Personnel: Dwight Yoakam (vocals, acoustic guitar); Willie Nelson (vocals); Pete Anderson (acoustic & electric guitars, D-neck guitar, mandolin, percussion); Gary Morse (pedal steel guitar, banjo, dobro); Earl Scruggs (banjo); Scott Joss, Gabe Witcher (fiddle); Lee Thornburg (trumpet, trombone); Skip Edwards (keyboards); Bob Glaub (bass); Don Heffington (drums); Jonathan Clark, Timothy Schmitt, Tommy Funderbunk (background vocals).
Seventeen years into his recording career, having ventured into everything from rockabilly to Clash covers, Dwight Yoakam is far past the Buck Owens-carbon copy stage. Though a couple of songs on POPULATION ME do tip their cowboy hat to the classic Bakersfield sound, the album explores a wide variety of Americana styles. The opener "The Late Great Golden State" resembles nothing so much as an early Eagles country-rock classic. At the opposite end of the record, closing tune "The Back of Your Hand" is more of an introspective, singer-songwriter affair. In between, Yoakam teams with none other than Willie Nelson on the powerful broken-hearted ballad "If Teardrops Were Diamonds," and proves himself the reigning king of country self-effacement on "I'd Avoid Me Too."
Professional Reviews
Entertainment Weekly (7/25/03, p.72) - "...This is a long hillbilly wallow, and a fine one at that." - Grade: A-
