Dwight Yoakam: A Thousand Miles from Nowhere

Don McLeese

Published by University of Texas Press 2012

Dwight Yoakam

A Thousand Miles from Nowhere

Don McLeese

In the series American Music Series

https://doi.org/10.7560/723818

Overview
Contents

About this book

From his formative years playing pure, hardcore honky-tonk for mid-’80s Los Angeles punk rockers through his subsequent surge to the top of the country charts, Dwight Yoakam has enjoyed a singular career. An electrifying live performer, superb writer, and virtuosic vocalist, he has successfully bridged two musical worlds that usually have little use for each other—commercial country and its alternative/Americana/roots-rocking counterpart. Defying the label “too country for rock, too rock for country,” Yoakam has triumphed while many of his peers have had to settle for cult acceptance. Four decades into his career, he has sold more than 25 million records and continues to tour regularly, with an extremely loyal fan base.

In Dwight Yoakam, award-winning music journalist Don McLeese offers the first musical biography of this acclaimed artist. Tracing the seemingly disparate influences in Yoakam’s music, McLeese shows how he has combined rock and roll, rockabilly, country, blues, and gospel into a seamless whole. In particular, McLeese explores the essential issue of “authenticity” and how it applies to Yoakam, as well as to country music and popular culture in general. Drawing on wide-ranging interviews with Yoakam and his management, while also benefitting from the perspectives of others closely associated with his musical success (including producer-guitarist Pete Anderson, Yoakam’s partner throughout his most popular and creative decades), Dwight Yoakam pays tribute to the musician who has established himself as a visionary beyond time, an artist who could title an album Tomorrow’s Sounds Today and deliver it.

Author / Editor information

Don McLeese was formerly the pop music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times and the Austin American-Statesman, as well as country columnist and frequent contributor to Rolling Stone and a senior editor for No Depression. He has chronicled Dwight Yoakam in reviews, features, and interviews from the beginning of the artist’s recording career through the present day. He currently teaches journalism at the University of Iowa. His most recent book is The New York Times Reader: Arts and Culture.

Reviews

This lovingly crafted and compulsively readable biography is essential for fans of Yoakam and lovers of good music writing.

— Library Journal

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction A Thousand Miles from Nowhere Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. How Far Is Heaven? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
2. Readin’, Rightin’, Rt. 23 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
3. South of Cincinnati, West of Columbus Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
4. Corvette Cowboy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	41
5. From Kentucky Bourbon to Babylonian Cowboys Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
6. Who You Callin’ Cowpunk? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	59
7. Honky-Tonk Man Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	67
8. “It’s Jes’ Ol’ Hillbilly Stuff ” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	79
9. Hillbilly Deluxe Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
10. Streets of Bakersfield Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
11. Bonus Cut Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
12. “Well, I’m Back Again . . .” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
13. Wild Ride Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
14. Gone, Real Gone Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	139
15. Act Naturally Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
16. The Same Fool Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	157
17. Playing Out the String Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
18. South of Heaven, West of Hell (and Off the Charts) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	171
19. Splitsville Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
20. Produced by Dwight Yoakam Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	189
21. The Buck Stops Here Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	197
22. “I Wanna Love Again, Feel Young Again” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	205
Appendix. The Dwight Dozen The Dwight Dozen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217

Language: English
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 232

eBook

Published: July 25, 2012
ISBN: 9780292737815