Yoakam, Owens ACL sets see light of day

New West Records has developed a catalog of live concert performances the PBS series over the past 20 years. The Owens and Yoakam sets will be out in 180-gram vinyl as well as combined CD/DVD sets on Aug. 11. Owens will be a single CD, 2LP, while Yoakam will be two-CDs/three-LPs.

The releases will feature re-edited, re-mastered full concert performances and plenty of never-before-heard-or-seen songs from the tapings. The CD/DVDs are re-mixed and re-mastered in 5.1 surround-sound to provide the highest quality. The LPs have been remastered from original source files and pressed onto 180g vinyl. Austin City Limits founder and producer Terry Lickona contributed liner notes.

Both shows were recorded on he same night, Oct. 23, 1988. Yoakam guested on Owens' performance of "Under Your Spell Again." Owens and Flaco Jiménez played on Yoakam's performance of "Streets of Bakersfield."

Lickona said, "Twenty-something Dwight Yoakam was literally the new kid in country music when he stepped onto the Austin City Limits stage in October 1988. But even then, as he has ever since, he was doing things his own way. Dwight was born in a small Kentucky town and grew up listening to mountain and bluegrass music, and unlike most of the mainstream country-pop crooners of the '80s, he almost single- handedly revived the rockabilly/honky tonk/hillbilly sound that was one of the cornerstones of country music's formative years. Early on, he discovered the fabled 'Bakersfield' sound of the '60s and adopted it as his own, in the tradition of country legends Merle Haggard and Buck Owens. Buck, in fact, became his hero and friend. When Dwight was playing a fair in Bakersfield, he stopped by Buck's office and coaxed him into playing a few songs with him onstage that night. The result was a lasting friendship and their historic duet, 'Streets of Bakersfield.' Much like his heroes, Dwight has been true to his roots and breaking new ground for almost 20 years."

As for Owens, Lickona said, "Maybe it was an epiphany of sorts. As Buck tells it, 'One day I was watching Austin City Limits and Dwight Yoakam was on, then he dedicates the program to 'Buck Owens.' So I said, I'm going to see what this kid is like." It wasn't long after that he was on stage with Dwight singing his old hits. Buck was bitten by the bug to return to music, after calling it quits almost 10 years earlier. This man from Sherman, Texas, probably best known as the wide-grinning rube on Hee Haw for so many years, started a country music revolution. Or more accurately, a counter-revolution. It was called 'The Bakersfield Sound.' He and fellow revolutionary Merle Haggard were cranking out raw, hard-driving honky-tonk music that stood the country-pop coming out of Nashville on its head. When Buck Owens and the Buckaroos would launch into 'I've got a tiger by the tail, it's plain to see,' the packed crowds would be on their feet and headed for the dance floor. Along the way Buck inspired none other than The Beatles to record their first country song, his classic 'Act Naturally,' and the master of soul, Ray Charles, to immortalize one of the best-known country songs ever, 'Crying Time.'"

The Yoakam track list is:
1. Guitars, Cadillacs

. Smoke Along The Track
3. What I Don't Know

4. Home Of The Blues

5. 1,000 Miles

6. Please, Please Baby

7. Little Ways

8. Honky Tonk Man
9. Streets Of Bakersfield
10. Buenas Noches From A Lonely Room 
(She Wore Red Dresses) 

11. Always Late With Your Kisses 

12. Little Sister 

13. I Sang Dixie 

14. This Drinkin' Will Kill Me 


The Owens track list is:
1. Act Naturally

2. Together Again
3. Love's Gonna Live Here

4. Crying Time
5. Tiger By The Tail

6. A-11

7. Hot Dog

8. Put Another Quarter In The Jukebox
9. Memphis
10. Under Your Spell Again (With Dwight Yoakam)
11. Johnny B. Goode

Previous releases include performances by Merle Haggard, Guy Clark, Steve Earle, Neko Case, David Byrne, Fats Domino and Jerry Lee Lewis.