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“In another time and place,” sings Dwight Yoakam on the buoyant “In Another World,” the opening track onSecond Hand Heart, the brilliant new album that takes the pioneering honky-tonker back to Warner Bros./Reprise, where he began his major-label recording career thirty years ago. Yoakam’s distinctive, supple vocals, accented with his Kentucky croon, sound as strong today as they did on his debut, 1985’s Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc. Etc. Its release immediately yielded hit singles, and over the course of some 21 albums – totaling more than 25 million in sales worldwide – Yoakam has continued to passionately sing, write, and play music brimming with hard country and rock & roll. Second Hand Heart was self-produced by Yoakam, and reflects where he’s been, but even more so, where he’s going: “’In Another World’ guided the rest of the album,” says Yoakam. “It became its statement – about surviving and hope.”
“When you’re around Dwight, you get this sense of urgency,” explains Warner Bros. VP of A&R Lenny Waronker, executive producer of Second Hand Heart. “He’s like somebody who’s just starting his career – almost like this is his first record. He’s on ‘rewind’ in a way. There’s a certain kind of energy, power, that makes it sound so youthful. It’s very unique. A lot of it goes back to his main strengths: his vocal, which is unchanged, and his songwriting. Plus, the power of the guitar playing and the power of the songs add up to a really wonderful record.”
Following a stint at New West Records and 2012’s well-received 3 Pears on Warner Nashville, Yoakam reconnected last year with Warner/Reprise. He took his killer touring band into L.A.’s venerable Capitol Studios, Studio B, where artists like Buck Owens, Gene Vincent, The Beach Boys, and Ray Charles cut classic sides in the ‘50s and ‘60s. “This record’s made completely without auto-tune or time correction,” vouches Chris Lord-Alge, the multiple Grammy-winning engineer who mixed Second Hand Heart and co-produced (with Yoakam) three of the LP’s tracks. “Nobody really sings like this guy, and no one sings as in tune as he sings. His work ethic is from an era before technology made everyone lazy.”