Dwight Yoakam name-dropped more than a few music legends during Friday’s visit to Colorado Springs.
Think “Merle,” “Willie” and “Roger.” Yoakam even capped the night with a one-song encore, Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds.” (The crooner looked eager to keep on singing, but a local curfew was top of mind at The Ford Amphitheater.)
What Yoakam didn’t say, nor did he need to, was clear. He’s firmly entrenched in that role call of music legends.
The singer is staring down the barrel of 70 (Oct. 23), but he didn’t act, sound or sing like it on this brisk night. His voice proved golden from the very first song, “Keep on the Sunny Side,” from his latest album, “Brighter Days.”
He tore through his estimable catalog, going all the way back to his earliest days as an unsigned singer. In between, he shared rambling tales of long-ago jobs and his earliest days with Warner Bros. Records. He even joked with his band mates when things didn’t go quite as planned.
He gave credit to college radio stations for giving his earliest songs the nudge they needed. He didn’t mention his bustling Hollywood career, including his turn as one of film’s cruelest beaus.
Doyle Hargraves in “Sling Blade” (1996).
No matter. The longer the night went on, the more fun Yoakam had.
Dripping in fringe, Yoakam treated his songs with reverence at first, recreating them with a demonstrative band that balanced out his minor stage shuffling. You know the drill, a shift of the hip here, a few modest steps there.
He’ll never threaten James Brown for stage presence.
That hasn’t changed, nor his ability to sound all honky tonk one minute (“Little Sister”), then switch into a smoother melody the next (“Things Change”). Like most visitors to the state, he mentioned the altitude – you’ve got 2,000 feet over Denver, he noted to the crowd (it’s actually just a thousand or so) – but the change didn’t show any ill effects.
Yoakam is an infamous teetotaler, but his songs wallow in whiskey and heartache. Some, like “You’re the One” leaned into their melancholy mood, but he favored quick-tempoed songs throughout the set.
“Fast as You” remains a banger, and guitarist Eugene Edwards made sure every last lick counted. And some might not have known that he co-wrote 1991’s “It Only Hurts When I Cry” with Roger Miller.
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Some aging musicians are content to crank out the hits and stop making new music. Not Yoakam, whose 2024 disc “Better Days” has more than a few songs worthy of a concert closeup.
Blame the October breeze or the venue’s capacity – 8,000 seats and dozens of gas-powered fire pits – but Yoakam left plenty of empty rows at this glorious amphitheatre.
Their loss.
Dwight Yoakam’s upcoming dates:
- Oct. 15 – Bologna PAC – Delta State University, Cleveland, MS
- Oct. 16 – Sand Mountain Amphitheater, Albertville, AL
- Oct. 17 – Pearl River Resort – Centerstage at Silver Star, Philadelphia, MS
- Nov. 4, 5 – Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN
- Nov. 6 – CCNB Amphitheatre at Heritage Park, Simpsonville, SC
- Nov. 7 – The Greater Jacksonville Agricultural Fair, Jacksonville, FL