I may as well admit straight-out that I like Dwight
Yoakam. I’ve liked him ever since one of
his songs showed up on a mix tape given to me be a musically sophisticated
friend. It might have been “Fast as You”, or maybe “Thousand Miles from Nowhere”,
but I remember being shocked that I was hearing twangy country music amidst the
latest hits from England and New York. I
hated it – for about a minute. Then I
loved it, and I still do.
If you’ve listened to Dwight Yoakam before, his latest album
isn’t gonna change your mind about him.
It’s another platter of broken hearts, tough luck and skepticism. In the up-tempo opening song, he promises
that all the hurts of love will disappear, not in his arms, but “in
another world”.
In the second song, “She”,
he sings that a woman won’t show you what’s really going on in her heart, and
it’s not till the song’s half way through that the “you” being addressed isn’t
a general term – it’s an individual, and the “she” shows the truth in her eyes
to the singer. It’s no longer a general
complaint about the difficulty of communication between men and women; it’s a
tale of betrayal and hidden love.
If it weren’t for broken hearts, Dwight Yoakam might not
have much to sing about. By the third
track – the
title track – two world-weary souls are warily contemplating giving love a
try, though she suggests “It’s better off just not to start/Than to have to
watch us fall apart.” By the end of the
song, though, she’s recalling that when she “trusted love I dreamed in color
too . . .” and you know that the hard-won cynicism is buckling under the
pressure of a yearning “Second Hand Heart”.
There are nine songs of heartbreak on this album, but the
closing song is a delightful hymn to hope.
The singer sees “blue skies and sunshine up ahead” and knows that “even
fallen angels need shelter from the harm.”
If that sounds like a tedious dose of misery, you haven’t
heard the way that Dwight Yoakam can bend his voice and work his guitar. It’s not a subtle parlor game to guess at
some of his inspirations – Buck Owens, Elvis Presley, and Buddy Holly live on in Dwight Yoakam’s memory and
voice. Each song sounds fresh and
individual, but securely sewn into the fabric of the album.
Over at Deliberate
Obfuscation, Robin recalls the great show that Dwight Yoakam put on for us
at the Forecastle Fest in Louisville last summer, and generously tolerates my
tendency to sing along with some of my favorites. (My version of “The Heart that You Own”
will bring tears to your eyes, one way or the other.) She proclaims herself a fan, and I have duets
to look forward to on our road trips.
How can I have anything but praise for an album that I know
will make my cherished road trips with my wife even better?
Next up: Way Out Weather, by Steve Gunn
No comments:
Post a Comment