Dwight Yoakam - Gone

'Gone' is one of the greatest forgotten albums I've ever heard. Despite some incredible music, tight production, sharp new sounds and the usual incredible lyrical artistry by Dwight Yoakam, 'Gone' remains buried, unnoticed by all but the most intense fans, many of whom agree: it's their favorite. This overlooked gem is one that begs to be heard.

After the phenomenal success of 1993's "This Time," Dwight Yoakam should have been riding high. But something happened which destroyed the careers of many traditional country artists like Yoakam, and this 1995 studio album simply vanished without a trace, unpublicized by the label and virtually forgotten by radio stations which were being devoured by corporations who didn't want to play anything "too country." Yoakam was "too country" and "Gone" was gone.

That wasn't because of any lack on the part of the disc. No, sir, "Gone" is one of Yoakam's usual sharp-edged artistic efforts, a tour-de-farce of humor, honky-tonk misery, and crisp rockin' tunes that simply crackle with talent.

The saddest loss is that Yoakam himself won't play any of the songs from "Gone" in his live shows, despite the fact that most of his fans absolutely love this album, because, according to reports, he felt it so keenly that support had been pulled from under him on the part of the record label. Whatever is true, it's a tremendous loss not only for fans who love the album, but for those who might like a chance to hear some of the songs for themselves. Occasionally you can catch the delicious humor of "Sorry You Asked?"or the hear world-weary pain of "Nothing" if the videos pop up; but you miss so much if you don't listen to the whole album, which is probably put together better than almost any other Yoakam album out there, with a cohesive story played out from the first track to the last.