Album Review – Dwight Yoakam’s “Brighter Days”

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#510.7 (Classic California Country) on the Country DDS.

Alan Jackson might have more album sales. George Strait might own more #1 singles. But nobody is as cool as Dwight Yoakam. Nobody. That is why stats aside, Dwight doesn’t give up ground to anybody aside from maybe Willie and Dolly when it comes to the depth charts of living country legends. Country music has always been cool. But Dwight Yoakam was the guy who boot scooted, strutted, crooned, and yodeled his way into convincing millions of new converts to this truth.

Nearly ten years have passed since Dwight graced us with an original album. You could deduce he decided to take the Bro-Country era off, but the truth is probably a little more complex than that. A dispute with his long time record label Warner Bros. saw Dwight’s debut album Guitars Cadillacs Etc. Etc. pulled on streaming services for over a year, and probably helped put Yoakam’s priorities elsewhere. It also might have impinged on his ability to release new music.

An important life event also might have delayed things. Though Yoakam spent decades being one of country music’s most eligible bachelors and dating A-listers like Sharon Stone and Karen Duffy, he married Emily Joyce in May of 2020, and the couple had Dwight’s first child in August 2020. All of a sudden a guy whose stock-in-trade since the mid ’80s was heartbreak had a different perspective on life, one he shared in a teary moment recently accepting an Americana lifetime achievement award.

This shift in priorities comes through in the writing and approach of Dwight’s new album Brighter Days. He’s no longer employing his caramel voice on compositions about nursing broken hearts, getting payback on past lovers, or loafing on lonely streets. He’s positively rosy on this record, even recording a version of the old traditional tune “Keep On The Sunny Side.” On the title track, he’s joined by his 4-year-old son as a duet partner at the end. This is truly a kinder, gentler side of Dwight than we’ve ever heard.


Coinciding with this thematic switch is also a concerted and obvious change in style. Brighter Days is much less twangy, and much more melodic. It’s less indicative of the Bakersfield Sound with hot steel and Telecaster licks, and more reminiscent of classic California country with melodic notions and jangle pop sounds. It’s more Santa Monica than San Joaquin. Instead of relying on those moans and yodels, Yoakam leans into stacked harmony lines and “ohhs” and “ahhs.”

Though you can’t help but be happy for Dwight Yoakam’s change of attitude and perspective, it’s fair to say this new album presents some challenges to his established classic country fan base. Of course, Yoakam’s approach has always been out-of-step with whatever the rest of country is shuffling to, starting from his cowpunk beginnings in Los Angeles. But more than anything, the Kentucky native was always a neotraditionalist at heart.

The self-produced Brighter Days sometimes just feels a little thin, like it’s mixed in mono. This longest song “California Sky” sounds almost like Brit pop, while the bell sounds in “If Only” feel like the early arrival of a Christmas carol. The twangiest moment on the album is Dwight’s collaboration with Post Malone on “I Don’t Know How To Say Goodbye.” Yoakam’s vocal acuity might have never been sharper, and 68 years of hard living hasn’t tarnished it one iota. But Dwight so outmatches Posty, it distracts from an otherwise excellent song.

One moment you hope doesn’t go underrated is the song “Can’t Be Wrong.” Where some of the album feels a bit too ordered and clean, this is a live take that really captures the essence of Dwight. Brighter Days is not bad, it’s just different, because Dwight is different. This is Dwight the dad. This is Dwight the husband. This is Dwight at 68 who did his time in honky tonk hell, and is now basking in hillbilly heaven.

7.4/10

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