This Time

iTunes Review

Early on, Dwight Yoakam was pegged as a country neo-traditionalist, a term which seemed to fit him less and less as his career progressed. This Time (1993) finds him moving beyond the influence of icons like Buck Owens into more eclectic terrain. True, the honky-tonk sounds identified with Owens and his Bakersfield cohorts are present in the title tune, “King Of Fools” and “Pocket Of A Clown.” But the album’s sonic palette is wider that these tracks would suggest, and from the thumping, Hammond organ-stoked “Fast As You” to the Rolling Stones-esque “Wild Ride,” Yoakam delivers rock ‘n’ roll performances dripping with bad-boy attitude. Ballads like “A Thousand Miles From Nowhere” and “Ain’t That Lonely Yet” have keening melodies and soul-deep angst reminiscent of Roy Orbison and the Everly Brothers. And when Yoakam taps country’s most primal roots — as in the gorgeously mournful “Try Not To Look So Pretty” and “House For Sale” — he does so with a fresh intelligence. With This Time, Yoakam pulled off the difficult feat of bending Nashville’s rules without losing his commercial cachet – and delivered one of his best albums in the process.