Dwight Yoakam

Dwight
Yoakam

AMERICAN
MUSIC SERIES

Peter Blackstock and David Menconi,
Editors

DWIGHT YOAKAM

A THOUSAND MILES FROM NOWHERE

Don McLeese

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PRESS
AUSTIN

The
publication of this book was supported in part by the Brad and Michele Moore Roots Music Series Endowment.

Copyright © 2012 by Don McLeese

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

First edition, 2012

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University of Texas Press

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The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992 (R1997) (Permanence of Paper).

Design by Lindsay Starr

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

McLeese, Don.

Dwight Yoakam : a thousand miles from nowhere / Don McLeese. — 1st ed.

p. cm. — (American music series)

Includes discographical references.

ISBN 978-0-292-72381-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-0-292-73781-5 (e-book)

ISBN 978-0-292-74279-6 (individual e-book)

1. Yoakam, Dwight. 2. Country musicians—United States— Biography. I. Title. II. Series: American music series (Austin, Tex.)

ML420.Y63M35 2012

782.421642092—dc23 [B]
2011042859

For
Danny Roy Young and Sir Douglas Sahm.

Let's play two!

Contents

Introduction:
A Thousand Miles from Nowhere

1.
How Far Is Heaven?

2.
Readin', Rightin', Rt. 23

3.
South of Cincinnati, West of Columbus

4.
Corvette Cowboy

5.
From Kentucky Bourbon to Babylonian Cowboys

6.
Who You Callin' Cowpunk?

7.
Honky-Tonk Man

8.
“It's Jes' Ol' Hillbilly Stuff”

9.
Hillbilly Deluxe

10.
Streets of Bakersfield

11.
Bonus Cut

12.
“Well, I'm Back Again . . . ”

13.
Wild Ride

14.
Gone, Real Gone

15.
Act Naturally

16.
The Same Fool

17.
Playing Out the String

18.
South of Heaven, West of Hell (and Off the Charts)

19.
Splitsville

20.
Produced by Dwight Yoakam

21.
The Buck Stops Here

22.
“I Wanna Love Again, Feel Young Again”

APPENDIX. The Dwight Dozen:
A Selected Discography

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Dwight
Yoakam

Introduction

A Thousand Miles from Nowhere

LONG BEFORE I COMMITTED myself to this project, which would become a labor of love—an opportunity to immerse myself in the music and rediscover the multidimensional richness of it—I considered Dwight Yoakam an artist of singular accomplishment. Though there are mainstream country artists who have sold far more than the twenty-five million recordings that Yoakam claims, no other has reached those commercial successes by following anything close to Dwight's elevated career path; he has taken artistic chances, attracted a diverse audience, and garnered critical plaudits from the rock world.

On the other hand, while there may be alternative-country, roots-rocking, and kindred-spirit artists who remain revered beyond the mainstream, none can match Yoakam's combination of uncompromising vision of musical integrity and level of popular success. Whatever promises about forging a common spirit for rock and country have been made by cult favorites such as Gram Parsons or Lucinda Williams—or Jason and the Scorchers, or Joe Ely, or dozens more who have found a wellspring of creative revitalization in roadhouse tradition—Dwight Yoakam has fulfilled. In spades. He has somehow become the most formula-defying popular artist in the most formula-dependent genre of popular music.

So, there are two questions that a book such as this should ask and perhaps even answer. Why hasn't anybody else been able to do what Dwight has done—use a traditional-roots-alternative base as a springboard to multiplatinum mainstream popularity? And why hasn't Yoakam been celebrated more for the singularity of his achievement?

Various terms have been coined to describe the musical chasm that Yoakam straddles: country rock, cowpunk, roots rock, alt-country, insurgent country, No Depression, et al. The conundrum encountered by artists who fall into that divide has always been “too rock for country, too country for rock.” Yet rather than compromising or diluting his musical impulses at the extremes, Yoakam has pushed the envelope.

When he jumped from the L.A. roots-punk circuit into the national spotlight, he was too
country
for contemporary country, and he rocked with an unbridled intensity beyond most contemporary rock. It's fitting that he first attracted notice among the roots-punk firebrands, sharing fans at Los Angeles clubs with the likes of the Blasters (whose Dave Alvin was one of his first important champions), X, and Los Lobos.

