Yoakam was born in Pikeville, Kentucky, the son of Ruth Ann, a key-punch operator, and David Yoakam, a gas-station owner. He was raised in Columbus, Ohio. He graduated from Columbus's Northland High School in 1974. During his high school years, he excelled in both music and drama, regularly securing the lead role in school plays, such as "Charlie" in a stage version of Flowers for Algernon, honing his skills under the guidance of teacher-mentors Jerry McAfee (music) and Charles Lewis (drama). Outside of school, Yoakam sang and played guitar with local garage bands, and entertained his friends and classmates with his impersonations, such as Richard Nixon, who, at the time, was heavily embroiled in the Watergate controversy.
Yoakam briefly attended Ohio State University, but dropped out and moved to Nashville in 1977 with the intent of becoming a recording artist. Later on, Ohio Valley University in Parkersburg, West Virginia awarded and presented Dwight with an honorary doctorate degree on May 7, 2005.
When he began his career, Nashville was oriented toward pop "urban cowboy" music, and Yoakam's brand of hip honky tonk music was not considered marketable.
Not making much headway in Nashville, Yoakam moved to Los Angeles and worked towards bringing his particular brand of new Honky Tonk or "Hillbilly" music (as he called it) forward into the 1980s. Writing all his own songs, and continuing to perform mostly outside traditional country music channels, Yoakam did many shows in rock and punk rock clubs around Los Angeles, playing with roots rock or punk rock acts like The Blasters (Yoakam scored a small video hit with his version of their song "Long White Cadillac"), Los Lobos, and X. This helped him diversify his audience beyond the typical country music fans, and his authentic, groundbreaking music is often credited with rock audiences accepting country music.
Yoakam's recording debut was the self-financed EP Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. on independent label Oak Records produced by lead-guitarist Pete Anderson; this was later re-released by Reprise records, with several additional tracks, as his major-label debut LP, 1986's Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.. It launched his career. "Honky Tonk Man", a remake of the Johnny Horton song, and "Guitars, Cadillacs" were hit singles. His stylish video "Honky Tonk Man" was the first country music video ever played on MTV. The follow-up LP, Hillbilly Deluxe, was just as successful. His third LP, Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room, included his first No. 1, a duet with his musical idol, Buck Owens, on "Streets of Bakersfield". 1990's If There Was a Way was another best-seller.
Yoakam's song "Readin', Rightin', Route 23" pays tribute to his childhood move from Kentucky, and is named after a local expression describing the route that rural Kentuckians took to find a job outside of the coal mines. (U.S. Route 23 runs north from Kentucky through Columbus and Toledo, Ohio and through the automotive centers of Michigan.) Rather than the standard line that their elementary schools taught "the three Rs" of "Readin', 'Ritin', and 'Rithmetic", Kentuckians used to say that the three Rs they learned were "Readin', 'Ritin, and Route 23 North".
Johnny Cash once cited Yoakam as his favorite country singer. Chris Isaak called him as good a songwriter that ever put a pen to paper. Time Magazine dubbed Yoakam "A Renaissance Man" and Vanity Fair declared that "Yoakam strides the divide between rock's lust and country's lament." Along with his bluegrass and honky-tonk roots, Yoakam has written or covered many Elvis Presley-style rockabilly songs, including his covers of Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" in 1999 and Presley's "Suspicious Minds" in 1992. He recorded a cover of The Clash's "Train in Vain" in 1997, a cover of the Grateful Dead song "Truckin'", as well as Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me". Yoakam has never been associated only with Country music; on many early tours, he played with Hardcore Punk bands like HĆ¼sker DĆ¼, and played many shows around Los Angeles with Roots/Punk/Rock & Roll acts. His middle-period-to-later records saw him branching out to different styles, covering Rock & Roll, Punk, 1960's, Blues-based "Boogie" like ZZ Top, and writing more adventurous songs like "A Thousand Miles From Nowhere". In 2003, he provided background vocals on Warren Zevon's last album The Wind.
In the 21st century, Yoakam released dwightyoakamacoustic.net, an album featuring solo acoustic versions of many of his hits; left his major label and started his own label.
2005 saw the release of Yoakam's well-reviewed album Blame the Vain, on New West Records. Yoakam also released an album dedicated to Buck Owens, Dwight Sings Buck, on October 23, 2007. His duet with Michelle Branch, a song titled "Long Goodbye", was released as a free download on Branch's official website in early 2011.
In July 2011, Yoakam re-signed with Warner Bros. Nashville and announced plans to release a new album. 3 Pears was released on September 18, 2012 with twelve new tracks. The album, produced by Yoakam, includes collaborations with Kid Rock, Beck, and Ashley Monroe. 3 Pears was released to resounding critical acclaim and earned Yoakam the highest-charting debut of his career on the Billboard 200 and Billboard Country Albums charts. 3 Pears reached #1 on the Americana Radio chart on October 29, 2012 and went on to break the 2012 record for most weeks at #1 on Americana Radio.[4] By the end of 2012, the album was named on annual best of lists by NPR, Rolling Stone, American Songwriter, AOL's The Boot, Entertainment Weekly, The Village Voice, and Rhapsody, and has been included in more critic's "best of 2012" lists than any other artist in the country genre.
