Before I tell you the story of the Dwight Yoakam concert I have to tell you the story of why I went to the Dwight Yoakam concert. I went to see Dwight Yoakam the other night because I dig some of the country music. I'm not an authority on country music; I'm not even an authority on Dwight Yoakam but when I found out about the show I felt like I had to go. Dwight Yoakam was big back in the days when I listened to country music against my will (and it started to grow on me).
I couldn't offhand think of more than, oh, one Dwight Yoakam song but I figured I would know them when I heard them. You see, once upon a time my dad would drive me to guitar lessons twice a week. You know what happens when you have a dad who likes country music and he is spending two evenings a week driving you to guitar lessons? That's right. He gets to pick the radio station and his station of choice was the country music station.
What was I supposed to do? Sass it? I went the other route, which was to embrace Randy Travis and The Judds and early Garth Brooks. My parents weren't always country parents, when I was younger we mostly listened to oldies or the Beatles or stuff like ABBA and Olivia Newton-John. The odd current rock album or country album showed up, but it wasn't all country all the time. Then when I was getting into Poison my parents started the slow journey to being country fans exclusively.
It was fine when my guitar lessons were at the nearby mall but eventually I had to switch locations. I had taken every class offered at my nearby mall and if I wanted to continue on I had to go to the warehouse location. The warehouse location where I will one day buy a tuning fork. Every week my dad would drive me to the store and sit in the waiting room with a magazine as cheerful as you please during my lesson. Since he is a prompt kind of guy we always got there early and he would park himself in the waiting room while I scurried off to play the Les Pauls. Mmmm....Les Pauls.
Anyway, my dad never once complained and even thought it was a jim dandy idea when I wanted to take the acoustic classes too. I was almost done with the electric series but for at least a couple of months I had overlap. Twice a week my dad hauled me to the music store so I did not complain about the country music. Well, I did at first and then the Randy Travis grew on me. My favorite song (at least when in the car) was Kisses Sweeter Than Wine by Jimmie Rodgers.
The Judds went through my head so frequently I ended up tuning my clock radio to the country station because just hearing it in the car was not enough. Eventually the guitar lessons came to an end and I didn't listen to as much country music but I still know all of the words to Two Of A Kind, Workin' On A Full House. I love that tune!
Another song that was a big hit at the time was Dwight Yoakam's version of Little Sister and even though it's been years and years, that one still goes through my head too. I own no Dwight Yoakam records but I really, really needed to go see Dwight Yoakam. Apparently I was getting bonus music appreciation lessons while on my way to guitar lessons. The fondness for country music remains so I had to go engage in some live music appreciation, which is a story for next time.