Dwight Yoakam, Tyler Childers, Hank Jr. next at Wharf

Dwight Yoakam, Tyler Childers, Hank Jr. next at Wharf

By Fran Thompson

Dwight Yoakam with The Mavericks and Drayton Farley on May 29, Tyler Childers with S.G. Goodman on June 1 and Hank Williams Jr. with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on June 7 are the next three scheduled shows at The Wharf Amphitheater in Orange Beach. Tickets are available online at ticketmaster or at the amphitheater box office.
With classics like “I Sang Dixie,” “Guitars, Cadillacs,” “Fast As You,” “Turn It On, Turn It Up, Turn Me Loose,” “Pocket of A Clown,” and “This Time,” Yoakam pushed the boundaries of what was considered country, attracting roots rock fans and college audiences.
When Yoakam moved to Nashville in 1977, the city was moving away from the traditional country sound that he was playing.
After a brief time there, he moved to California, which was more receptive to the music he was doing. His hook-up with producer/guitar virtuoso Pete Anderson in 1982 began a musical relationship that became country music’s equivalent to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
Like most of the “new traditionalist” country artists of the early 1980s, Dwight had grown up listening to the The Band in addition to the country and bluegrass his family loved, and he honed his stripped-down honky-tonk and Bakersfield Sound playing his self described “hillbilly music” in the same nightclubs as punk rock bands.
His debut, Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc., was an instant sensation. His next LP, Hillbilly Deluxe in 1987, spawned four Top 10 hits. He has since recorded around 20 more albums and compilations, charted more than 30 singles and sold more than 25 million records. Five of his albums were Billboard No. 1’s, twelve went gold, and nine platinum, including the triple-platinum This Time, which included the Grammy winning single, “Ain’t That Lonely Yet.”
Growing up in Kentucky, Yoakam also considered going into acting. His first screen role was in the Nicolas Cage/Dennis Hopper film Red Rock West. His work as the evil Doyle Hargraves In Billy Bob Thornton’s 1996 film Sling Blade left audiences speechless and critics hailing his performance.
Yoakam collaborated with Buck Owens on “The Streets of Bakersfield,” a duet which became Yoakam’s first number one single in 1988. One of his albums, Dwight Sings Buck, is a tribute to Owens’ legacy. He has also been known to cover Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds,” Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire,’’ and the Carter Family’s “Keep on the Sunny Side.”
Yoakam’s show will be as big on glitz and raddle-dazzle as it is on twang. He and his band will dance and they will move quickly from song to song for more than two hours. With The Mavericks opening, this will match the Red Clay Strays/Revivalists July 5 show as the Wharf’s best two concerts of the season.