Yoakam back in swing of things

By Mike Hughes
Gannett News Service

Country music is ready to show off its widening world.

This isn't just a place for old guys with guitars. "Country is getting so much younger," says Robert Deaton, producer of ABC's "CMA Music Festival: Country's Night to Rock."

At least, it will seem that way today, when viewers see his three hosts. Kellie Pickler is 22, Julianne Hough is 20, Taylor Swift - fresh from a string of hits and awards - is 18.

Still, the traditional side of country music will also be there. Dwight Yoakam will do songs from his tribute album to the late Buck Owens.

It was Yoakam's first trip to the festival in 20 years - which is the average age of the hosts. Yoakam first visited the festival (then called the Fan Fair) back in 1986.

"I remember sitting there in the signing booth," he says. "Jeannie C. Riley (of 'Harper Valley PTA' fame) was in the next booth. I was thinking just like a fan, 'Oh, man, that's Jeannie C. Riley!'"

Back then, he was almost an outsider. He was from Ohio - a Northerner, by country standards - and had a taste for the West Coast style of Owens.

"I had taken the path less traveled," Yoakam grants.

There's more of that in country now. One of tonight's performers, Jewel, is a way-Northerner (from Alaska) and a former pop star.

Some others emerged from reality competition shows. There's "American Idol" (Carrie Underwood, Pickler) and "Nashville Star" (Miranda Lambert) and even "Dancing With the Stars" (Hough).

Hough danced to two straight championships with Apolo Ohno and Helio Castroneves.

"I would be skeptical of myself if I wasn't me," she says. "I'm serious. What's this dancer chick doing trying to come over to our format?"

Still, she says she's been a country fan since she was a toddler in Utah. The rest only came by circumstance: When she was 9, her parents divorced; she decided to accept a chance to study dance in London.

"I was away from my family from when I was 10 to 15 ... I've gone through a lot that most ... 30-year-olds don't go through."

That backs what Yoakam has always figured: Country emerges from everywhere.

He was born in Pikeville, Ky., but grew up in the Cincinnati area. It was, he says, filled with country influences.

"You had the migratory factor," Yoakam says. "People went up to north to work in Detroit, Chicago, Cincinnati."

Some started country stations and studios. "Even Hank (Williams) Sr. cut some of his biggest records at a Cincinnati studio."

And the original turf was nearby. All Yoakam had to do was cross the bridge and he was in Kentucky; in the eastern part of the state, another bridge would take him to West Virginia. "The Ohio River Valley is a very unique place," he says.

His "new traditionalist" music merging Appalachia with Nashville and the Bakersfield, Calif., approach of Owens.

Yoakam has had 18 singles in the country top 20 and has sold 25 million albums. He's skipped the CMA Music Festival, he says, mainly because of geography. He lives in California, where he shows up on TV and in movies.

He returned this year, he says, for a basic reason. "They asked me."

After the death of Owens (in 2006, at 76), Yoakam cut an album of 15 tunes. Now he has returned to the festival at 51 - which makes him the age of 2 ½ hosts.