Way back in carefree college days in Dublin, I had a friend who considered Dwight Yoakam one of the great artists of the late twentieth century. Since the glory of country music had yet to be revealed to me, I scoffed at this. Not that I was alone in doing so, mind you. Another friend earned much mockery for his devotion to the late John Denver. The rest of us were all far too sophisticated for all this hillbilly music.
How wrong we were. That being so, it’s time to take leave Nashville and Texas and take a quick trip to California to pay homage to the west coast strain of country music. Specifically, the Bakersfield sound made famous by the likes of Buck Owens. The purest modern expression of that style is, I think, the splendid Mr Yoakam. So, Louise, you were right and I was wrong and here’s some video of a young Yoakam singing Guitars and Cadillacs:
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