Dwight Yoakam

Certain Songs #2167: Sarah Shook & The Disarmers – “Dwight Yoakam”

August 18, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Sidelong
Year: 2015

. . .

I know I say this every time it comes up, but has been one of my key beliefs that many of the greatest songs of the 21st century come from a little-known source: women who play country music. I’m not talking about your Mirandas and Taylors and Kaceys — though they certainly count — but rather people like Nikki Lane, Lydia Loveless, Margo Price, etc etc etc.

And Sarah Shook’s “Dwight Yoakam” just might be the greatest of them all, leaping right in with here big, sad voice announcing her current situation.

Certain Songs #370: Dwight Yoakam – “Second Hand Heart”

November 18, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Second Hand Heart
Year: 2015

And so 30 years down the line — a lot of great music I need to get deeper into — Dwight Yoakam has become an elder statesman, his audience loyal, his songs nowhere near the radio, and his songwriting as sharp as its ever been.

Free from all but the most superficial trappings of country music — of course, you’ll have to pry his hat from his cold dead head — for years, Dwight has filled his albums with whatever the hell he wants — folk songs, cover songs, rock songs and country songs. Or songs straddling the line, like “Second Hand Heart.”

Certain Songs #369: Dwight Yoakam – “Dangerous Man”

November 17, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: If There Was a Way
Year: 1990

It was Rox who turned me onto Dwight Yoakam, naturally. At some point in the mid-1990s, I started playing her folks like The Jayhawks, Rank & File, and Gram Parsons. You know: alt-country.

And she was all “yeah, those folks are really good, but have you heard this?” And it was Dwight’s 1990 album If There Was A Way, which soon became one of our soundtracks for our trips to and from Fresno, along with Lyle Lovett’s The Road to Ensenada and Wilco’s A.M.

Certain Songs #368: Dwight Yoakam – “Miner’s Prayer”

November 16, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc. Etc.
Year: 1986

I came late to the Dwight Yoakam party. Despite the fact that he was making music from the very start that I would have loved had I bothered to listen, I’ll admit that I didn’t really pay attention him until a decade into his career.

And despite the fact that I think that he’s been pretty consistently great throughout his career and is probably in the conversation for best Country artist ever, I still think that I underrate him.

21 Musical Moments To Die For

December 19, 2008 by Jim Connelly

You can talk about genres, artists, albums, or even songs, but sometimes what keeps us coming back to music is the discovery of the transcendent musical moment. For me, “the moment” is the part of the song that fully and utterly engages me; the reason that I keep coming back to it.

I’m not necessarily talking about hooks here, because the purpose of a hook is the draw you into a song. I’m really talking more about traps: the part of a song that that keeps you there.

The is the fifth in a series. The first one had 25, the second one had 24, the third one had 23, the fourth one had 22.

Also: there is a slight — but not total – Christmas theme going on with this one. More of an arc, really. And a couple of mini-arcs, too!

Every single moment I’ve listed below kills me single every time I hear it.

Oh, and this isn’t in any kind of order, despite the numbering.