Blame the Vain
Dwight Yoakam occupies a singular position in contemporary country. No artist has better balanced mainstream commercial success with artistic, alt-country credibility, while somehow managing to embody both the music's most traditional and its most progressive impulses.Blame the Vainmarks a milestone for Yoakam as his first self-produced effort since splitting with producer/guitarist/bandleaderPete Anderson. While the material seems to document the end of a relationship and the hope for romantic renewal, there's a freewheeling playfulness to the arrangements--the bongo-driven, rock & roll urgency of "International Heartache," the faux British accent and synthesizer intro on "She'll Remember," the shifting time signatures of "Watch Out." The tear-in-your-beer balladry of "Lucky That Way" and "Does It Show" should satisfy those who take their honky-tonk straight, no chaser, while the homage paid to timelessRoy Orbison("Just Passin' Time"), earlyJohnny Cash("I'll Pretend") and laterElvis Presley("When I First Came Here") attests to the range and richness of Yoakam's artistry. He may no longer have the hits like he once did, but he hasn't lost the vision.--Don McLeese