Dwight Yoakum's career is one of the best examples of how weird the world of country music has become. Most of Yoakum's music has been as traditional as country gets. He sings with the most pronounced hillbilly twang of anyone, and yet he's always been a fringe-dweller where Nashville is concerned and the bulk of his fans are fringe-dwellers in a lot of ways. I went to see him at the Universal Amphitheater a dozen years ago and the crowd was full of rowdy biker-types that went nuts for Dwight's big old Twang. And then he turns around and delivers a stunning performance in one of my all-time favorite movies Sling Blade. Dwight's cool, let's face it--and this newest release is nothing but pure Dwight.

Be warned that this record is 25 songs worth of Dwight straight up--him and his guitar--which is pretty tough to sit through end to end, but if you just take it a few songs at a time and then move on, you begin to appreciate what a gifted songwriter he is. And it makes you regret that you didn't buy more of his records. The album takes you on a mostly enjoyable tour of his earlier stuff to his more recent Maverick-influenced tunes, "It Only Hurts When I Cry," "A Thousand Miles From Nowhere." Tracks 12-21 make it all worth fifteen skins. I'll admit that there probably aren't that many people around here that would be all that turned on by this record--but there must be a few. You know who you are.