Dwight Yoakam

Dwight Yoakam
Background information
Birth name	Dwight David Yoakam
Born	(1956-10-23) October 23, 1956 Pikeville, Kentucky, United States
Origin	Columbus, Ohio, United States
Genres	Country, Honky Tonk, country rock
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter, actor, director
Instruments	Guitar, vocals
Years active	1984–present
Labels	Reprise Audium New West Warner Bros. Nashville
Associated acts	Buck Owens
Website	www.dwightyoakam.com

Dwight David Yoakam (born October 23, 1956) is an American singer-songwriter, actor and film director, most famous for his pioneering country music. Popular since the early 1980s, he has recorded more than twenty one albums and compilations, charted more than thirty singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, and sold more than 25 million records. He has recorded five Billboard #1 albums, twelve gold albums, and nine platinum albums, including the triple platinum This Time. In addition to his many achievements in the performing arts, he is also the most frequent musical guest in the history of The Tonight Show.^[1]

Early life

Yoakam was born in Pikeville, Kentucky, the son of Ruth Ann (née Tibbs), a key-punch operator, and David Yoakam, a gas-station owner.^[2][3] He was raised in Columbus, Ohio. He graduated from Northland High School in 1974. During his high school years, he excelled in both music and drama, regularly securing the lead role in school plays, such as "Charlie" in a stage version of Flowers for Algernon, honing his skills under the guidance of teacher-mentors Jerry McAfee (music) and Charles Lewis (drama). Outside of school, he sang and played guitar with local garage bands, and entertained his friends and classmates with his impersonations, such as Richard Nixon, who, at the time, was heavily embroiled in the Watergate controversy.

Yoakam briefly attended Ohio State University, but dropped out and moved to Los Angeles in 1977^[4] with the intent of becoming a recording artist. On May 7, 2005, Ohio Valley University in Parkersburg, West Virginia awarded and presented Dwight with an honorary doctorate degree.

Music career

Dwight Yoakam

When he began his career, Nashville was oriented toward pop "urban cowboy" music, and Yoakam's brand of hip honky tonk music was not considered marketable.

Not making much headway in Nashville, Yoakam moved to Los Angeles and worked towards bringing his particular brand of new Honky Tonk or "Hillbilly" music (as he called it) forward into the 1980s. Writing all his own songs, and continuing to perform mostly outside traditional country music channels, he did many shows in rock and punk rock clubs around Los Angeles, playing with roots rock or punk rock acts like The Blasters (Yoakam scored a small video hit with his version of their song "Long White Cadillac"), Los Lobos, and X. This helped him diversify his audience beyond the typical country music fans, and his authentic, groundbreaking music is often credited with rock audiences accepting country music.

Yoakam's recording debut was the self-financed EP Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. on independent label Oak Records produced by lead-guitarist Pete Anderson; this was later re-released by Reprise Records, with several additional tracks, as his major-label debut LP, 1986's Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.. It launched his career. "Honky Tonk Man", a remake of the Johnny Horton song, and "Guitars, Cadillacs" were hit singles. His stylish video "Honky Tonk Man" was the first country music video ever played on MTV. The follow-up LP, Hillbilly Deluxe, was just as successful. His third LP, Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room, included his first No. 1, a duet with his musical idol, Buck Owens, on "Streets of Bakersfield". 1990's If There Was a Way was another best-seller.

Yoakam's song "Readin', Rightin', Route 23" pays tribute to his childhood move from Kentucky, and is named after a local expression describing the route that rural Kentuckians took to find a job outside of the coal mines. (U.S. Route 23 runs north from Kentucky through Columbus and Toledo, Ohio and through the automotive centers of Michigan.) Rather than the standard line that their elementary schools taught "the three Rs" of "Readin', 'Ritin', and 'Rithmetic", Kentuckians used to say that the three Rs they learned were "Readin', 'Ritin', and Route 23 North".

Johnny Cash once cited Yoakam as his favorite country singer. Chris Isaak called him as good a songwriter that ever put a pen to paper. Time Magazine dubbed him "A Renaissance Man" and Vanity Fair declared that "Yoakam strides the divide between rock's lust and country's lament." Along with his bluegrass and honky-tonk roots, he has written or covered many Elvis Presley-style rockabilly songs, including his covers of Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" in 1999 and Presley's "Suspicious Minds" in 1992. He recorded a cover of The Clash's "Train in Vain" in 1997, a cover of the Grateful Dead song "Truckin'", as well as Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me". He has never been associated only with country music; on many early tours, he played with hardcore punk bands like Hüsker Dü, and played many shows around Los Angeles with roots/punk/rock & roll acts. His middle-period-to-later records saw him branching out to different styles, covering rock & roll, punk, 1960's, blues-based "boogie" like ZZ Top, and writing more adventurous songs like "A Thousand Miles From Nowhere". In 2003, he provided background vocals on Warren Zevon's last album The Wind.

In the 21st century, Yoakam released dwightyoakamacoustic.net, an album featuring solo acoustic versions of many of his hits; left his major label and started his own label.

2005 saw the release of Yoakam's well-reviewed album Blame the Vain, on New West Records. He also released an album dedicated to Buck Owens, Dwight Sings Buck, on October 23, 2007. His duet with Michelle Branch, a song titled "Long Goodbye", was released as a free download on her official website in early 2011.

