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''Dwight's Used Records'' is a compilation album by American
country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...
artist Dwight Yoakam. It was released by Audium Records on June 29, 2004. The album peaked at number 57 on the ''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
''
Top Country Albums Top Country Albums is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The 50-position chart lists the most popular country music albums in the country, calculated weekly by Broadcast Data Systems based on physical sales ...
chart.


Recording

The album features cuts Yoakam contributed to several tribute compilations, duets that appeared on other artists' albums, and a few unreleased covers, all in an effort to fulfill his recording contract to Audium, much like his old label
Reprise In music, a reprise ( , ; from the verb 'to resume') is the repetition or reiteration of the opening material later in a composition as occurs in the recapitulation of sonata form, though—originally in the 18th century—was simply any re ...
did with the LP ''In Others’ Words'' the previous year. Like that album, ''Dwight’s Used Records'' sounds remarkably cohesive despite the various sources and artists involved, and speaks to the consistent run of strong recordings Yoakam and producer Pete Anderson developed over their nearly twenty-year run. The collection contains the rootsy blend of country and bluegrass that has always been at the heart of Yoakam's music, represented here with two duets with Ralph Stanley: the patriotic but lovesick "Down Where the River Bends," and "Miner’s Prayer," the only Yoakam original on the album that first appeared on his debut ''Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.'' in 1986. Bluegrass surfaces again on the traditional "Deep Dark Holler" with the
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (sometimes abbreviated NGDB), also known as the Dirt Band, is an American band founded in Long Beach, California, in 1966. Since 2018, the band has consisted of Jeff Hanna and his son Jaime Hanna, both guitarists and voc ...
, who also back Yoakam on the Flying Burrito Brothers’s "Wheels." (Yoakam covered another Gram Parsons-
Chris Hillman Christopher Hillman (born December 4, 1944) is an American musician. He was the original bassist of the Byrds. With frequent collaborator Gram Parsons, Hillman was a key figure in the development of country rock, defining the genre through his w ...
classic, "
Sin City ''Sin City'' is a series of neo-noir Comic book, comics by American comic book writer-artist Frank Miller. The first story originally appeared in ''Dark Horse Presents Fifth Anniversary Special'' (April 1991), and continued in ''Dark Horse Prese ...
," as a duet with k.d. lang on his first greatest hits package in 1989.) He does a typically stellar job of interpreting songs by legendary country artists like Webb Pierce ("If You Were Me (And I Were You)"),
Waylon Jennings Waylon Arnold Jennings (June 15, 1937 – February 13, 2002) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He is considered one of the pioneers of the Outlaw country, outlaw movement in country music. Jennings started playing ...
("Stop the World (And Let Me Off)"), and
Johnny Cash John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American singer-songwriter. Most of his music contains themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially songs from the later stages of his career. ...
("Understand Your Man"). Other songs have a more contemporary sound, like the duet "Waiting," which Yoakam wrote with Deana Carter for her 2002 release ''I’m Just a Girl'' and boasts a
George Harrison George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician, singer and songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Culture ...
-
Traveling Wilburys The Traveling Wilburys were a British-American supergroup formed in Los Angeles in 1988, consisting of Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty. They were a roots rock band and described as "perhaps the biggest sup ...
slide guitar solo. Yoakam was also a guest on Heather Myles’s LP ''Sweet Talk and Good Lies'' the same year, sharing vocal duties on the mariachi-flavoured Vegas wedding song "Little Chapel." Although primarily recognized as a country singer-songwriter, Yoakam has made no secret of his love for 1960s and 1970s AM pop and rock radio, from the
Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...
to the
Monkees The Monkees were an American pop rock band formed in Los Angeles in the mid-1960s. The band consisted of Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork. Spurred by the success of ''The Monkees'' television series, they were one o ...
, and this likely explains his cover of the Goffin-King 1962 hit " Loco-Motion" and
ZZ Top ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in Houston, Texas, in 1969. For almost 56 years, it consisted of vocalist-guitarist Billy Gibbons, drummer Frank Beard (musician), Frank Beard, and bassist-vocalist Dusty Hill prior to his death in 2021. ZZ ...
’s "I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide," (Yoakam and ZZ Top guitar ace Billy Gibbons composed a song for Yoakam's ill-fated 2001 film ''South of Heaven- West of Hell''.) The closing number, a cover of the John Prine classic "
Paradise In religion and folklore, paradise is a place of everlasting happiness, delight, and bliss. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical, eschatological, or both, often contrasted with the miseries of human ...
," was a perfect fit for Yoakam, a
Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...
native himself who covered similar subject matter in his own songs like "Readin’, Rightin’, Rt. 23" and "Bury Me."


Reception

''Dwight’s Used Records'' was Yoakam's third covers album since 1997 and was not a commercial success. Mark Deming of
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
opines, "Few if any major country artists of the 1980s and '90s had as consistent a run of strong recordings as Dwight Yoakam, and this compilation proves that even the material he gave away was better than what most of his peers were sending out as top-shelf product."


Track listing


Personnel

* Deana Carter - duet vocals on "Waiting" * Skip Edwards -
percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...
,
piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
,
Wurlitzer The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...
piano * Keith Gattis - baritone guitar,
electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...
* Mitch Marine -
drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...
, percussion * Heather Myles - duet vocals on "Little Chapel" * The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - vocals on "Some Dark Holler" and "Wheels" * Dave Roe -
bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...
,
upright bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...
, background vocals * Ralph Stanley - duet vocals on "Down Where the River Bends" and "Miner's Prayer" * Kay Walker - background vocals * Ray C. Walker - background vocals * Gabe Witcher -
fiddle A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Althou ...
,
mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...
, background vocals * Michael Witcher - dobro * Dwight Yoakam -
cymbals A cymbal is a common percussion instrument. Often used in pairs, cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys. The majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sou ...
,
acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...
, percussion, lead vocals


Chart performance


References

{{Authority control 2004 compilation albums Dwight Yoakam compilation albums E1 Music compilation albums Albums produced by Pete Anderson