People have always commented on my ability to hold drink, rarely sloppy, saying the wrong thing or even seeming as though I was intoxicated. Practice makes perfect. So when I put on Dwight Yoakam’s Acoustic Album, which for some reason is actually titled dwightyoakamacoustic.net I naturally wanted to be at a bar, by myself, perfecting my craft. In this pure acoustic, almost single track album it sounds as though while sitting at the bar Dwight is sitting in the back corner, barely visible through the smoke; cowboy boots on the bottom rung of a stool with a Miller Light sign behind him, white cowboy hat and an ashtray sitting on the rail behind his picking hand. Twenty Five songs all which sound the same and still unique. There isn’t one song on this album that can’t stand alone however they are much more preferable to listen to in full as an album.
Each one, nothing but a simple six string full body with medium strings (or at least that is what I hear) and a lonely voice shaped by long nights of loneliness and whiskey. Funny enough it makes me miss the days that I used to do the same, usually alone, sitting at a bar smoking second handily just wishing that the pain would go away. Hopeless is sometimes a nice position to be in for a while and self loathing and pity can be fantastic friends who always have your side. They tell you it isn’t your fault, tell you the thing you really need is another drink and maybe that old beat up looking girl at the end of the bar, they tell you she is a better catch than she appears. “Hey buddy, you are here doing the same and look at what a great person you are? She is probably just the female version of you right now.” Of course you always believe them, I mean how can you not, he’s they are last people who stuck by your side.
Around twenty years ago Eric Clapton performed a gig on a little known and watched show called "MTV Unplugged". With it, a whole generation found out who he was while the older generation who had grown tired of his name realized, “Holy Hell this guy is insanely talented.” The rest is history and the show itself became a massive success which influenced future shows on other music channels that are successful to this day. This album is exactly the same. Maybe one day you’ll walk into a bar in Bakersfield and hear it, maybe I’ll be sitting there at the bar and you’ll witness two masters practicing their craft effortlessly for just as though Dwight usually stays electric in large venues and I have stepped back on the wagon there are times when it is always fun to go back to your roots.
