Dwight Yoakam Biography

Dwight Yoakam's rocky-tonk debut album Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. was a hit on both the pop and country charts in 1986 and established Yoakam as a sly Nashville expatriate with a California twang. Part Buck Owens and part Buddy Holly, Yoakam won a Grammy Award in 1993 for his tune "Ain't That Lonely Yet," (from the album This Time) and has won numerous awards from the Country Music Association; he is often credited with helping return country music from the slicker urban sounds of the 1970s and 1980s to its honky-tonk roots. His other albums include Hillbilly Deluxe (1987), If There Was A Way (1990), A Long Way Home (1998) and Blame the Vain (2005). As an actor, Yoakam proved to be more than a hack with his role in Billy Bob Thornton's 1996 movie Sling Blade. In 2000 he wrote, directed, starred in and composed the music for the feature South of Heaven, West of Hell, an offbeat western whose eclectic cast included Peter Fonda, Paul Reubens and Vince Vaughn.