You either love or hate Dwight Yoakam. There is no middle ground, you either think he's the worst thing that has happened to country music, or you rank him high among the legends.
Myself, I was prejudiced towards him for ages, but then I came across his album of Buck Owens covers and it blew me right away. I decided to check him out and discovered that there is no golden rule. Country music must not always sound as it did in the golden 70's of outlaw country.
Dwight Yoakam has simply taken good old honky-tonk style country music and given it a modern twist and it sure works.
This record was, if I'm correctly informed, his first and this cd is a re-issue from 2006 and includes his 1981 demos, as well as a disc with a live performance of his from the time of the first release in 1986, which means that Dwight Yoakam has been entertaining us now for a quarter of a century, which is no small accomplishment in itself.
I think people dislike Dwight Yoakam, not as much because he has brought pop into country, but because he has made it work. You get equal doses of honky-tonk rooted in the Bakersfield sound, with a few violins added, as well as sounds from the deep south Dwight hails from and radio friendly pop/rock.
Lyricswise, you get a lot of heartaches, as well as Dixie pride and though might not be the best lyrics ever written, they work for me, I like 'em.
The only bad tune and to be honest, it's not that bad, only Social Distortion covered it much better, is Ring of fire.
Dwight opened up the country scene to discovering more side projects than bluegrass and gospel and I think quite a few successful country artists owe their "break" to Dwight Yoakam coming and opening the door for them and has made country more accessible. Even if I really don't like some of the more recent big acts (ZBB remain an exception, but that is largely thanks to their lyrics), I think Dwight Yoakam is quite good and even if you don't like him, you have to admire the man for what he has accomplished!
A classic, but not a perfect album gets 91,2% in level of satisfaction!
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