Sound Bites: Dwight Yoakam

Artist: Dwight Yoakam Album: "Blame The Vain" Rating: Four stars out of five Label: Far West Records

One of Dwight Yoakam's greatest strengths as a songwriter and musician has been his ability to introduce a variety of disparate and unrelated musical styles into his songs while still retaining a decidedly country sound and attitude. Reared in the traditional country stylings of Johnny Cash and Hank Williams and weaned on a steady diet of alt-country pioneers Buck Owens and Gram Parsons, Yoakam has shown a great wit and skill at introducing elements of pop, salsa, rockabilly and other musical styles into his overall sound while still keeping a firm grasp on his hard-earned country credentials.

But since reaching the peak of this musical cornucopia with his 1994 album, "Gone," Yoakam's subsequent records have increasingly retreated from their former experimentalism into a more consolidated and purer country style, reaching its peak on his last outing, 2000's "Tomorrow's Sounds Today."

While not quite the statement of intent that this album was, Yoakam's latest offering, "Blame The Vain," carries on in much the same traditional country vein in which his music has flowed during the last decade. Songs such as "I'll Pretend" or the raving two-step "Three Good Reasons" reverberate with the Bakersfield sound of Parsons and Owens that Yoakam has made it his life's work to carry on.

What is most surprising on "Blame The Vain" are the many instances where Yoakam supplements his musical meat and potatoes with spice from the outskirts of his own musical diaspora. Nods to The Coasters' "Searchin';" Emerson, Lake and Palmer; the film "Sling Blade" (in which Yoakam appeared); The Beatles' "I Feel Fine" and one particularly memorable New Wave pastiche help his Protean roots rock sound spring from genre to genre while still retaining a firm musical center.

The addition of new lead guitarist Keith Gattis - replacing longtime bandleader, guitarist and producer Pete Anderson - and Yoakam's own assumption of producer's duties give the album a freshness and urgency of purpose lacking on many of his recent recordings. The result is one of Yoakam's strongest, subtlest and most varied recordings in more than a decade.

- Craig Whitney

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