Dwight Yoakam, Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc. Etc., 1986
Label: Reprise
Producer: Pete Anderson
By the mid 1980s, the Urban Cowboy movement that had exploded at the beginning of the decade had evaporated country music well past the point of artistic despair. The synth-driven pop sounds that had invaded Music City had left the format in the midst of an identity crisis (similar in many ways to its present day state). Though traditionalists like Reba McEntire, George Strait, The Judds, Ricky Skaggs, and John Anderson had done a commendable job in keeping the music’s core sounds on life support, Nashville remained in desperate need of a shot in the arm to awaken it from its creative coma. In 1986, it received much more than a shot in the arm; it was delivered an aggressive kick in its glossed-over ass.
Among those leading the cause was Kentucky native and West Coast-based Dwight Yoakam. If ever there was an artist who epitomized the moniker “hillbilly rock star”, it had to be him. Yoakam captivated fans with a sensual rock & roll spirit and backed it up with a sound deeply rooted in traditional country. Joining forces with producer and guitarist Pete Anderson, he created a style that shimmered with both a gloriously retro vibe and modern, cutting-edge zeal. It catapulted the beloved Bakersfield Sound, and honky tonk in general, back to the forefront, pleasing country purists and young, hip music fans alike. Not only did this first album jump-start an outstanding run of records that lasted well into the next three decades, it also joined other debuts that year from the likes of Randy Travis and Steve Earle in laying the groundwork for the new traditionalist movement that would reinvigorate mainstream country in the early 90s. From the moment this thrilling album begins with a scorching take on Johnny Horton’s 50s classic “Honky Tonk Man”, Yoakam puts traditionalists in a paralyzing musical euphoria. The intense twangy velocity of his voice, coupled with jubilant fiddle solos and Anderson’s muscular guitar work was truly a shocking sound to hear on country radio, and remains a joyously refreshing sound thirty five years later. “It Won’t Hurt” is an alcohol laced mid-tempo which highlights the chilling heights of Yoakam’s limitless range, while “I’ll Be Gone” is a vocal and instrumental tour de force which chugs along at a sweltering pace. It melds bluegrass virtuosity with a rockabilly spirit and lyrically serves up a delicious hillbilly account of sexual mind games.
Elsewhere, he reinvents the Johnny Cash classic, “Ring Of Fire” and infuses it with a blistering, cowpunk-styled attitude. Then there is the bewildering, two stepping title track, perhaps Yoakam’s best known tune and undoubtedly one of the most enticing country hits of its time. Backed by fluid arrangements, the song’s down-on-your-luck lyrics joyously clash with the infectious sonic nature of the record.
Among the album’s many other highlights are some stellar showcases of Yoakam’s songwriting chops. “Miner’s Prayer” proved to be a significant entry in the mining chapter of the country songbook, and channeled the bluegrass of Bill Monroe, while “South of Cincinnati” is a superb country ballad set in a lovelorn, three-part setting. Anderson’s outstanding studio treatment of warm steel and fiddle wonderfully exposes the brilliant nuances of Yoakam’s haunting voice. Bringing the vivid lyrical imagery to life, he captures the loneliness crippling both perspectives of this dying relationship:
“She pulled the letter from the pages of her Bible, and a rose pressed inside the Book of Luke. For fourteen years, she’d write each day but keep it hidden. Refused to even speak his name, but still she wrote…..
At a cold gray apartment in Chicago, a cigarette drowns inside a glass of gin. He lies there drunk, but it don’t matter drunk or sober. He’ll never read the words that pride won’t let her send.”
The dark-horse gem of the album has to be “Bury Me”, which demonstrated Yoakam’s ear for other talent. The track pairs him with the great Maria McKee, one of the period’s most criminally overlooked vocalists and the lead singer of the short-lived country-rock band Lone Justice. It’s difficult to imagine another female country artist from the time that could match Yoakam’s exhilarating and hair-raising vocal style. It’s a morbidly blissful marriage in honky tonk heaven supported by a twangy Telecaster guitar solo that tips its hat to Yoakam’s seminal hero, Buck Owens.
Country music has rarely seen such a unique stylist as they did in Dwight Yoakam. In one fell swoop, he revisited the impact made by Emmylou Harris a decade earlier, and once again helped bridge the gap between the traditional-minded artists and listeners that defined country’s past and the more sophisticated modern segment that would define its future. He effortlessly and naturally made country music hip and revolutionary, without ever sacrificing where it had been previously. Guitars, Cadillacs is one of the most entertaining, well performed, and musically proficient releases of its time. Quite simply, a contemporary country masterpiece.
Track Listing
- “Honky Tonk Man” (Johnny Horton, Tillman Franks, Howard Hausey)
- “It Won’t Hurt” (Dwight Yoakam)
- “I’ll Be Gone” (Yoakam)
- “South of Cincinnati” (Yoakam)
- “Bury Me” featuring Maria McKee (Yoakam)
- “Guitars, Cadillacs” (Yoakam)
- “Twenty Years” (Yoakam)
- “Ring of Fire” (June Carter Cash, Merle Kilgore)
- “Miner’s Prayer” (Yoakam)
- “Heartaches by the Number” (Harlan Howard)
The 706 