Thursday 2 February 2012

Dwight Yoakam, "Live from Austin TX"

This is actually a boxed set of one cd and one dvd of live material from what was once, back in the 1980's, a popular American tv show.

At the moment, I haven't listened to the live cd, only watched and utterly enjoyed the dvd. I'm sure I'll put the cd in my record player one time or another in the future, but at the moment I don't see the point, as it's the same material on the cd as it is on the dvd.

This vid is from a performance given in October 1988. Dwight was still new to the game, though he had released some records and consequently, this vid is full of his 80's hits we all love, groundbreaking as they was when he first came into popularity.

Dwight has a voice quite similar, I think, to Pd Heaton of British 80's pop act The Housemartins, a bit soft, one could say. This means I have trouble hearing his stage talk in between the numbers, but I'm sure he's much more confident belting out his hits than he is talking to people. He's also got those wild dance moves one has come to associate with him.

It is with difficulty one must pick the best tunes on this, cos it's full of lovely ones. I, however, think he made a wise decision in saving two of my faves for the encore, they really are some of the best he's ever sung.

One song that must be mentioned though is the classic Streets of Bakersfield, on which Dwight calls in some support from another country vocalist. I won't tell you whom, but I'm sure you can guess! ;-)

This is a good dvd and I'd recommend it, not just to Dwight's die hard fans, but also to country fans in general and to people into 80's country music in particular, cos he was one of the most important newcomers back in the days and he's still a master musician.

A good, although not perfect vid like this gets 73,7% in rate of satisfaction.

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