What’s it mean to have cross-genre cred? Well you could do worse than the great Dwight Yoakam who will be the only artist performing at both the Coachella indie rock festival (April 24-26) and the Stagecoach country festival (May 3-4), both held in Indio, Calif.

As if that weren’t enough , Yoakam will appear in Lexington, Ky., on Feb. 21 to be inducted into the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame, along with Crystal Gayle, Florence Henderson, jazz musician Les McCann and producer Norro Wilson.

It seems Mr. Yoakam is helping out The Wrecker’s Michelle Branch on a song for her next album.

Dwight Yoakam - Guitars Cadillacs

Here’s some really early Dwight for you guys. Happy Friday!

Dwight Yoakam performs live on Art Fein’s Poker Party, Jan 14, 1986, w/ Dave Alvin,Todd Everett, Richard Meltzer, Paul Body.

Some things are naturally occurring, Texas Summer heat , death, taxes and Dwight Yoakam at some point in his career would release an album of covers by his mentor and friend Buck Owens.

After his fist release Dwight was soon introduced to the Texas native and they collaborated on Buck’s revived “The Streets of Bakersfield” to top the charts in 1988. The two stayed good friends until Buck Owen’s death on March 25, 2006 of a heart attack only hours after performing at his Crystal Palace restaurant and club.

Since releasing his first major label debut “Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.” in 1986 Yoakam has been the heir apparent of the twangy, electrified, rock-influenced flavor of hardcore honky-tonk entitled the Bakersfield sound (from it’s regional birthplace Bakersfield, CA.) and made famous by Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. Like it’s mountain cousin Bluegrass, Bakersfield is the kind of music that separates the country music aficionado from the tourist. It wears it’s hillbilly roots on it’s Nudie suited spangled sleeve while also using rock arrangements and technology to move forward.

The Bakersfield sound was also a bracing counter to the syrupy country-pop being produced in Nashville in the ’60s. Yoakam was able to deftly revive the sound in the ’80s in reaction to the very same insipid country music environment.

Now comes the inevitable and precisely if obviously titled “Dwight Sings Buck.” A reprisal of fifteen of Buck Owens’ greatest releases including 11 top five hits, eight of which reached #1 on the country charts, spanning 1956 to 1967. Though there are no real stretches or deviations with Dwight’s arrangements of these familiar classics, there are some pleasant tweaks here and there.

The release kicks things off with a bang with “My Heart Skips A Beat” to let you know just what is in store. Rave up electrified guitars twang out a solid back beat. The songs melts deftly into “Foolin Around” with an even faster beat and innocent double entendres. The breadth of this release and Dwight masterful delivery of the songs reminds the listener just how influential Buck Owens was and how his Hee Haw corn-pone persona allowed people to dismiss him as the innovator he was on country and rock.

“Only You” is a cut with a noticeable difference in arrangement. It’s still a slow loping testament to lost love but Dwight starts out the song with an organ bringing to mind a church procession. The song then moves into a waltz and Dwight’s voice aches, cracks and brings out the lonely ache of wanting in the song’s lyrics.

That same ache also occurs on Dwight Sings Buck’s first released single “Close Up The Honky Tonks.” That ache that is at once lonely and comforting when you realize someone is out there putting these universal feelings to hillbilly poetry.

This Fall is shaping up to be a great one for country fans, Dwight Sings Buck is the joyous and passionate release on the top of that list.

Dwight Yoakam - Close Up The Honky Tonks

While in Bakersfield, CA. to perform at Buck Owens’ Crystal Palace to celebrate the late legend’s birthday Dwight Yoakam took some time to talk to 23.com about his upcoming Owen’s tribute “Dwight Sings Buck”(Oct. 25 - New West)

An excerpt - Saddened by thoughts of Owens not being alive to celebrate, Yoakam, a longtime friend of Owens, said, “It’s always a little melancholy now. It was New Year’s Eve the first time I was here since he passed, to do this without him being in the building. Sometimes when he didn’t feel well he’d go home early. It was never with him not coming back.”

Dwight Yoakam - Close Up the Honky Tonks - Crystal Palace, Bakersfield, CA.

Dwight Yoakam has finally made the MySpace plunge (or some lackey at New West Records has) and as a fine intro to the new page New West has posted a snippit of “Close Up the Honky Tonks” from the forthcoming tribute to Buck Owens “Dwight Sings Buck” (Oct. 23).

