Dwight Yoakam: 3 Pears

"When he emerged in the ’80s, Dwight Yoakam seemed more a dividend of punk and second-wave rockabilly than a fully paid-up country singer; in the country business now, at 55, he’s considered a venerable elder, with plenty of Billboard country-chart hits behind him but still operating in a parallel universe. Throughout, he’s been consistent: not the mainstream of anything, but entirely credible. He’s too good to condescend to, or discard. '3 Pears,' his first album since 2007, isn’t any kind of categorical step away from his past work. It’s got hard shuffles, trebly guitars, steel-guitar solos, strong chorus hooks. It still locates some measure of cool within old obsessions: the late-’50s Bakersfield sound and the young Beatles. But the record draws closer to where he started: this music is entirely referential, but doesn’t want to be contained. It’s got some freelance cool, some autonomous energy. The easiest way to telegraph the heart of this record is that Beck, whose music always sounds as if it came out of a slight ironic distance, helped produce two of its songs, using some of his own band members. ... Mr. Yoakam produced the rest of the record himself, but there’s always something slightly unusual about each track, some proud difference, private enthusiasm or rusty hinge" (Ben Ratliff, "Albums From Pink, Dwight Yoakam and Aimee Mann," New York Times, 9/18/12).

View catalog record here!