Re: Dwight Yoakam - TP Artist?

The missus just got tickets to see Dwight Yoakam, and The Mavericks at The Greek Theater for this July. Now, The Mavericks do have a TP entry, but not Yoakam. I'd say he's got as much alt cred as they do. Yoakam shunned Nashville, cutting his teeth on the LA club scene, and got his first airplay on college radio. When he emerged in the '80s, he seemed a lot more rockabilly than what was popular in country music at the time, all that Kenny Rogers/Alabama/etc. stuff. He has covered The Blasters, Cheap Trick, and The Clash, and even made an album with Beck. What say you, Ira?

Good argument. Who's going to step up?

I haven't followed his whole career (close to everything I've heard is from his first ten years of recording) but I'm definitely a fan and got to know him through rock critics who have championed him. Don McLeese and the late Jimmy Guterman especially thought the world of him.

Steve Earle belongs here, also. Unfortunately, I lost track of him once all his album covers started looking exactly alike and I could never remember if I had a particular album or not.

I saw Dew-wight (as Buck Owens always called him) the last time he played the Greek and he was effing great. To me, he's a TP artist, and I co-founded the mag.

I've never paid much attention to Dwight, any more than I've ever paid attention to any musical artist who wears a cowboy hat. But he's playing in Everett in July, with The Mavericks as the opening act. And the arena is being configured for half-house, so there won't really be any bad seats. (And the arena is walking distance from my house.) It's starting to sound like I should consider ponying up for a couple tickets.

Yoakum and the Mavericks are playing the Anthem later this year, a big indoor venue. I don't know Yoakum's work well although I oddly had the covers CD he did ages ago. But I like the Mavericks quite a lot.

I've never seen Yoakam do more than a guest spot, but the Mavericks are terrific live. And I say that as someone who's not a huge fan of their records.

When Yoakam first started making noise, there was a lot of debate on whether he should be considered Cowpunk - an idea that was strengthened by Maria McKee guesting on his debut. Then he got embraced by actual country radio and kicked off what Steve Earle refers to as "the great credibility scare" of the late 80s when it looked like country radio was going to embrace more artistic adventurous (while still more traditionally country than the mainstream) folks like himself, Yoakam, Lyle Lovett, Nanci Griffith, etc. It didn't last long, with the Mavericks probably being the last gasp of it. Then it all got washed away in the 90s deluge of Garth, Shania and Faith. (Though most of what passes for mainstream country music these days makes those people - or at least Garth, anyhow - sound like the second coming of Ernest Tubb by comparison.)

I saw Dan Rather interviewing Yoakam on some obscure cable channel a few years ago (Axis TV, I think) and Yoakam talked up the whole cowpunk scene and namedropped Rank & File and Lone Justice, which was pretty cool to see.

If Yoakam and Earle hadn't had genuine country radio hits pretty much right out of the gate, I have no doubt their labels would've pivoted to push them harder towards the college rock crowd. It's not too hard to imagine "Guitar Town" as a left of the dial mainstay, sandwiched in between "Driver 8" and "Elvis is Everywhere."

"If Yoakam and Earle hadn't had genuine country radio hits pretty much right out of the gate, I have no doubt their labels would've pivoted to push them harder towards the college rock crowd. It's not too hard to imagine "Guitar Town" as a left of the dial mainstay, sandwiched in between "Driver 8" and "Elvis is Everywhere."

Right, that's why the cowboy hat (re Delvin's comment) was a good marketing move to get mainstream country radio airplay, even tho his actual music is a lot more diverse, and is often more rockbilly than the Stray Cats, or other 'billy revivalists included in the annals of TP.

On the other hand, did Jason Ringenberg's hat get Jason and the Scorchers any look from mainstream country radio? I wasn't paying any attention to the format at the time, so now I'm curious if country radio took any notice of cowpunk/early alt-country/Americana at all. Country artists did, with Waylon Jennings having a hit cover of "Will the Wolf Survive?" and Patty Loveless covering Lone Justice's "Don't Toss Us Away," but I have no clue if any country radio programmers took a chance on adding Rank & File or the Del Lords to the "once a week at midnight" rotation.

I do know of at least one commercial country station that did, but it wasn't exactly mainstream. Backland Radio/The Whip operated out of Farmer City, Illinois - a bump on the interstate between Bloomington-Normal and Champaign-Urbana - for a couple of decades, broadcasting a mix of classic country, rockabilly, alt-country and Americana on a decently strong commercial FM frequency, until about 10 years ago one of the media megacorps noticed they had a dead spot in central Illinois and bought the station out from under them, making that region safe for whatever cookie-cutter format they switched the station over to. But Backland/the Whip was a great anomaly while they existed, and were at least able to migrate online.

And don't forget, Dwight's producer and guitarist was Pete Anderson, an all-arounder from Detroit, who was certainly as well versed in rock styles as he was in country (and is still playing the clubs in the L.A. area to this day).

Not sure how much his label had to do with it, but the first time I saw Dwight live (I think Ira was there, too, that night) was opening for Husker Du at Irving Plaza in New York. I think he'd probably already had a country radio hit with "Guitars and Cadillacs" at the time. He may have played more shows with college radio bands in the '80s than you might expect. Totally agree with you re Earle's "Guitar Town,"and I surprisingly don't recall hearing "I Ain't Ever Satisfied" in that context either. Would've fit in just as well or maybe even a little better.

Dwight Yoakam opening for Hüsker Dü? Boy, I wish I could've been there to see the looks on the hardcore fans' faces, when handsome Dwight came out and started playing honky-tonk music. College-radio hits or not, that just sounds like an oil-and-water mix.

Greg Norton just posted about this on Instagram less than hour ago with a photo of Irving Plaza - I guess he’s playing there tonight!