{"id":3099,"date":"2017-09-30T00:01:51","date_gmt":"2017-09-30T04:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?p=3099"},"modified":"2022-11-02T21:10:52","modified_gmt":"2022-11-03T01:10:52","slug":"readin-ritin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/readin-ritin\/","title":{"rendered":"Readin&#8217;, Ritin&#8217;, and Route 23 (Dwight Yoakam)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Readin&#039;, Ritin&#039;, and Route 23\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Qr3yqh0vDUE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The first time Dwight Yoakam&#8217;s &#8220;Guitars, Cadillacs&#8221; came on the radio, I was driving through eastern Montana and it was the perfect soundtrack. That was 1986 and it was getting played pretty often, though not as often as his version of &#8220;Honky Tonk <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-3102 \" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/dwight-yoakam-guitars-lp.jpg?resize=262%2C263&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"262\" height=\"263\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/dwight-yoakam-guitars-lp.jpg?w=290&amp;ssl=1 290w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/dwight-yoakam-guitars-lp.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 262px) 100vw, 262px\" \/>Man,&#8221; and as soon as I got home I ran out and bought the album, which had one of my favorite titles of all time: <em>Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>A few months later Dwight made his Boston-area debut at a small club called Nightstage, drawing an impressively mixed crowd of old-line country fans in work shirts who&#8217;d driven down from New Hampshire and green-haired punk rockers who&#8217;d probably never been to another country show.<\/p>\n<p>Dwight was impossibly thin and edgy, in skin-tight cowboy duds, with Pete Anderson playing brilliant honky-tonk guitar and Brantley Kearns in overalls, sawing away at the fiddle. &#8220;This next song, it&#8217;s what I call &#8216;High Jones&#8217;; &#8216;Orthodox Jones,'&#8221; Dwight announced before singing &#8220;The Grand Tour.&#8221; &#8220;The radio programmers say this kind of stuff is too country, that it&#8217;ll offend their audience &#8212; well, come on, Brantley, let&#8217;s offend <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3101  alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Yoakam-with-cadillac.jpg?resize=218%2C228&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"218\" height=\"228\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Yoakam-with-cadillac.jpg?w=300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Yoakam-with-cadillac.jpg?resize=287%2C300&amp;ssl=1 287w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 218px) 100vw, 218px\" \/>somebody!&#8221; He sang the old George Jones weeper like he believed every word, then introduced &#8220;one by the Hillbilly Cat &#8212; you know who the Hillbilly Cat was?&#8221; And tore up Elvis Presley&#8217;s &#8220;Little Sister.&#8221; It was one of the hottest shows I&#8217;ve ever seen.<\/p>\n<p>I was reviewing for the <em>Boston Globe<\/em> that night &#8212; I&#8217;m not sure why I got the assignment, since there were at least three other <em>Globe<\/em> critics there, at least three of whom outranked me &#8212; but anyway I was in the newsroom, typing it in on deadline, and Susan Wilson wandered by. Susan was one of my favorite writers, a sharply witty lesbian who wore gold cowboy boots &#8212; and her sexual preference is relevant because when I asked how she&#8217;d liked the show, her three-word review was: &#8220;I&#8217;d fuck him.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So he was terrific, and then a year or so later his second album came out, with this song on it. And around the same time Smithsonian Folkways brought out their <em>Vision Shared<\/em> album, a tribute to Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly, with everyone from Taj Mahal to Bruce Springsteen to Willie Nelson on it, and another <em>Globe<\/em> writer was writing a feature story about the enduring power of the American folk tradition and the new generation of folksingers, like Suzanne Vega&#8230; and I said, &#8220;Have you heard Dwight Yoakam&#8217;s new album?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-3103 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Woody-in-cowboy-duds.jpg?resize=150%2C150&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/>He said, &#8220;No, why?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I said, &#8220;Because he&#8217;s from Kentucky and writes songs about coal miners and is a lot closer to Woody than Suzanne Vega will ever be&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And he said, &#8220;But Dwight Yoakam&#8217;s a country singer; I&#8217;m writing about folk music.&#8221; Or words to that effect.