Though there are mainstream country artists who have sold far more than the twenty-five million recordings that Yoakam claims, no other has reached those commercial successes by following anything close to Dwight’s elevated career path; he has taken artistic chances, attracted a diverse audience, and garnered critical plaudits from the rock world. On the other hand, while there may be alternative-country, roots-rocking, and kindred-spirit artists who remain revered beyond the mainstream, none can match Yoakam’s combination of uncompromising vision of musical integrity and level of popular success. Whatever promises about forging a common spirit for rock and country have been made by cult favorites such as Gram Parsons or Lucinda Williams—or Jason and the Scorchers, or Joe Ely, or dozens more who have found a wellspring of creative revitalization in roadhouse tradition—Dwight Yoakam has fulfilled. In spades. He has somehow become the most formula-defying popular artist in the most formula-dependent genre of popular music.
