Via Records/Thirty Tigers

****

It was 40 years ago that I first heard Dwight Yoakam’s Guitars, Cadillacs, etc EP on the small Oak Records label. It made a huge impression on me at the time. An even bigger impact was to follow some 18 months later, when he signed with Reprise and his debut full album, with the same title, was released. It just seemed so fresh and new, and at the same time more traditional than just about anything else around. In fact, it did such a good job of appearing traditional that it probably has never really received enough credit for how innovative it was. That was a pretty amazing trick to pull off—it felt like a throwback of some sort, and yet it didn’t really sound like anything that had come before it. Partly that was because Pete Anderson’s production and guitar playing helped to redefine the rock ’n’ roll influence on country music. To put the album into context. Dwight emerged from the West Coast cowpunk movement prevalent at the time. There was an almost sneery edginess to the whole album.

That sense of rebelliousness, adventure and wild abandon seems somewhat muted on this latest album, Dwight’s first in almost nine years. I guess at 68 the singer should be allowed to take things a little easier, yet when I saw him at the AMA Awards in September, he was still full of the old fire. He’s followed quite a diverse career path, musically, and has also become a very successful actor, having appeared in more than 40 films, often placing his music on the backburner. It doesn’t matter how much time passes, Dwight Yoakam is still a master of the country song. He has penned nine of these dozen songs and unlike his past endeavours, finds ways to inject pure sunshine into the listener’s veins. It’s a different Dwight. Almost a contented senior, more than happy in his life, with little or nothing to prove. This is pure, unaffected music, crafted to perfection by a veteran country artist, thoroughly at peace with himself. Whether the more easy-going approach works for his longtime fans remains to be seen, but this new record is likely to usher in plenty of new ones.

Retaining an easy accessibility that practically begs the listener to sing along, the title song revels in a kind of homespun homily. A jog-along rhythm with acoustic guitar, sweet pedal steel and delightful harmonies, this sways and caresses while tugging at the heartstrings and sharing the sentiment of the promise of better times. It works, and it’s a pure delight. He shows little signs of his old fire with opener Wide Open Heart. This driving track captures both the excitement and push-pull one feels when embarking on a new relationship. There’s more of the same with the vibrant Can’t Be Wrong. The track lays on greasy guitar, swirling organ and a thunderous beat to his gritty, charged up vocals. With both California Sky and Hand Me Down Heart, he surprises by taking easygoing mainstream flavours, as he explores a more textured instrumental terrain. Most surprising is the jog-along simplicity of I Spell Love. Produced, with airy, echoey space around his vocal, the melodic song holds snapshots of the delights of being smitten by love. Devotion is the key. An endearing song with a new sonic direction for this superstar.

He also adds in three covers, each one given that unique Dwight-treatment, and all fitting into the overall vibe of the album. Cake’s Bound Away, features an array of plucked guitars and gentle steel that evoke a sense of wistfulness. Naturally, there’s more of a jangly guitar sound for the toe-tapping revival of the Byrds’ Time Between, echoing the hazy days of 1960s country-rock with great interplay between mandolin and acoustic guitar alongside ethereal pedal steel. He turns in a surprising, and very inventive rendition of the Carter Family’s Keep On The Sunny Side. An old-time Appalachian intro leads into a driving country-rock arrangement with gospel-styled vocals on the chorus that I just cannot fault. He is joined by Post Malone for I Don’t Know How To Say Goodbye (Bang Bang Boom Boom), a great barroom shuffle with pedal steel, countryish tinkling piano and, uniquely, organ leading into a great fiddle break. This is how I love to hear my country music. Welcome back a different and inventive Dwight Yoakam, stirring up the country genre whilst still managing to honour the many forms while tweaking them.

www.dwightyoakam.com 

November 2024