Those who saw him in those formative years insist that they knew even then that not only would he be a big star, he would be a
mainstream country
star. Whether at the shitkicking Palomino or the punk-rocking Club Lingerie, even if the crowd was no more than a dozen or two, Dwight displayed the chops, charisma, and vision that would command large stages of halls filled with country fans in just a year or two. Heck, it was practically the same set.

His musical progression in the years since has reinforced his singular spirit. Where he initially sounded like the most retro of artists—a hillbilly, honky-tonkin' anachronism with one foot in the 1950s—he soon established himself as a visionary unbound by era, an artist who could title an album
Tomorrow's Sounds Today
and mean it.

He accomplished all this during a period in which contemporary country has become a euphemism for “soft rock,” a musical territory where Yoakam's harder edges will never fit. While today's country owes more to the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac than it does to Hank, Merle, and Loretta, its fan base continues to self-identify as country. Go to a country concert and you'll find it dominated by those who listen to country radio, buy country CDs (or download country cuts), maybe even join fan clubs for country artists. They rarely find much of interest on the other side of the contemporary pop-rock divide (and even less in the hip-hop and gangsta rap that have come to dominate pop).

Yet when Yoakam's music was played, primarily, if not exclusively, on the country airwaves, his concerts would attract plenty of fans that never listened to contemporary country radio and rarely went to other country concerts. His artistry was not merely covered but featured and championed in rock publications such as
Rolling Stone
, which typically paid scant attention to mainstream country.

Many of the artists who might be considered Yoakam's contemporaries—such as Steve Earle, Joe Ely, Rosanne Cash, Lucinda Williams, and Lyle Lovett—some of whom were initially marketed as mainstream country hitmakers, now often reach listeners over the airwaves of National Public Radio. Yoakam no more fits there than a honky-tonk bull in a broadcasting china shop.

As I began my initial research for this book, I was blindsided by a couple of revelations. The first is that there has never been any previous biography of Yoakam or book-length study of his music, not even a glorified fan-gossip quickie. This book was intended from the start to be more like an extended piece of music and culture criticism than a comprehensive chronicling of Yoakam's life. It offers lots of analysis of and context for Yoakam's artistic progression, and little to nothing of what Sharon Stone said about him, what veejay Duff thought about him, or what his high school teachers remembered about him. Yet I was pretty amazed to find the field of Yoakam biography wide open, to discover that even at the peak of Dwight's celebrity and commerciality, no one had tried to capitalize on his popularity with a book.

By contrast, the life of the late Gram Parsons, whose legacy looms large decades after his death despite a career that was commercially negligible—certainly in comparison with Yoakam's—has spawned a half dozen biographies (as well as prominent appearances in other books, where he is discussed as seminal inspiration for the shift the Byrds made toward country-rock, a buddy to Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, and a mentor for Emmylou Harris). Do a book search for Dwight and all you'll find are songbooks, sheet music, and a collection of lyrics printed as poetry (and titled
A Long Way Home
, which is an album title I would have considered borrowing for this book if Yoakam hadn't already reappropriated it).

Another surprise awaited when I searched the archives of
No Depression
, the magazine where I long served as a senior editor and which covered the alt-country movement more comprehensively (and, dare I say, more incisively) than any other publication. Expecting to find at least one extensive career piece on Yoakam, if not a spate of cover stories, I was dumbfounded to discover that there was nothing beyond short album reviews.

The archive gives no indication whatsoever that Yoakam is one of the most commercially successful and artistically compelling musicians to emerge from the movement that also spawned
No Depression
, which was supposed to be the genre's bible. In the pages of
ND
, Dwight had been treated more like an afterthought than a standard-bearer.

I don't mean to bite the hand that fed me (cheese and crackers, but still) or to criticize the editorial acumen of my friends Grant Alden and Peter Blackstock, the magazine's co-founders. (And I should acknowledge here that Peter was responsible for bringing this book to the University of Texas Press. Thanks again, Peter.) They were committed to drawing attention to artists deserving a whole lot more of it, and maybe they felt that Dwight didn't need the help—that he was already too popular to classify as alt-country (whatever that is). And there were always issues of timing, access, and other contenders competing for cover stories. But I'd counter that such a huge hole in
No Depression
's archives—it's as if
Rolling Stone
had all but ignored the Rolling Stones—suggests that it's quite possible for an artist who has received platinum albums and critical raves to remain underappreciated.