Dwight Yoakam - A Long Way Home

This little-known gem from Dwight Yoakam's impressive career could very easily be called his finest album, as good as or perhaps even better than his 1993 masterpiece "This Time." The only thing "A Long Way Home" lacked was a push from the label to get it some radio play; as a piece of artistry, it is absolutely unparalleled.

Dwight Yoakam is known to be a very private person when not performing; but when you listen to his music, especially music as compelling and introspective as what is found in "A Long Way Home," it becomes painfully obvious that when he performs, he bares to his audience his entire heart and soul in every song he writes. The emotion-laden music has the power to reach down the throat to grab hold of the heart and pull it, bleeding, to the air with a raw intensity that very few writers/performers achieve.

There is so much realism in Yoakam's deceptively simple lyrics it cuts like a razor deep, straight, true, and achingly to the bone. With searing songs such as "I'll Just Take These" and the heartbreaking "Yet To Succeed," this disc is almost unrelenting in its pain, but so brilliantly constructed, so breathtakingly artistic, it's impossible not to simply, as the song says, "Listen."

Dwight Yoakam doesn't appeal to everyone because some people don't understand that depth of feeling--but if you open your ears, and listen with your whole soul, it's an experience not to be missed. "A Long Way Home" is not as accessible as "This Time" was; but as with that album, this one melds that Bakersfield honky-tonk sound with Dwight's own unique sound, and it's definitely a must-have for any true country music fan.