Dwight Yoakam's first album, Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc., is back and better than ever. With this two-disk set the original offering is given the deluxe treatment, complete with remastered sound, demos from 1981 and a live performance from 1986. One of my favorite albums ever since I first heard my mother play it, I energetically jumped at the chance to give this new edition a spin and see how it sounds.

Dwight Yoakam has a sound that can best be described as revved-up hillbilly music, a paraphrase from one of my favorite bands, The Chop Tops, who described their music as revved up rockabilly. Like The Chop Tops' rockabilly, Dwight's hillbilly country is traditional but kicked up to maximum velocity, presented and mixed with his own personal touch and influences. Much the same way as other youths of the past have done in country music, Elvis, Gram Parsons, all three Hanks, etc., etc., Dwight's sound first made its way to our ears with Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. It is now remastered and expanded into two CDs that are presented in chronological order. This works because it gives the sense of something new instead of a simple rehashing.

Dwight's demos from 1981 open disk one and we get to hear version of songs that would eventually find their way on to Guitars, Cadillacs as well as on his future albums. In comparison to the final versions, you can hear how some of the demos are missing a bit of the magic that is Dwight's signature sound. Although to start disk one, "This Drinkin' Will Kill Me" is a perfect example of his revved-up sound, a self-penned tune styled after the "drinking your sorrows away" classics of days past. Fiddles jump, the pedal steel wails, and the electric guitar cooks while a steady driving rhythm section that takes a page from Johnny Cash backs Dwight's plaintive vocals and acoustic guitar. Mix in lyrics such as "Death can come from this broken heart/ Or it can come from this bottle/ So why prolong the agony/ Hey bartender/ I think I'll hit the throttle." This one, along with "I'll Be Gone," sum up Dwight's jump sound pretty well.

Not only can Dwight get a hillbilly tune to hop but he shows how even at this early stage in his career he's mastered the slow drinkin' song. "It Won't Hurt" is a tune that prepared ol' Fantasma for life's heartaches, "It won't hurt/ When I fall down from this barstool," "It wont hurt 'cause this whiskey eases misery/ But even whiskey/ Cannot ease your hurting me." I think most of us have lived that line at one time or another. The demo for "You're The One," which wouldn't turn up until the early '90s is also here, foretelling how Dwight wouldn't lose sight of his original style. Dwight's arrangements are pulled tight and drawn in close for these slow slices of pain.