<\/p>\n<p>I probably went on arguing, because I was even more pigheaded then than I am now &#8212; which is going some &#8212; but in retrospect the conversation was already over. Anyway, I learned this song and still think its one of Dwight&#8217;s best and fits well into Woody&#8217;s tradition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first time Dwight Yoakam&#8217;s &#8220;Guitars, Cadillacs&#8221; came on the radio, I was driving through eastern Montana and it was the perfect soundtrack. That was 1986 and it was getting played pretty often, though not as often as his version of &#8220;Honky Tonk Man,&#8221; and as soon as I got home I ran out and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/readin-ritin\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Readin&#8217;, Ritin&#8217;, and Route 23 (Dwight Yoakam)<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Readin&#039;, Ritin&#039;, and Route 23 (Dwight Yoakam) - Old Friends: A Songobiography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/readin-ritin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Readin&#039;, Ritin&#039;, and Route 23 (Dwight Yoakam) - Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The first time Dwight Yoakam&#8217;s &#8220;Guitars, Cadillacs&#8221; came on the radio, I was driving through eastern Montana and it was the perfect soundtrack. That was 1986 and it was getting played pretty often, though not as often as his version of &#8220;Honky Tonk Man,&#8221; and as soon as I got home I ran out and &hellip; Continue reading Readin&#8217;, Ritin&#8217;, and Route 23 (Dwight Yoakam) &rarr;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/readin-ritin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-30T04:01:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-03T01:10:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/dwight-yoakam-guitars-lp.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/readin-ritin\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/readin-ritin\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elijah Wald\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"headline\":\"Readin&#8217;, Ritin&#8217;, and Route 23 (Dwight Yoakam)\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-30T04:01:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-03T01:10:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/readin-ritin\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":541,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/readin-ritin\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/08\\\/dwight-yoakam-guitars-lp.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/readin-ritin\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/readin-ritin\\\/\",\"name\":\"Readin', Ritin', and Route 23 (Dwight Yoakam) - 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I first became tangentially aware of Peter when I got into blues as a kid and my mother mentioned that Dr. Guralnick's son wrote about blues. Dr. Guralnick had removed her\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Peter-Guralnick-Lost-Highway-193x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3094,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/tennessee-birdwalk\/","url_meta":{"origin":3099,"position":1},"title":"Tennessee Birdwalk (Blanchard &#038; Morgan)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"September 22, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the pleasures of touring across country was country radio. This was back in the days before national networks had taken over, and you still had local stations playing mixes of current hits and oldies, varying from region to region. The Boston area station was pretty lame, so it\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/jack_blanchard_misty_morgan-tennessee_bird_walk_s_4-298x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5211,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/cigarettes-and-coffee\/","url_meta":{"origin":3099,"position":2},"title":"Cigarettes and Coffee Blues (Lefty Frizzell)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"June 8, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I have Bill Morrissey to thank for turning me into a Merle Haggard nut, and making me realize how close country\u00a0 music -- especially the strain popularized as \"honky tonk\" -- is to blues. Of course, to a large extent it came out of blues; Jimmie Rodgers was primarily a\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Leftys-Greatest-Hits.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3173,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/swinging-doors\/","url_meta":{"origin":3099,"position":3},"title":"Swinging Doors (Merle Haggard\/a honky-tonk gig)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"November 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"My first trip through the South was in the fall of 1985. I started hitchhiking from Chapel Hill, planning to hug the coast till I reached Mexico. That afternoon I saw my first roadkill armadillo while walking the last five miles into Southport, North Carolina. On the edge of town\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/me-and-merle.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5582,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/aint-no-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":3099,"position":4},"title":"Ain&#8217;t No God in Mexico (Billy Joe Shaver)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"January 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I've got a lot of favorite songwriters, and Billy Joe Shaver is right up there. Like most people, I got into him through Waylon Jennings, and in particular Waylon's Honky Tonk Heroes album.I've already done a post about that album's title song, and this is another from the same disc.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Billy-Joe-and-Waylon.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1220,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/bout-a-spoonful\/","url_meta":{"origin":3099,"position":5},"title":"Bout a Spoonful (Davis\/Lipscomb\/Van Ronk)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"June 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Judging by surviving evidence, \"Bout a Spoonful\" was a very popular song throughout the black South in the early twentieth century. 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