A decade on the air waves will be celebrated by the Wolf 97 FM as Dwight Yoakam boot scoots on the honky tonk stage in CN Centre Tuesday, Sept. 17.
This is only the second time Yoakam has performed in Prince George, the first time was Feb. 17, 2005. So it's been a while.
Yoakam was considered a traditional country music artist in the 80s, when it wasn't considered cool.
"When we began, it was a return to original honky tonk music," said Yoakam, who also crossed over into the acting world, taking on challenging roles over the years. "I was playing the rock and roll clubs in what was being dubbed the cowpunk scene in L.A. in the early to middle 80s and when we broke nationally, I think in country radio there was a close enough proximity to the traditional roots because we had only gone from the mainstream of country music for about ten years. So it was probably a more familiar sound to a large country radio listening audience."
Yoakam has a dozen gold albums and nine platinum and multi-platinum albums, including triple-platinum This Time. Five of those albums topped Billboard's Country Album charts with another 14 landing in the Top 10. More than 30 singles have charted, with 22 going Top 20, including Honky Tonk Man, Please Please Baby, Little Ways, I Sang Dixie, It Only Hurts When I Cry, Fast as You and Thousand Miles from Nowhere. Yoakam's got two Grammys and earned 21 nominations.
Yoakam produced his most recent album, 3 Pears, with his usual edginess.
"3 Pears has enjoyed success in alternative forms of radio - in Americana it was No. 1 for eight weeks, public radio and college radio embraced it," said Yoakam. "Music leads me on a journey."
And that journey brings him back to Prince George for a country music party.
"The audience can expect us to play music even beyond the ten years they've been broadcasting now," said Yoakam. "They can expect to hear us going back 27 years into my catalogue of my material and I am thrilled to be able to celebrate that 10 year anniversary but also the longer arc of support that I've received in that part of British Columbia - throughout British Columbia - but specifically in the Prince George area. I have always had great support going back to the very first record Guitars, Cadillacs in 1986 to now. I'm going to perform music that began then and goes through 3 Pears now. So I look forward to expressing my gratitude by coming there and playing those songs again for the folks who have seen me before and the folks that are seeing me for the first time. It's my musical way of saying thanks."
The Killbillies are special guests that will open the show. Tickets for the show are at all Ticketmaster outlets.
