Who: Dwight Yoakam
When: last night, july 12, 2003
Where: House of Blues, Anaheim
Overall rating:
10 real cowboys out of ten
Last night i had the opportunity to see one of country music's living legends. A man sighted by the Man in Black himself, Mr. John R. Cash, as being THE country musician of today. Dwight Yoakam.
The show started out great. My roommate Mike and i got two comp tickets from another of our roommates, Mr. J-glow himself, Jesse Gloyd. Jesse works at HOB and is wonderful to hook us up time and time again with great shows for free. This particular SOLD OUT show would have set us back about $65 a piece, if Jesse hadn't helped us out. Unfortunately, jesse won't be able to read this review because he lost his bubbs privs for multiple f-bomb poetry a couple of years back. R.I.P. jesse
Mike Stinson opened for Dwight. Stinson has an excellent songwriting ability, and matched with his Neil Young-esque higher raspy singing style (not whiny at all mind you) provides a wonderful listening experience. Played some great tracks, lots of fun, brokenhearted, but superbly written old school country. But on to Dwight.
Starting out on stage Almost Alone, just like the name of the tour, Dwight; in his customary painted-on-tight blue jeans, white collared shirt, jean jacket and cowboy hat, opened with a cover of Cheap Trick's 'I want you to want me'. Ordinarily a normal pop/rock song, became in the hands of Yoakam transformed to a slow, mournful and deserted track filled with classic western ache and twang. Slowly throughout the song, as the tempo built he was joined onstage by his current support lineup: Keith Gattis (banjo, guitar, mandolin, dobro, anything stringed) Dave Roe on upright bass, and Mitch Michelson on drums.
The rest of the set, topping out at a whopping two and a half hours, was completely solid. Dwight talked time and again about playing things he hadn't played in a long time, and how he wanted to play songs the way he wrote them to be played, not necessarily how they were recorded. there wasn't a moment when the small audience lost interest with the music. Dwight's style of country music is much more akin to real rock'n'roll than it is to current "new" or "pop country". It shows in the little things, such as transitions where dwight throws in subtle guitar references like four bars of 'no particular place to go' by chuck berry, or keith referencing keith richards in licks and moves. Dwight's ties to real rock'n'roll go all the way back to his early days in the LA scene in '79 and '80 playing dates with X, The Knitters, Rosie and the Screamers and The Long Ryders.
Highlights of the set include. 'Late Great Golden State' penned by opening act Mike Stinson, released by Yoakam on his Latest album 'Population: Me'. The late Waylon Jenning's 1966 breakthrough hit 'stop the world, let me off'. 'Thousand Miles from Nowhere'. 'Guitars and Cadillacs'. Elvis' 'Little Sister', Buck Owen's 'Streets of Bakersfield' and a wonderful cover of John Prine's 'Paradise'.Not to mention a litany of other amazing songs, just too many to recount here.
All in all, this show was amazing. My roommate Mike, never having been to a country show, became a believer in real country music and its firm foundation in real rock'n'roll.
Dwight proved himself to be an artist of immense talent even after 20 years in the hard business. Jesse, who worked the show last night, helped out Dwight several times during the night, and in fact inspired the performance of the Waylon cover because of the Waylon t-shirt he was wearing. Dwight remarked in the elevator upon noticing said shirt, "Waylon huh, nice shirt. might be fun to play some tonight." Apparently later on Jesse checked the set list, and out of the two plus hours Dwight only played about 5 songs on the list were played. A fitting act for an artist who been bucking the system for 20 years.
In short, if you ever have the chance to see Yoakam in concert, take it. It's a sure thing.
