Dwight Yoakam
Dwight David Yoakam (born October 23, 1956) is an American country singer-songwriter, actor, and filmmaker. He first achieved mainstream attention in 1986 with the release of his debut album Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.. Yoakam had considerable success throughout the late 1980s onward, with a total of ten studio albums for Reprise Records. Later projects have been released on Audium (now MNRK Music Group), New West, Warner, and Sugar Hill Records.
Dwight Yoakam
- Singer
- songwriter
- actor
- film director
1984–present
1
- Vocals
- acoustic guitar
His first three albums—Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc., Hillbilly Deluxe, and Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room—all reached number one on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. Yoakam also has two number-one singles on Hot Country Songs with "Streets of Bakersfield" (a duet with Buck Owens) and "I Sang Dixie", and twelve additional top-ten hits. He has won two Grammy Awards and one Academy of Country Music award. 1993's This Time is his most commercially successful album, having been certified triple-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Yoakam's musical style draws from a wide variety of influences including neotraditional country, honky-tonk, Bakersfield sound, bluegrass music, country rock, and rockabilly. He is known for his distinctive tenor singing voice, unconventional musical image, and the lead guitar work of his longtime producer and bandleader Pete Anderson. Yoakam writes most of his own songs but has recorded many successful cover songs by a wide range of artists including Johnny Horton, Elvis Presley, Cheap Trick, The Blasters, Lefty Frizzell, and Queen. He has collaborated with Beck, John Mellencamp, k.d. lang, Ralph Stanley, and members of Alison Krauss & Union Station.
As an actor, Yoakam has appeared in the movies Red Rock West, Sling Blade, Panic Room, The Minus Man, and Wedding Crashers, Four Christmases, as well as South of Heaven, West of Hell, his writing/directorial debut. He also appeared in the TV series P.S. I Luv U and Under the Dome, as well as the Amazon Prime Video original series Goliath.
Musical styles and influences[edit]
Yoakam's style is defined by a variety of influences both inside and outside country music. These influences include rockabilly,[106] honky-tonk, neotraditional country, Bakersfield sound, and country rock. Colin Larkin wrote in The Virgin Encyclopedia of Country Music that Yoakam's music showed influences of "the honky-tonk country music of Buck Owens and Lefty Frizzell" and "a distinct antipathy toward the Nashville pop/country scene."[5] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic stated that "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."[1] Erlewine also noted that Yoakam's fanbase typically consisted of people who listened to roots rock and rock and roll.[1] Thom Jurek of AllMusic thought that Pete Anderson's electric guitar work was also an important part of his sound, comparing such work to Don Rich of Buck Owens' backing band The Buckaroos.[28] Jurek also thought that the prominent uses of electric guitar and Hammond organ were examples of Yoakam's rock influences.[28]
Yoakam describes his own songwriting style as "fragmented". He told Al Caudell of American Songwriter that he usually wrote songs by coming up with a melody and then determining the intended mood. From there, he said he would come up with a "thesis" for the song. He also stated that he preferred not to write in a linear fashion, as he thought writing a song in one sitting would cause him to feel creatively burnt out.[107] He also said that memories of his childhood were influential in his songwriting style, particularly in the bluegrass music to which he listened; he told American Songwriter that he enjoyed the "irony that's always been part of bluegrass in that it sets melodic, lilting melodies and upbeat tempos with the most tragic lyrics."[107]
Cyndi Hoelzle of Gavin Report noted Yoakam's appeal outside traditional country music, stating in 1993 that "[h]is records sold across the board-to middle-aged Stonewall Jackson fans and to young punk rockers who'd seen Dwight do his thing in L.A., opening shows for Los Lobos and the Violent Femmes."[24] Richard Cromelin of The Los Angeles Times noted that Yoakam's musical image was that of a "brooding, intensely private figure driven by restless ambition and an edgy intellectuality more commonly found in rock stars."[108] In the same article, Yoakam stated that "I found out early that one of the ways I was able to make contact was through musical expression."[108] Similarly, he told Gavin Report in 1993 that "My nature is to be absolutely dissectively analytic. But with songwriting I have to leave it in a place that's not."[24] Al Caudell of American Songwriter called Yoakam "a bluntly outspoken advocate of hardcore honky-tonk music".[107] Yoakam received negative attention from the Nashville music scene early in his career due to his constant criticism of the genre. Among his criticisms were Columbia Records dropping Johnny Cash and MTV refusing to play country music videos.[109] Of these criticisms, he later stated that "I learned a couple albums in... that my opinions and observations on the industry were not pertinent to what I needed to do as an artist, so I just really began to focus solely on what I was doing at the time."[55]
Yoakam's musical image is also defined by his typical outfits when onstage. Colin Larkin of The Virgin Encyclopedia of Country Music wrote that "like Don Williams and others, he retains the traditional Stetson hat."[5] Alanna Nash wrote in a review of If There Was a Way that "When Dwight Yoakam first came on the scene, with his hip retro-attitude, concha-studded jeans, and music that often grazed the edge of rock & roll, it was hard to tell whether the California cowboy was for real. The verdict was clear by his third album, Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room, whose key cycle of songs is a classic murder tale that echoes the pride, heartbreak, betrayal, and vengeance of the age-old hillbilly experience."[27] Al Caudell of American Songwriter noted that Yoakam frequently wore "ripped jeans".[107] Darryl Smyers of the Dallas Observer wrote that "With his absurdly large hat and Flying Burrito Brothers fashion sense, Yoakam was championed by a surprising mix of punks, rockabilly hounds, and hard-core honky-tonkers."[110]
Leonard Running of the Rapid City Journal referred to Yoakam's singing style as a "plaintive, yodel-edged voice".[16] An uncredited review of Gone in No Depression stated, "His voice is pure and sweet, but a precise tool. Only rarely, like on 'Try Not to Look So Pretty'...does it really fall down into an emotional fit."[111] J. D. Considine of The Baltimore Sun wrote of Yoakam's singing voice that it was a "high, lonesome twang" and a "sweetly nasal tenor".[112] Similarly, the editors of The Encyclopedia of Country Music described Yoakam as having a "twangy tenor... simply too spellbinding for country radio to ignore."[6] These editors also thought that Yoakam was more able to break through into mainstream country music than contemporaries such as Lyle Lovett and Steve Earle because "mainstream country has found it easier to digest distorted guitars than ironic lyrics".[6]
