Multiple GRAMMY Award-winning country music artist, Dwight Yoakam will make a stop at the Bell Auditorium on Thursday, April 20th with special guest Zach Top.
ABOUT DWIGHT YOAKAM:
Dwight Yoakam has sold more than 25 million albums worldwide, and he is a 21-time nominated, multiple GRAMMY Award winner. He has 12 gold albums and 9 platinum or multi-platinum albums, with five of those albums topping Billboard’s Country Albums chart and another 14 landing in the Top 10. Nearly 40 of Yoakam’s singles have charted on Billboard, with 14 peaking in the Top 10. Yoakam is a recipient of the Artist of the Year award from the Americana Music Association, the most prestigious award offered by the organization, he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in the Songwriter/Artist category at the 49th anniversary Gala on October 14, 2019 in Nashville, TN.
Yoakam’s self-curated SiriusXM channel, titled Dwight Yoakam and The Bakersfield Beat ‘Where Country Went Mod’ launched in April of 2018. The channel celebrates the Bakersfield sound and those whom it has inspired. Guests have boasted the likes of Post Malone, Lukas Nelson, Beck, Chris Hillman, Jakob Dylan, Mike Nesmith and Mickey Dolans, Dave Alvin, and Jackie DeShannon, among others.
In 2016, Yoakam released his bluegrass album Swimmin’ Pools, Movie Stars… on Sugar Hill Records. Featuring a band of bluegrass luminaries, this album boasts a collection of reinterpreted favorites from his catalogue, as well as a cover of Prince’s “Purple Rain.” Produced by nine-time GRAMMY winner Gary Paczosa (Alison Krauss, Dolly Parton), Jon Randall (songwriter of “Whiskey Lullaby”), and Yoakam himself, and mixed by Chris Lord-Alge, this album reflects the love for bluegrass music that Yoakam developed at an early age in Kentucky and that has inspired him for many years thereafter. In 2018, Yoakam released two songs, “Pretty Horses” and “Then Came Monday” (the latter written with Chris Stapleton).
In addition to his musical career, Yoakam is a formidable film and television actor who has appeared in over 40 feature films, including Sling Blade and Panic Room. Most recently he was on the big screen in Clint Eastwood’s latest film, Cry Macho. He recurred in David E. Kelley’s Amazon series Goliath and appeared in director Steven Soderbergh’s film Logan Lucky with Channing Tatum and Daniel Craig.
ABOUT ZACH TOP:
When contemporary influences expand country music’s parameters, you’ll hear “Country Music ain’t like it used to be” as a common refrain. But 24-year-old ZACH TOP is reviving the spirit of 90’s traditionalists like George Strait, Keith Whitley, and Randy Travis with classic vibes that evoke the dance halls of Texas, the roar of the rodeo, and jukebox ballads with a cold beer in hand.
There’s nothing more current than old school country to Zach, who grew up on a ranch in Washington State. He recalls rockin’ Marty Robbins’ Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs while riding out to feed livestock each day and forming a bluegrass band with his siblings at the age of seven. In his teens, he joined Seattle-based band North Country and later became a member of Modern Tradition (winners of the 2017 SPBGMA International Band Competition). When his honky-tonk dreams took him to Nashville, his single “Like It Ain’t No Thing” (RBR Entertainment) hit #1 on the Bluegrass Today chart. As it turns out, his skills as a traditional instrumentalist and storyteller did more than establish credibility with aficionados – it earned him a crucial publishing deal with Bob Doyle’s Major Bob Music and created an instant bond with the very guys who wrote the hits of his heroes.
