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Dwight Yoakam is an American singer-songwriter and actor, most famous for his country music. Active since the early 1980s, he has recorded more than twenty albums and compilations, and has charted more than thirty singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts.

Yoakam was born in Pikeville, Kentucky, the son of Ruth Ann and David Yoakam. He was raised in Columbus, Ohio, growing up with his mother and stepfather. He graduated from Columbus' Northland High School on June 9, 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. Outside of school, Yoakam sang and played guitar with local garage bands, and frequently entertained his friends and classmates as an amateur comedian, impersonating politicians and other celebrities, such as Richard Nixon, who, at that time, was heavily embroiled in the Watergate controversy. He briefly attended Ohio State University, but dropped out and moved to Nashville in the late 1970s with the intent of becoming a recording artist.

When he began his career, Nashville was oriented toward pop "Urban Cowboy" music, and Yoakam's brand of Bakersfield Honky tonk music was not considered marketable. Not making much headway in Nashville, Yoakam moved to Los Angeles. His vision of bringing traditional, Honky Tonk or "Hillbilly" music (as he himself called it) forward into the 1980s wasn't fully realized until he teamed up with lead guitarist and Producer Pete Anderson. While Yoakam wrote most of his songs himself, Anderson had a hand in arranging the songs and shaping their direction, as well as determining their ultimate sound as producer. Pete has always produced records for other artists, and recently left Yoakam's band to focus full-time on producing.

Continuing to perform mostly outside traditional country music channels, Yoakam did many shows in Rock and Punk clubs around Los Angeles, playing with roots rock or punk rock acts like The Blasters, Los Lobos, and X. This helped him diversify his audience well beyond the typical Country music fans; at many of his shows you would see mohawked and leather-clad Punks alongside Rock & Rollers, as well as the typical cowboy-shirt wearing Country crowd.

Yoakam's recording debut was on the independent album, A Town South of Bakersfield, which was a collection of "New Country" artists who were based in Los Angeles, California, and was planned and produced by Pete Anderson in 1984. He released an E.P. on independent label Oak Records; this was later re-released, with several additional tracks, as his major-label debut LP, 1986's Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.. It instantly launched his career. "Honky Tonk Man," a remake of the Johnny Horton song, and "Guitars, Cadillacs" were hit singles. The follow-up LP, Hillbilly Deluxe, was just as successful. His third LP, Buenas Noches From a Lonely Room, included his first #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 titled after a local expression describing the route that rural Kentuckians took to find a job outside of the coal mines.

Yoakam has also taken some acting roles, most notably as the abusive alcoholic Doyle Hargraves in Sling Blade, (1996) and as a sociopathic killer in Panic Room (2002). He has also appeared in Southern California live theater, combining his acting talents with the talents of director Peter Fonda. More recently, he appeared in a cameo role as the doctor for Chev Chelios in Crank. Dwight also had a small cameo role in the 2005 comedy movie Wedding Crashers. In 2008, Dwight played Pastor Phil in Four Christmases starring Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon.

Having diverged from pop-icon status in country-western fare, Yoakam is today more likely to be identified as having an older, more traditional style. At one point, Johnny Cash cited Yoakam as his favorite country singer. But along with his bluegrass and honky-tonk roots, Yoakam has written or covered many Elvis Presleystyle rockabilly songs, including his popular 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, 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 Hüsker Dü, and, as noted above, 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 the almost cinematic "A Thousand Miles From Nowhere".

His latest album of all-new tracks is 2005's Blame the Vain, on New West Records. Yoakam will be inducted into the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame in 2008. It has been alleged that Yoakam "has no contemporary peer" in country music, a statement that, while subjective, is still difficult to dispute.