dwight yoakam a long way home album cover

As Anderson later recalled, 'Dwight’s a brilliant lyricist, with a great voice as a gift from God. Yoakam's debut was produced by guitarist Pete Anderson, whose abilities as an arranger complimented the singer's skills as a songwriter. In the 2003 documentary series Lost Highway, Yoakam states, 'We were reinterpreting the Bakersfield 'shuffle sound' of Buck Owens and what he was doing with that terse kind of shuffle.' This helped him diversify his audience beyond the typical country music fans, and his authentic, honky-tonk revivalism brought rock audiences closer to country music.

Writing all his own songs, and continuing to perform mostly outside traditional country music channels, he did many shows in rock and punk rock clubs around Los Angeles, playing with roots rock or punk rock acts like the Blasters, Los Lobos, and X. After not making much headway in Nashville, he moved to Los Angeles and worked towards bringing his particular brand of new honky-tonk, or 'hillbilly' music (as he called it), forward into the 1980s. I think it’s incumbent upon the individual artist in any given generation to maintain their contact with the traditional forms and the fundamental aspects of any genre.' A Kentucky native, Yoakam grew up listening to records by Stonewall Jackson and Johnny Cash, while also being influenced by rock acts like The Byrds and Creedence Clearwater Revival, but the Bakersfield sound, typified by country artists like Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, had a lasting influence on his musical direction and songwriting. Ricky Skaggs was a real beacon for everybody in my generation who wanted to point to the fact that traditional country music could still sell, and still was pertinent to an audience. George Strait had had several hits at that point. But there were some great beacons of light for traditional country music on the scene at the time. He later recalled, 'Mid-eighties it was pretty pop-country. When he began his career, Nashville was oriented toward pop ' urban cowboy' music, and Yoakam's brand of hip honky tonk music was not considered marketable.

The album became the first of three consecutive albums by Yoakam to reach number one on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. This was Yoakam's first time working with long-time collaborator, record producer- guitarist Pete Anderson. is the debut studio album by American country music artist Dwight Yoakam.

Dwight yoakam a long way home album cover