Dwight Yoakam

"Yoakam" redirects here. For the actor, see Stephen Yoakam.

Dwight Yoakam
Country music singer Dwight Yoakam, singing while strumming a guitar
Yoakam in 2008
Born
Dwight David Yoakam[1]

(1956-10-23) October 23, 1956 (age 68)[2]
Pikeville, Kentucky, U.S.
Occupations
  • Singer
  • songwriter
  • actor
  • film director
Years active1984–present
Works
Spouse
Emily Joyce
​
(m. 2020)​
Children1
AwardsFull list
Musical career
Genres
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • acoustic guitar
Discography
Labels
Websitewww.dwightyoakam.com

Dwight David Yoakam (born October 23, 1956) is an American country singer-songwriter, actor, and filmmaker. He first achieved mainstream attention in 1986 with the release of his debut album Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.. Yoakam had considerable success throughout the late 1980s onward, with a total of ten studio albums for Reprise Records. Later projects have been released on Audium (now MNRK Music Group), New West, Warner, and Sugar Hill Records.

His first three albums—Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc., Hillbilly Deluxe, and Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room—all reached number one on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. Yoakam also has two number-one singles on Hot Country Songs with "Streets of Bakersfield" (a duet with Buck Owens) and "I Sang Dixie", and twelve additional top-ten hits. He has won two Grammy Awards and one Academy of Country Music award. 1993's This Time is his most commercially successful album, having been certified triple-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Yoakam's musical style draws from a wide variety of influences including alternative country, neotraditional country, honky-tonk, rock, and the Bakersfield sound. He is known for his distinctive tenor singing voice, unconventional musical image, and the lead guitar work of his longtime producer and bandleader Pete Anderson. Yoakam writes most of his own songs but has recorded many successful cover songs by a wide range of artists including Johnny Horton, Elvis Presley, Cheap Trick, The Blasters, Lefty Frizzell, and Queen. He has collaborated with Beck, John Mellencamp, k.d. lang, Ralph Stanley, and members of Alison Krauss & Union Station.

As an actor, Yoakam has appeared in the movies Red Rock West, Sling Blade, Panic Room, The Minus Man, and Wedding Crashers, as well as South of Heaven, West of Hell, which he wrote and directed. He also appeared in the TV series P.S. I Luv U and Under the Dome, as well as the Amazon Prime Video original series Goliath.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference allmusic was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference whitburn was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Elder, Bruce (October 21, 2006). "Dwight Yoakam". The Syndney Morning Herald. Retrieved July 19, 2023.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference TST was invoked but never defined (see the help page).