The show was opened by hometown hero Joshua Ray Walker, who sang Yoakam's praises.
“We’re excited to play but equally excited to see the show,” he said while tuning between songs. It was Walker’s first show with a full band in 11 months since his cancer diagnosis earlier this year limited his performing schedule. After a run of solo nights at The Kessler, Walker is finally hitting the road again. First, he’s scheduled for two more dates with Yoakam this week in Beaumont and Corpus Christi.
Walker’s set was a little quieter than usual, but still great. He closed with “Burn It” from 2019’s Wish You Were Here.
“I wrote this about 10 years ago,” he said. “You might be able to tell I’m a fan of a certain country artist who might be in the building later.”
About 30 minutes later, that certain country artist entered the stage dressed almost like a caricature of himself. As always, Yoakam’s hat was tipped down to his nose, obscuring most of his face for the entire show. He wore a denim jacket with bedazzled playing card suits on the back, vacuum-sealed tight blue jeans and massive leather boots.
The singer opened with a rowdy rendition of the Carter Family’s “Keep on the Sunny Side,” introducing his "Dwight Live" band in their glittery regalia. He continued into 1987’s “Please, Please Baby,” before a run of covers, starting with Elvis Presley’s “Little Sister.” After that, he played two songs from his longtime friend and mentor, Buck Owens: “Streets of Bakersfield” and “Think of Me.”
Hitting All the Dwight Notes
Aside from his deep catalog of original work, Yoakam is one of the greatest cover singers in mainstream music. (In 2007, he released a full album of studio-recorded Owens songs, called Dwight Sings Buck.)Later in the night, Yoakam delivered a country-fied version of Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” and interpreted Merle Haggard’s “Today I Started Loving You Again.”
At the age of 68, Yoakam's voice is remarkably preserved, and he can still hit the howling notes of his youth and maintain the emotive crooning of his later work. He moves with an Elvis-esque groove to his hips and guitar playing, each shake drawing a riotous reaction from the crowd.
The droning opening notes to “Turn It On, Turn It Up, Turn Me Loose” brought the mostly seated crowd immediately to its feet as Yoakam’s boot-scooting looked like it was drawing crop circles on the stage. He closed with a flurry of classics, starting with the haunting “A Thousand Miles From Nowhere” and two early cuts, 1987’s “Little Ways” and 1985’s “Guitars, Cadillacs.”
The raucous “Fast As You” brought the house down, before Yoakam and his band returned for an encore of “Suspicious Minds.”
Few country stars shine brighter than Yoakam, and with a brand-new album and nationwide tour on the horizon, it seems even Brighter Days are ahead.
