1986 Songs: Guitars, Cadillacs

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With the screen grab, I wonder if I even have to give the “Linda? NO!!!!!” warning to anyone who doesn’t like country music. I’ve already mentioned this guy in an earlier discussion about the “neo-traditional” movement in country music in the mid-80s, and here he is for your dining and dancing pleasure! Guitars, Cadillacs - Dwight Yoakam If blue jeans had a religion, Dwight Yoakam would be their god. (Billboard magazine) Yep. Lots of women enjoyed watching Dwight Yoakam and those spray-painted-on blue jeans dancing around the stage in the 80s. Along the way, everyone was being treated to some grade-A Bakersfield Sound revival music. Although Yoakam is from Pikeville, Kentucky (“they learned readin’, writin’, Route 23” he sang in a song), his heart and soul grew up in Bakersfield with Buck Owens’ music. In fact, one of Yoakam’s biggest hits was a remake of “Streets of Bakersfield” duet with Owens, the man who wrote it and originally had a hit with it. (And I swear that, as Yoakam gets older, he looks more and more like Owens.) He moved to California because he didn’t think much of what Nashville was doing to country music in the 80s. Because of that, we had a brief revival of the 60s, with pop-like country music, traditional country music, and Bakersfield country music all living harmoniously on the charts. (As I said earlier…and then, Garth. ) Yoakam isn’t yet in the Hall of Fame; and, given their disdain for people who poo-poo Nashville (look how long it took people like Ray Price, Merle Haggard, and Owens to be inducted), he’s probably got a long wait ahead of him. It’s been 40 years now since that debut album came out and reminded us how gloriously wonderful a sad country song could be. Guitars, Cadillacs Written by Dwight Yoakam Recorded by Dwight Yoakam From Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc. Etc., 1986 Thank you girl for teaching me: