In retrospect, now, I realize it was about the publishing. | Flickr/Eric Frommer/Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)Īnd Nashville, at that time, there wasn't anything really going on, live music-wise.

traffic to discuss a brief history of California country and his punk roots.Įmmylou Harris playing guitar and singing at a 2008 Woodland Park ZooTunes concert in Seattle. ' Artbound' recently caught up with Yoakam on the phone as he was caught in L.A. On his 2012 album 'Three Pears,' which saw collaborations with Beck, he blasts through the barnburner 'Dim Lights, Thick Smoke.' On 2015's 'Second Hand Heart,' the raucous sound continues with the thick chords of a fast-paced cover of 'Man of Constant Sorrow,' popularized by the Coen brother's movie, 'O Brother Where Art Thou' and the carefree garage rock swing of 'Liar,' which Yoakam says was recorded on the first take, flaws and all. But some of his recent efforts subtly dig back into his cowpunk roots. It was the breakthrough album that launched a career spanning 30 years of major country hits, and more than 25 million records sold. Yoakam's rowdy sound fit right in.īy 1986, Yoakam released his major label debut, 'Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.,' which was recorded at famed Hollywood recording studios including the historic Capitol Records. X even rebranded for a while as the Knitters, with singer Exene Cervenka, guitarist John Doe, Dave Alvin of the Blasters and Johnny Ray Bartel on upright bass. band X, also began to lean toward the twangy side, providing a subgenre that became known as cowpunk. Performing traditional honky-tonk to punk audiences was a punk move in itself, and he says friendships emerged with some of his stagemates. He was embraced by L.A.'s punk community, and in the early 1980s, he unleashed his honkytonk sound in punk clubs across the city, taking the stage at storied hotspots like Madame Wong's in Chinatown and downtown L.A.'s artist hangout, Al's bar. 'Merge Haggard said that the difference between the country music from Nashville and the country music from the West Coast was that country music in Nashville came from churches, and the country music in the West Coast came from honky-tonks and bars,' Yoakam says. As a musical antipode to the big-budget, arena rock largesse, punk clubs gave Yoakam a place to get gritty. But Yoakam was different.īy the early 1980s, Yoakam found friends in an unlikely peer group: punk rockers. Prominent rock acts like the Eagles had become mainstream juggernauts, which only remotely had any country flourishes. In the early 1980s, Yoakam was a frequent performer at country haunts like the San Fernando Valley's Palomino, and he also played regular gigs at the Old Corral Bar in Lakeview Terrace, a now-demolished honky-tonk that was also featured in one of the opening scenes of the 1991 blockbuster, 'Terminator 2: Judgement Day.' (Perhaps coincidentally, Yoakam's song 'Guitars, Cadillacs' was playing on the jukebox during the scene where a naked cybernetic Schwarzenegger shows up to the biker hangout.) Yoakam's amped-up barroom sound stood out against the smooth crooner sounds of the era's chart-toppers like Kenny Rogers and Willie Nelson. Learn more in this clip from 'Country Music.' He said he was proud of his hillbilly roots and the music’s legacy. Dwight Yoakam Brings Swagger Back to Country MusicĪt a time when Nashville record labels were embarrassed by the term “hillbilly” music, Yoakam embraced it.

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