Dwight Yoakam was an artist who went to Nashville not to change the country rules, but to get back to them. Pulling the genre back to its roots turned out to be much more revolutionary than pushing country music's borders ever closer to rock and pop. Even though Yoakam made plenty of his own songs, some of his most commercially successful ones where covers of other artists. Grasping at the musical Americana of the past was Dwight Yoakam's specialty and seemed to be his continuing theme-- what's old is new again.

Raised as a fan of Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Buck Owens, Merle Haggard and Elvis Presley, Dwight Yoakam developed a style that was all his own, a sort of neo-traditionalist country that had hints of rock and folk music blended into it. Yaokam left for Nashville after dropping out of college. He intrigued the crowds with a pale tan, overly arched cowboy hat lowered down to cover his eyes, and stage antics that were more mood than action, more subtle than flashy. He took on the burgeoning "urban cowboy" movement in country by presenting an alternative image of a country star, perfectly symbolized in his first hit single, a Johnny Horton cover called "Honky Tonk Man." In the mid 1980s Yoakam caught on with country music fans with albums like Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc. Etc., Hillbilly Deluxe and Buenas Noches From a Lonely Room . Somewhat surprisingly, Yoakam also became a kind of hero on punk rock and college rock radio stations. Although he wasn't original per se, the music he was making was revolutionary in the sense that he ran contrary to the country establishment of the day.

All throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s Dwight Yoakam continued to tour and continued to produce records with chart-friendly singles. Some of his most popular recent songs are covers of rock standards, such as "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" (Queen) and "I Want You to Want Me" (Cheap Trick).