Dwight Yoakam : : A Thousand Miles from Nowhere / / Don McLeese.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Texas Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: McLeese, Don,
• Place / Publishing House: Austin : : University of Texas Press, , [2021]; ©2012
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Series: American Music Series
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (232 p.)

From his formative years playing pure, hardcore honky-tonk for mid-’80s Los Angeles punk rockers through his subsequent surge to the top of the country charts, Dwight Yoakam has enjoyed a singular career. An electrifying live performer, superb writer, and virtuosic vocalist, he has successfully bridged two musical worlds that usually have little use for each other—commercial country and its alternative/Americana/roots-rocking counterpart. Defying the label “too country for rock, too rock for country,” Yoakam has triumphed while many of his peers have had to settle for cult acceptance. Four decades into his career, he has sold more than 25 million records and continues to tour regularly, with an extremely loyal fan base. In Dwight Yoakam, award-winning music journalist Don McLeese offers the first musical biography of this acclaimed artist. Tracing the seemingly disparate influences in Yoakam’s music, McLeese shows how he has combined rock and roll, rockabilly, country, blues, and gospel into a seamless whole. In particular, McLeese explores the essential issue of “authenticity” and how it applies to Yoakam, as well as to country music and popular culture in general. Drawing on wide-ranging interviews with Yoakam and his management, while also benefitting from the perspectives of others closely associated with his musical success (including producer-guitarist Pete Anderson, Yoakam’s partner throughout his most popular and creative decades), Dwight Yoakam pays tribute to the musician who has established himself as a visionary beyond time, an artist who could title an album Tomorrow’s Sounds Today and deliver it.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- 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 -- Acknowledgments