Dwight Yoakam - the sentence is..?

'if there was a way' has a perfect album cover. the only use of copperplate gothic typeface ive ever approved of.
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Zj-zREJ1L._SX355_.jpg

Yet to Succeed has been called out a couple times itt and it's really sublime. His phrasing on that is masterful.

Also is that a marimba in the mix of that song?

He's so good, yet never seems to tour much outside of the casino circuit.

Man, I totally forgot he dated Sharon Stone.

great actor too. he excels at playing sadistic creeps.

All the original albums that I've heard were worth checking out, but the best gateway for his 80s seems to be Just Lookin' For a Hit, 90s Last Chance For A Thousand Years, best career overview (up through early 00s, I think) the Rhino Very Best of. At about the same time, I got into the all-new Population Me quite a bit, although it took several spins (most of which I wouldn't have bothered with if he hadn't gotten several hooks into me right away). Ditto Blame The Vain, from '05 or '06---but the first this-century DY to grab and keep me all the way through first listen was this, as noted on Rolling Country 2013 and the Nashville Scene ballot:
God, 3 Pears is great. Grabbed me right away---on MySpace, but great sound (via Koss UR40 headphones). Dwight Yoakam assimilates the mid-60s back-and-forth of country, rock, some Latin in both, from the Southwestern US to UK and back: well, mostly assimilated, not too quote-y, though he does make good use of a certain Beatles chorus, Tommy James--mostly subliminal Orbison, Owens, Everlys (even multiple Dwights for a moment on one track), early Gram Parsons, and right from the latter to "Heart of Mine", the best southwest of Liverpool garage pop country that the young Sir Douglas Quintet never did. Circumspect flash, he is a character actor after all, knows not to wink and the audience, but when to whoop, and the wave of music the sorrowfully moralistic, left-behind hubby rides though "Dim Lights, Thick Smoke" has a faithful scream inside. Also like what I hoped the Mavericks' album would sound like in the wake of "Oh What A Crying Shame", but this is much more consistent. "Waterfall" sounds like a children's song, more imaginative than sentimental, but the line about babies being born even in a war, is that something you'd tell a kid? Some kids would know, would be there to agree with you, no Pope Daddyio. Couple tracks toward the end I could live without, but it perks up again. If Tom T. Hall left Kentucky, and hung a left for Hollywood on his way back to Nashville or Murfreesboro, Yoakam might have a good dream about it, right before starting this album.

Then from 2015:
Dwight Yoakam's Second Hand Heart didn't immediately flip me into the back of a pickup truck, not like 3 Pears, but it sure does build. First three tracks seem a tad studious, which shouldn't be necessary after 14 previous albums drawing on mid-60s Buck Owens/Beatles crosstalk, and what the latter, at least, drew on from the Everlys x various Southwestern crossover artists. But then he starts stretching and flexing the Sunbelt accents, adding Alabama-style syllables to a droll drawl over a "She's About A Mover"-type riff, dropping in some Jordanaires-type vocal encouragement, just for a second ( like some other fleet touches, on this and other tracks: acoustic guitar back here, steel over thar), and the arc of the set really takes off, doesn't let go. For instance, "Man of Constant Sorrow," with a vocal not that far from old timey versions, maybe a little faster---or that's just an illusion created by the slamming electric rhythm tracks, which fit perfectly, without jiving up the high lonesome vibe---they just respond, in a plugged-in, open-flap tent revival way: "Tell us how lost we all are, Brother, that's the first step to bein' found!" (Or maybe just, "Rave on, let it bleed, I'm with ya.")
Yoakam continues to crank up his rock and country connections while passing through, getting cooler and hotter at the same time, eventually ending with a ballad, but one with a beat; sounds like he's been listening to New Morning, the way Dylan was maybe listening to Van Morrison around the time of NM (long enough to concur with an overall sense of the bucolic/boondocks consolations, and the short sharp outbursts of "If Not For You," at least).

2016:
Dwight Yoakam, Swimmin' Pools, Movie Stars…: he's high & lonesome, but not too thin, nasal or tight, got that bluesier side of bluegrass, flexible enough for all the twists and turns of yonder Hollywood and Beverly Hills, also almost a bit of blue yodel, at appropriate intervals. Like the occasional guest voices too, would like more or any females, since female voices have kept me listening to contemporary bluegrass, somewhut (also to contemporary punk-new-wave-etc).
Took me a couple of tracks to focus, but particular faves so far incl. "Listen", which is a little slower than usual and has kind of an Everlys feel, also Dolly Parton's"Two Doors Down", with the barstool as tombstone and/or urn: seems like that honky tonk bluegrass I've always wondered about (title of an early Ricky Skaggs album, but considering how pious he got and maybe already was, hard to picture him in such a place). Good if not strictly necessary revamp of "Guitars Cadillacs and Hillbilly Music", also, fave of all so far is "Purple Rain", now with a brisker, still pensive bluegrass cadence, reminding me a little of Hindu Love Gods' version of "Raspberry Beret."
(Would like to hear Willie sing "Purple Rain" at the original tempo(Also him and/or Yoakam doing "Pale Blue Eyes", but that's another matter.
The ideel "PBE" would involve Lee Ann Womack (what the heck, she's gone almost that far, like with Marc Ribot's "Meds").

3 pears sounded great to me today on first listen.

this is so simple but still very effective
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzDgd3Fl0IY

He's playing Terminal 5 in NYC in a couple of weeks.

I got into his stuff on the back of those last two (brilliant ) albums

The string of albums he did with Pete Anderson are pretty much all killer.

He's a fantastic duet partner at live shows. However don't recall him doing many duets on his albums.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIsqN4BTvuw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw0gdKJ5mpw

Well, there's the stuff with Buck, of course.

right... there's that of course

timely (or coincidental) revive - just learned on Twitter that it's Dwight's birthday today. Happy birthday, Dwight!

ha, purely coincidence! just been on a dwight deep dive and had to share.

Been obsessing over "Sorry You Asked?" lately.

the trumpet into the key shift >>>

weird choice on the fade out tho

'Nothing' might just be my favorite song of his thus far
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVrCmg5Q6rw

Good video, too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeuRMOkaohY

weird choice on the fade out tho

I like that! It's funny and implies the song will just keep going, adding more tmi, and you'll really be sorry you asked. I get the feeling the next (unheard) verse is about their waning sex life.

Blame the vane.

love this. melody is very climson and clover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzChx-3sqXk

^ came here to post about this song. what a jam!

The bar played “turn it on, turn it up, turn me loose” last weekend and I’ve hardly had anything else on my mind since then

«Lonely moves here and there.
Sometimes it stays in one place and just stares.»

Love him so much.