Dwight Yoakam's Double Life
PUSSSYKATT
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tough guy, that Dwight Yoakam. A car crash and a
gunfight, and the worst thing that happened to him was four stitches in his
index finger.
The bent metal and gunplay were stunts in Hollywood Homicide," his new movie
with Harrison Ford and Josh Hartnett.
But the stitches, they were real.
"At the end of a car crash and gun battle with Harrison and Josh I got hooked
around the arm by an extra and fell into a steel pedestrian barricade on
Hollywood Boulevard in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater," Yoakam said.
The finger is fine now, and so is Yoakam. This month is a big one for him --
the movie came out June 13 and his new album, Population Me, will be released
Tuesday.
Relaxed in a pink Western shirt with a flower print, Yoakam, 46, seems neither
the guitar-slinging cowpunk in torn jeans and cowboy hat on the concert stage
nor the creepy bad guy he played in the films Sling Blade and Panic Room.
What he is, for sure, is slow as molasses. Reflective and articulate, he
ponders each question and answers with long pauses as he searches for just the
right words. Sometimes his humor shines through.
Does he play another bad guy in Hollywood Homicide"?
"I'm a bad guy again -- but I dress better."
How does making movies compare with making music?
"Films are miracles in no minor way when they come to fruition at all."
Is it hard to lead a private life?
"I used to be able to get away with being anonymous by not wearing my cowboy
hat, but that's less the case in the last five years."
The new album could make it harder still. The first single, "The Back of Your
Hand," is an understated ballad that's drawing good reviews and early airplay.
The video for the song made No. 17 on Country Music Television's Top 20 list
for June 12.
"He's such an immediately recognizable icon of country music," said Chris Parr,
vice president of music and talent at CMT. "Our early indicators are that our
audience is still as interested in him as they've ever been."
Produced by longtime collaborator and guitarist Pete Anderson, Population Me is
on Electrodisc Records, an independent label Yoakam formed after leaving Warner
Brothers' Reprise Records last year.
Yoakam wrote seven of the 10 tracks, including the Willie Nelson duet "If
Teardrops Were Diamonds," the shuffling "No Such Thing" and the buoyant "An
Exception to the Rule."
Most engaging, though, might be "The Late Great Golden State," a song written
by Mike Stinson that smacks of '70s California rock by artists such as the
Eagles and Jackson Browne. It contains a bouncy banjo riff, sunny harmonies and
lyrics that lament the loss of West Coast optimism.
Yoakam sings, "I caught one last glimpse of a palomino, When I drove out West
to see the purple sage, Then as the canyons burned, And the mountains crumbled,
The last cowboy band left the stage."
The song fits him. No other contemporary country singer is so closely linked
with that dusty Western Bakersfield Sound made famous by Buck Owens and Merle
Haggard. With sharp electric guitars and twangy vocals, the style countered the
lush, polished country Nashville Sound of the '60s.
Yoakam struck that same raw chord 20 years later when country was again deep
into pop.
"Before Dwight came along in the mid '80s, people like Lee Greenwood and T.G.
Sheppard were popular -- artists who were light on twang," said Michael Gray,
associate editor at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. "Then Dwight
comes along proudly flaunting his hillbilly credentials and championing Buck
Owens and Johnny Horton. It was like a breath of fresh hillbilly air."
Kentucky-born and Ohio-bred, Yoakam tried to launch his career from Nashville
in the '70s. Unsuccessful, he headed to Los Angeles and played in clubs with
punk rock acts such as X and the Dead Kennedys.
With his James Dean swagger and punk credentials, he made country more
accessible to rock audiences while at the same time renewing interest in the
genre's honky-tonk roots.
"I think he inspired a generation of kids who grew up on MTV not only to buy
his records but to discover Buck Owens," Gray said. "It was like what Eric
Clapton did with Muddy Waters in the '60s."
Since his 1986 big-label debut, Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc., Yoakam has sold
22 million albums. His hits include "Guitars, Cadillacs," "Little Sister,"
"Streets of Bakersfield" (a remake of the Owens classic), "A Thousand Miles
From Nowhere" and "Fast as You."
Compared with active country legends such as 70-somethings Willie Nelson and
George Jones, he remains a relative youngster. But Yoakam has been around long
enough to know success can dry up and blow away like a tumbleweed.
"Knock wood, I hope to be able to continue to sell records and have them
received well by the public," he said. "But if that doesn't happen, I've had a
wonderful run of things."
