Dwight Yoakam could not be described as one of the nicest people I've had the opportunity to meet in the music business. And, I have not known him to be overly concerned with keeping his fans happy. But, I cannot deny the seemily bottomless depths of his talent. Whether he's writing, singing, rocking, acting, or just controlling an interview, Dwight has only been held back by his inability to decide which way to point his...well...his talent. After a seven year abscence, Dwight Yoakam is back with new music. "3 Pears" is vintage Dwight. It's a controlled cyclone of all that he does so well. And, the folks at NPR did a good job of describing it.

(NPR)...Yoakam has been trying to carve out his place in the music industry for decades now, with regular side-trips into the film industry as an actor. In a way, this is a key to the difficulty he's had maintaining the visibility he deserves. The feeling that Yoakam is acting out the role of a country star, and the idea that he not-so-secretly feels he's slightly above the genre he tries to write hits for, is a feeling that persists among many. Yoakam's admirers, of whom I am very much one, see him differently. As is abundantly clear on his new album 3 Pears, he declines to fit into market categories for very long, jumping within each album from nasal-nirvana honky-tonk to ringing pop-rock songs such as "A Heart Like Mine."

"A Heart Like Mine" has the reverberations and hand-clap percussion of 1960s British Invasion rock, and was co-produced by Beck, a singer-songwriter not known for his country-music affiliations. Yoakam liked the Martin Scorsese documentary about George Harrison, Living in the Material World, and 3 Pears takes its title from a scene in which John Lennon plays around with three pairs of glasses. It's inspired one of the two best songs on the album. (read more at NPR)