In July 2011, Yoakam resigned with Warner Bros. Nashville and announced plans to release a new album. 3 Pears was released on September 18, 2012 with twelve new tracks. It, produced by him, includes a collaboration with, Beck. 3 Pears was released to resounding critical acclaim and earned him the highest-charting debut of his career on the Billboard 200 and Billboard Country Albums charts. 3 Pears reached #1 on the Americana Radio chart on October 29, 2012 and went on to break the 2012 record for most weeks at #1 on Americana Radio.^[5] By the end of 2012, it was named on annual best of lists by NPR, Rolling Stone, American Songwriter, AOL's The Boot, Entertainment Weekly, The Village Voice, and Rhapsody, and has been included in more critic's "best of 2012" lists than any other artist in the country genre.^[1]

In June 2014, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the song "Guitars, Cadillacs" #94 in their list of the 100 greatest country songs.^[6]

In February 2015, Yoakam announced a new studio album, titled Second Hand Heart and released on April 14.^[7]

Film and television career

Yoakam has also starred in many films, most notably in critically acclaimed performances as an ill-tempered, abusive live-in boyfriend in Sling Blade (1996), as a psychopathic killer in Panic Room (2002), as a police detective in Hollywood Homicide (2003) and as the sheriff in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005). He appeared in a supporting role as Doc Miles, the doctor for Chev Chelios, in Crank and its sequel, Crank 2: High Voltage. In addition, he also guest starred in the King of the Hill episode "Nine Pretty Darn Angry Men" as Lane Pratley. He also had a cameo appearance in the 2005 comedy movie Wedding Crashers. In 2006, he starred alongside Penélope Cruz and Salma Hayek in Bandidas; in 2008, he played Pastor Phil in Four Christmases, starring Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon; and he appears in Dirty Girl. He also appeared in The Last Rites of Ransom Pride, an independent 2010 Western that also stars fellow country singer Kris Kristofferson. In 1993, he played a truck driver in the Wyoming crime thriller, Red Rock West. He also played Brentwood Glasscock in The Newton Boys.

In 2000, Yoakam co-wrote, starred in, produced and wrote the soundtrack for South of Heaven, West of Hell, also starring Vince Vaughn and Bridget Fonda.

Some of his songs are included in the film Big Eden (2000).

Yoakam was featured in a recurring role as Bruce on the FX series Wilfred but was replaced by William Baldwin in the show's fourth and final season. He also appears in the second season of Under the Dome as Lyle Chumley, who runs the Chester's Mill's barbershop.

Food ventures

Yoakam's food brand, Bakersfield Biscuits,^[8] sells frozen foods at retailers such as Wal-Mart Superstores, Walgreens, Sam's Club, and Kroger.

Awards and recognition

Wins

• Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male – 1994 Ain't That Lonely Yet
• Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals – 1999 Same Old Train shared with multiple artists
• Americana Music Award for Artist of the Year – 2013

Nominations

• Grammy Award for Best Country Song – 1987 Guitars, Cadillacs
• Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male – 1987 Guitars, Cadillacs
• Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male – 1988 Hillbilly Deluxe
• Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Collaboration – 1989 with Buck Owens for Streets of Bakersfield
• Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male – 1989 Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room
• Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Collaboration – 1990 with K.d. Lang for Sin City
• Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male – 1991 "Turn It On, Turn It Up, Turn Me Loose"
• Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance – 1995 "Pocket of a Clown"
• Grammy Award for Best Country Album – 1996 Dwight Live
• Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance – 1996 "A Thousand Miles from Nowhere"
• Grammy Award for Best Country Album – 1997 Gone
• Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance – 1997 "Nothing"
• Grammy Award for Best Country Album – 1998 Under the Covers
• Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance – 2000 "Crazy Little Thing Called Love"
• Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance – 2001 "A Thousand Miles from Nowhere"

Other Awards

• Yoakam also named "Artist of the Year" by CMT Europe in 1993 and given the International Touring Artist Award by CMA in 2007.^[9]
• In 2011, Yoakam received the Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award for his trailblazing achievements in the country music genre.

Discography

Studio albums

• Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. (1986)
• Hillbilly Deluxe (1987)
• Buenas Noches From a Lonely Room (1988)
• If There Was a Way (1990)
• This Time (1993)
• Gone (1995)
• A Long Way Home (1998)
• dwightyoakamacoustic.net (2000)
• Tomorrow's Sounds Today (2000)
• South of Heaven, West of Hell (Soundtrack) (2001)
• Population Me (2003)
• Blame the Vain (2005)
• 3 Pears (2012)
• Second Hand Heart (2015)

Christmas albums

• Come On Christmas (1997)

Cover albums

• Under the Covers (1997)
• In Others' Words (2003)
• Dwight's Used Records (2004)
• Dwight Sings Buck (2007)

Compilation albums

• Just Lookin' for a Hit (1989)
• Dwight Live (1995)
• Last Chance for a Thousand Years (1999)
• Reprise, Please, Baby (2002)
• The Very Best of Dwight Yoakam (2004)
• 21st Century Hits: Best of 2000–2012 (2013)

International releases

• This Is... (1990)
• La Croix D'Amour (1992)

Filmography

Film

Television

References

Specific references:

General references:

• Himes, Geoffery. (1998). "Dwight Yoakam". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbuey, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 605–6.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dwight Yoakam.

• Official website
• Dwight Yoakam at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about Dwight Yoakam in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Dwight Yoakam radio interview on Ben Sorensen's REAL Country