SEND EMAIL TO PUSSS...@aol.com
AGC FAQ and FUN STUFF
http://www.dreamwater.org/agc/MAINPAGES/AGCFAQ.html
BLIND ITEM REHASH:
http://www.dreamwater.org/agc/BLINDITEMS/MAINPAGE.html
Harpsgrl
>by Mike Stinson that smacks of '70s California rock by artists such as the
>Eagles and Jackson Browne.
Mike Stinson is a real talent. I've seen him several times (and shared a few
beers with him). Great guy, very talented. Keep an eye on this one, he's got
the real potential to make it!!!
""Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not
sure about the former."
~~Albert Einstein
mslinda
Linda C.
CliffB
wrote on 6/29/03 7:47 PM:
> Thank God for Dwight. He's one of the few genuine originals we have left.
>
> Linda C.
The olde "dirt sandwich", as Sharon Stone termed him?
>
> PUSSSYKATT wrote:
>> ASSOCIATED PRESS/By John Gerome
>>
>> NASHVILLE, Tenn. ã Tough guy, that Dwight Yoakam. A car crash and a
mslinda
> in article 3EFF7AB4...@earthlink.net, mslinda at msl...@earthlink.net
> wrote on 6/29/03 7:47 PM:
>
>
>>Thank God for Dwight. He's one of the few genuine originals we have left.
>>
>>Linda C.
>
>
> The olde "dirt sandwich", as Sharon Stone termed him?
Given that Dwight dumped her to go back to his old girlfriend, I'd love
to hear what he said about *her.*
Linda C.
>
>>PUSSSYKATT wrote:
>>
>>>ASSOCIATED PRESS/By John Gerome
>>>
>>>NASHVILLE, Tenn. ‹ Tough guy, that Dwight Yoakam. A car crash and a
CliffB
wrote on 6/29/03 10:19 PM:
> CliffB wrote:
>> in article 3EFF7AB4...@earthlink.net, mslinda at msl...@earthlink.net
>> wrote on 6/29/03 7:47 PM:
>>
>>
>>> Thank God for Dwight. He's one of the few genuine originals we have left.
>>>
>>> Linda C.
>>
>>
>> The olde "dirt sandwich", as Sharon Stone termed him?
>
> Given that Dwight dumped her to go back to his old girlfriend, I'd love
> to hear what he said about *her.*
>
> Linda C.
That if he was the sandwich she was the cunt-iment?
>
>>
>>> PUSSSYKATT wrote:
>>>
>>>> ASSOCIATED PRESS/By John Gerome
>>>>
>>>> NASHVILLE, Tenn. Ğ Tough guy, that Dwight Yoakam. A car crash and a
J Rogow
news:3EFF9E43...@earthlink.net...
> CliffB wrote:
> > in article 3EFF7AB4...@earthlink.net, mslinda at
msl...@earthlink.net
> > wrote on 6/29/03 7:47 PM:
> >
> >
> >>Thank God for Dwight. He's one of the few genuine originals we have
left.
> >>
> >>Linda C.
> >
> >
> > The olde "dirt sandwich", as Sharon Stone termed him?
>
> Given that Dwight dumped her to go back to his old girlfriend, I'd love
> to hear what he said about *her.*
>
> Linda C.
Probably nothing, just a grin.
mslinda
> in article 3EFF9E43...@earthlink.net, mslinda at msl...@earthlink.net
> wrote on 6/29/03 10:19 PM:
>
>
>>CliffB wrote:
>>
>>>in article 3EFF7AB4...@earthlink.net, mslinda at msl...@earthlink.net
>>>wrote on 6/29/03 7:47 PM:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>Thank God for Dwight. He's one of the few genuine originals we have left.
>>>>
>>>>Linda C.
>>>
>>>
>>>The olde "dirt sandwich", as Sharon Stone termed him?
>>
>>Given that Dwight dumped her to go back to his old girlfriend, I'd love
>>to hear what he said about *her.*
>>
>>Linda C.
>
>
> That if he was the sandwich she was the cunt-iment?
>
LOL! I was hanging out pretty regularly with DY's friends and band guys
when this was going on and *nobody* expected it to last. It was just a
fling to him.
Linda C.
>
>>>>PUSSSYKATT wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>ASSOCIATED PRESS/By John Gerome
>>>>>
>>>>>NASHVILLE, Tenn. Ð Tough guy, that Dwight Yoakam. A car crash and a
mslinda
A gentleman never tells... ;-)
Linda C.