To begin with, these days there's no such thing as "country music." As with rock and pop, country mu sic has star-burst into more factions than could ever fit under one hat. The music is all over the map.
And these two new CDs not only prove the point, they represent two of the most interesting directions country music is going. It's going across the borderline and into the new frontier with Willie Nelson, and it's going back to the basics with Dwight Yoakam.Yoakam digs up bones and checks out the root system; Nelson keeps branching out.
Yoakam's "This Time" is a time capsule. The songs are new (written by Yoakam and Nashville's one-name phenom, Kostas), but they sound like a walk down memory lane with Roy Orbison. Truth to tell, the cuts "Inside the Pocket of a Clown," "A Thousand Miles from Nowhere," King of Fools" and "Fast as You" could have been hits in the '50s. Yoakam's twang and talent, however, make them sound fresh and vital. Here's the secret: Dwight Yoakam doesn't want to be Dwight Yoakam, he wants to be Elvis. And - born at the right time and place - he could have been.
On "Home for Sale" and "Try Not to Look so Pretty" Yoakam goes back 30 years on the country side of the charts to play with sounds that could have been the "B" side to Hank Snow's "There Stands the Glass."
Here's another secret: They are all worthwhile.
Next to George Jones, Dwight Yoakam is the finest hard country male vocalist in the world today. He stakes his claim here. His CD won't get too much publicity (Yoakam tends to anger too many people in the industry to ever become a superstar), but my prediction is this album will quietly become the album of 1993.
- AS FOR WILLIE, he has always had an incredible ear for choosing material. Nelson's ear led him to "Pancho and Lefty," "City of New Orleans" and "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain," three immortal country songs. Here, Nelson's at it again. Whether doing duets (Nelson's staple) with Bob Dylan on the nifty "Heartland" or doing Texas versions of Paul Simon's "Graceland" and "American Tune," he makes the songs his own. He always does. Highlights include a world-weary turn on Lyle Lovett's "Farther Down the Line" and a duet with Bonnie Raitt on T.S. Bruton's "Getting Over You."
Nelson has not only paid his dues, he has now paid his taxes. This album is a wild inventive ride, the second wind of a man who was down and out, but who is now racing to beat other country artists into the 21st century.