Longtime admirer of Buck Owens, Dwight Yoakam has recorded a tribute to the Sherman, TX native on “Dwight Sings Buck,” due Oct. 23 via New West. The track list includes covers of all 11 of Owens’ top five country hits, including “Act Naturally,” “My Heart Skips a Beat” and “I Don’t Care (Just As Long As You Love Me).”

A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Buck Owens American Music Foundation, which serves to safeguard the legacy of Owens and his signature electric Bakersfield sound that arose from California in the 1950s.

“After his death, it was the clearest way I could express my love for him and acknowledge the depth of our friendship” says Yoakam. Owens died in Bakersfield last March at age 76.

Tracklist:

“My Heart Skips a Beat”
“Foolin’ Around”
“I Don’t Care (Just As Long As You Love Me)”
“Only You”
“Act Naturally”
“Down on the Corner of Love”
“Cryin’ Time”
“Above and Beyond”
“Love’s Gonna Live Here”
“Close Up the Honky Tonks”
“Under Your Spell Again”
“Your Tender Loving Care”
“Excuse Me (I Think I’ve Got a Heartache)”
“Think of Me”
“Together Again”

I usually hang on every acerbic and insightful post from music business gadfly Bob Lefsetz. He’s a no bullshit guy that sees the bloody writing on the wall for the big labels and pulls no punches. I hope this blog allows me to do 1/16th of what he’s been able to do in exposing the hypocrisy and crap in the music industry and also point the way to a great talents that are trying make a difference and do great work.

But recently Mr. Levitz was caught in L.A. Traffic and came across Sirius radio Channel 60, “New Country” who, by the blurb on their web site states they play ” Rascal Flatts, Tim McGraw, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Toby Keith, Kenny Chesney.”

Lefsetz writes that while listening to the station that:

“…every one of (the) words rang true and glowed like burnin’ coal, pourin’ off of every page like it was written from me to you, but I was not tangled up in blue, I was laughing, I was alive, I was ECSTATIC! This was a joy I hadn’t experienced in oh-so-long!

But I don’t know shit about country. Maybe this is the crap. Maybe this is the stuff those deep into it rail about. Then I realized, I was the target audience, I was fucking IGNORANT!”

I’m here to tell you Bob, you are listening to the crap, and allow me to school you.

You are a fucking genius savant when talking about rock and pop of the past, present and future, but when you stray into country music, I won’t say “fucking ignorant”, but I will say sadly naive.

What you were listening to was the country equivalent of listening to Beyoncé or Fallout Boy. Sad, shallow reproductions of artists that came before that did it not just do it better, but did it in a way that was breathtaking and dangerous. What you were listening to was formula, contrivances and confection.

You pine for the days of the Beatles, Stones and Hendrix. When the Velvet Underground and the Stooges were punching sonic holes in the cultural malaise of the 70’s. If you’re looking for the contemporary country equivalent of that, then you’re not going to find in on Channel 60, “New Country.”

The country equivalent to these ground-breaking artists, the giants that the current talent of country artists are standing on the shoulders of is Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard. It’s the Allman Brothers and The Band. It’s Lynyrd Skynyrd, X, Jason and the Scorchers. Buck Owens and Dwight Yoakam.

You’re more likely to find these artists on the Dallas area station Lone Star 92.5 that, despite being a Clear Channel station, is taking risks and plays artists that better represent the spirit you crave. Bands like The Drive By Truckers and the Bottle Rockets. Artists like Hank Williams III and Shooter Jennings. But Lone Star 92.5s are hard to find just as great rock stations are. The playlists are still the most common framework for commercial radio, and playlist are driven by sales.

Shooter Jenning’s band, the .357s comes closer to Led Zeppelin than the comparison you draw between Zeppelin and Tim McGraw. Tim McGraw is less Led Zeppelin and more Peter Frampton.

There is great country music out there and Bob Lefsetz, with a little counseling, is just the gauge that will recognize it. I for one would love for him to turn his laser eye on the Nashville money machine and the way it takes great talent and churns out dull, gray sausage.

The New York Times has a cool write-up on Miranda Lambert. Lambert talks about the influences for her new album - “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” - gives credit to Gretchen Wilson for opening the career door for her and is compared to some mighty company:

Ms. Lambert, 23, cites the usual outlaw influences — Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard — as well as the well-regarded singer-songwriters Steve Earle, Buddy Miller, Jerry Jeff Walker and Guy Clark. In essence, Ms. Lambert is an alt-country singer operating covertly in the mainstream. “Dwight Yoakam, the Dixie Chicks — I think there’s a way to be really cool and mainstream, too,” she said.