Dwight Yoakam at Track 29 in Chattanooga tonight - Oct. 3

photo Dwight Yoakam

Fresh off an Artist of the Year award from the Americana Music Association, Dwight Yoakam will bring songs about guitars, Cadillacs and hillbilly music to Track 29 tonight, Oct. 3.

Arguably the finest act to emerge from country music's neo-traditionalist movement during the mid-1980s, Yoakam has kept a nearly 30-year singing career vibrant -- while carving out a sideline as an actor.

Roles in movies such as "Sling Blade" and "Four Christmases" are about the only time to catch him without his trademark cowboy hat -- although he wore it for "South of Heaven, West of Hell," a 2000 Western he wrote and directed.

His latest musical project, released this week, is a compilation, "21st Century Hits: Best of 2000-12," reprising the key singles he recorded during his years with New West Records, Warner Brothers and Koch. The collection picks up where Yoakam's last greatest-hits compilation left off, bringing the listener up to his last album, 2012's "3 Pears."

Since his "Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc." debut in 1986, Yoakam has notched 12 gold albums and nine platinum (or better), including the triple-platinum "This Time." Five of those releases have topped Billboard's Country Albums chart, with another 14 landing in the Top 10.

He has charted more than 30 singles, with 22 making the Top 20, including "Honky Tonk Man," "Please Please Baby," "Little Ways," "I Sang Dixie," "It Only Hurts When I Cry," "Fast as You" and "A Thousand Miles From Nowhere."

Upcoming Events