beautifully nuanced and textured.
It serves as an encomium to those trailblazers yet firmly rooted in the
21st century. Yoakam is just as much an outsider as he was at the
beginning of his career. That seems to suit him just fine.