Dwight Yoakam

Dwight Yoakam is an American country singer-songwriter, actor and film director from Pikeville, Kentucky. Born in 1956, he is associated with country and singer-songwriter music, and he also works with honky-tonk and alt-country styles. He is one of the best-known figures in modern country music and has been active since the early 1980s.

Early life and education

Yoakam is born in Pikeville and raised in Columbus, Ohio. He is the son of Ruth Ann, who works as a key-punch operator, and David Yoakam, who owns a gas station. He graduates from Northland High School in Columbus in 1974. At school he takes part in music and drama, often landing lead roles in plays, and he develops his skills with guidance from Jerry McAfee and Charles Lewis. Outside school, he sings and plays guitar with local garage bands and does impressions for friends and classmates. He briefly attends Ohio State University before leaving for Nashville in 1977 with the aim of becoming a recording artist.

Career

When Yoakam arrives in Nashville, the city is dominated by pop-oriented urban cowboy country, and his hard-edged honky-tonk style is not seen as commercially easy to place. After limited progress there, he moves to Los Angeles and continues developing what he calls new honky tonk or hillbilly music. He writes his own songs and performs mainly outside traditional country circuits, including shows in rock and punk clubs around Los Angeles. He appears with roots rock and punk acts such as The Blasters, Los Lobos and X, and his cover of The Blasters’ “Long White Cadillac” becomes a small video hit. He also plays with hardcore punk band Hüsker Dü on early tours, which helps broaden his audience beyond country listeners.

His recording debut is the self-financed EP Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. on Oak Records, produced by guitarist Pete Anderson. The release is later expanded and reissued by Reprise Records as his major-label debut album in 1986. That album launches his career, helped by the singles “Honky Tonk Man”, a remake of the Johnny Horton song, and “Guitars, Cadillacs”. His video for “Honky Tonk Man” is the first country music video played on MTV. The follow-up album Hillbilly Deluxe also performs strongly. His third album, Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room, includes his first number one single, “Streets of Bakersfield”, a duet with Buck Owens. If There Was a Way follows in 1990 as another major seller.

Yoakam’s song “Readin’, Rightin’, Route 23” refers to his childhood move from Kentucky and to a local phrase about rural Kentuckians travelling Route 23 North to look for work outside the coal mines. Over the years he records many songs associated with rock and roll, rockabilly, punk, blues-based boogie and 1960s styles as well as country material. His covers include Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds”, The Clash’s “Train in Vain”, the Grateful Dead’s “Truckin’”, and Cheap Trick’s “I Want You to Want Me”. He also writes more expansive songs such as “A Thousand Miles From Nowhere”.

Later work and collaborations

In 2003, Yoakam provides background vocals on Warren Zevon’s final album The Wind. In the 21st century he releases dwightyoakamacoustic.net, an album of solo acoustic versions of many of his hits, and he leaves his major label to start his own label. In 2005 he releases Blame the Vain on New West Records. He also releases Dwight Sings Buck, an album dedicated to Buck Owens. He records “Long Goodbye” with Michelle Branch, and later returns to Warner Bros. Nashville. His album 3 Pears includes twelve new tracks and collaborations with Kid Rock, Beck and Ashley Monroe, and is produced by Yoakam.

Awards and recognition

Yoakam wins the Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance in 1993 for “Ain’t That Lonely Yet”. In the same year he is named Artist of the Year by CMT Europe. He receives the International Touring Artist Award from the CMA in 2007 and the Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award in 2011 for his contribution to country music. He is also often cited by other musicians; Johnny Cash names him his favourite country singer, and Chris Isaak praises his songwriting. Time describes him as “A Renaissance Man”, and Vanity Fair notes the way his work bridges rock and country.

Output and record sales

Yoakam records more than 21 albums and compilations, charts more than 30 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, and sells more than 25 million records. He earns five Billboard number one albums, twelve gold albums and nine platinum albums, including the triple-platinum This Time. He is also the most frequent musical guest in the history of The Tonight Show.