Yoakam won the Grammy Award for "Best Male Country Vocal Performance" in 1993 for the song "Ain't That Lonely Yet". He was also named "Artist of the Year" by CMT Europe in 1993 and given the International Touring Artist Award by CMA in 2007.
In 2011, Yoakam received the Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award for his trailblazing achievements in the country music genre.
South Of Cincinnati
Dwight Yoakam Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
If you ever get south of the Mason Dixon to the home you left so long ago
If you ever get south of the Ohio River down where Dixieland begins
If you ever get south of Cincinnati I'll be yours again
She pulled the letter from the pages of her Bible
And a rose pressed inside the Book of Luke
For fourteen years she'd write each day but keep it hidden
If you ever get south of Cincinnati down where the dogwood trees grow
If you ever get south of the Mason Dixon to the home you left so long ago
If you ever get south of the Ohio River down where Dixieland begins
If you ever get south of Cincinnati I'll be yours again
At a cold gray apartment in Chicago
A cigarette drowns inside a glass of gin
He lies there drunk, but it don't matter drunk or sober
He'll never read the words that pride won't let her send
If you ever get south of Cincinnati down where the dogwood trees grow
If you ever get south of the Mason Dixon to the home you left so long ago
If you ever get south of the Ohio River down where Dixieland begins
If you ever get south of Cincinnati I'll be yours again
Then I'll be yours again
The song "South of Cincinnati" by Dwight Yoakam is a touching story of a woman's unwavering love for a man she was forced to leave behind. The lyrics depict a scene where the singer, the woman, keeps her love alive by writing letters to a man she is separated from physically, but not emotionally. The song paints a vivid picture of the woman's determination to hold onto the love she feels for the man. The song starts by stating that if the man ever travels to the southern states, including Cincinnati, Ohio, the woman would be ready to be with him again.
The second verse of the song reveals the depth of the woman's love as she keeps writing letters to the man for fourteen long years, even though she never gets a response. The rose that she has pressed inside her Bible shows that her love is pure and never fades away, even though distance and time separate them. The third verse reveals that the man has moved on in life, living a life of sadness, drinking all day and all night. The man's persona is opposite of the woman's as he never reads the letters, but the woman never gives up on their love.
Overall, "South of Cincinnati" is a song about undying love, even in the face of seeming abandonment. Itās a testament to the power of love and how it can change somebodyās life, no matter how much distance tries to tear them apart.
Line by Line Meaning
If you ever get south of Cincinnati down where the dogwood trees grow
If you ever come to the Southern region of America, where the dogwood trees are abundant and bloom beautifully...
If you ever get south of the Mason Dixon to the home you left so long ago
...where the Mason Dixon line separates the Northern and Southern states...
If you ever get south of the Ohio River down where Dixieland begins
...where the Ohio River sets the boundary and Dixieland culture starts...
If you ever get south of Cincinnati I'll be yours again
...I'll be together with you again.
She pulled the letter from the pages of her Bible
She took the letter out of her Bible's pages...
And a rose pressed inside the Book of Luke
...and found a rose pressed there within the pages of Luke's Gospel.
For fourteen years she'd write each day but keep it hidden
She wrote every day for fourteen years but kept it secret...
Refused to even speak his name, but still she wrote
She refused to talk about his name, but wrote anyway...
At a cold gray apartment in Chicago
At a frigid, gloomy apartment in Chicago...
A cigarette drowns inside a glass of gin
A cigarette is submerged in a gin-filled glass...
He lies there drunk, but it doesn't matter drunk or sober
He is lying there intoxicated, but it doesn't matter whether he's sober or not...
He'll never read the words that pride won't let her send
Pride prevents her from sending the words he'll never read...
Then I'll be yours again
...and then I'll belong to you again.
Lyrics Ā© O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: DWIGHT YOAKAM
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@LynneMarieSheppard
This is my favourite song by Dwight. That is saying something because all of his songs are amazing for different reasons. We saw him live in concert last night. Pure bliss! He's such an incredible talent.
@landonbittner5791
I know your comment is 2 years old. But Iām sure he DID NOT sing that song in concert that night?
@mousec3775
I love it too. I've been trying to find it for a while. I thought the title was "If You Ever Get South Of the Ohio River". I had this album years ago and somehow lost it. I'm so happy to have found this upload. Dwight's one of my most favorites, and this is his very finest.
@LynneMarieSheppard
@@mousec3775 I agree with you it is his very finest. This song gets me every time.
@bigdon531
I've lived in Cincinnati / Southern Ohio all my life. I've never heard this song. Love it!
@Kitty39ish
It's a hit with me too, living where you used to too. I love Cincinnati and the south of it too.
@jetclntn
Itās beautiful baby
@SuzyQ1956
I think Dwightās family moved to Columbus and he went to school there, but they went home often to Pikeville Kentucky
@rebarbertaartje
Last night Bob Dylan covered this song in his show in Cincinnati
@lcarole3131
First time in my life I've ever heard a song by this guy_ a waltz by any other name is still a waltz! Lovely,thanx Dylanā£ļø