Reviews
 Keep It Simple
Van Morrison
Roger McGuinn @ the Huntington IMAC, Long Island, NY - April 4, 2008
Emily Saxe @ the Allen Room/Jazz at Lincoln Center - April 5, 2008
Another Country
Tift Merritt
Be Your Own Pet
Get Awkward
Paul McCartney – The McCartney Years (DVD)
Juno – Music from the Motion Picture
Various Artists
Yes - Their Definitive Story
Day and Night Driving
Seven Mary Three
InterMedia Arts Center 2/2/08
Huntington, NY
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Dwight Yoakam
Right off the bat, I should state that I was never a big fan of this guy. He strikes me as the type of guy who needs to wear that ubiquitous cowboy hat in order to be recognized. That’s all well and good, but as a Los Angeles resident, his hat and boots are about as natural as me dressing like a bullfighter in New York City. He may be all style and little substance, but there are enough promising moments on his collection of cover songs to make me turn my head.
His update of the Everly Brothers’ "Claudette" is a no-nonsense barroom rocker that could be appreciated by more than the line-dancing crowd, while his ‘hillbilly’ style interpretation of the Clash’s "Train in Vain" might even improve on the original raucous pop version. His reading of the Rolling Stones’ "The Last Time" and the Beatles’ "Things We Said Today" are less cathartic, sticking a bit closer to the known arrangements, making them interesting enough to hear, but similar enough to make you crave the original.
Elsewhere, though, things go seriously array. His big band mockery of the Kinks’ "Tired of Waiting for You" is a horrific mess, sounding like something Frank Sinatra, Jr. might have concocted, while his rendition of "Good Time Charlie’s Got the Blues" drains the song of its intrinsic melody, leaving little behind but a pathetic tale of woe. The same can be said of "Wichita Lineman," an artless mess that only serves to elevate the beauty of Glen Campbell’s far superior recording.
On "Under the Covers", Yoakam does a good job of displaying his eclectic tastes, but if I had a choice, I’d rather ask him to burn me a party disk of the original recordings.
Grade: 
 
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