ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, August 29, 1996 TAG: 9608290020
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
TOGETHER, Dwight Yoakam and Pete Anderson have come a long way.
When they met in 1984, Yoakam was living in his car, an unknown, struggling singer-songwriter who wasn't exactly poised for stardom. Anderson was an equally unknown guitar player for hire who was between gigs.
But they saw potential in each other.
Yoakam hired Anderson to be his guitarist. Anderson let Yoakam move into his laundry room.
Since then, Anderson has produced every record Yoakam has made, his guitar licks have helped define Yoakam's signature country roots sound, and he has influenced his now-famous colleague in other ways, from the way he sings to his style of dress.
Tonight, he will play alongside Yoakam when the singer performs at the Salem Civic Center.
Don't get the wrong idea, though.
Yoakam isn't purely Anderson's creation.
He was a talent before they ever started working together, Anderson said in a telephone interview last week from Dallas where they had a day off between tour dates. When they met, Yoakam already had a good voice, although Anderson said he didn't know yet how best to use it.
More importantly, he said, Yoakam already was a great songwriter, with about 20 well-crafted songs in the bag, including some like ``I Sang Dixie'' and ``South of Cincinnati'' that later became hits.
``His God-given gift was his compositional skills,'' Anderson said.
What he has done for Yoakam was help arrange his songs, taking them from simple acoustic demos to their final, guitars-and-Cadillacs incarnation. He also has helped Yoakam find his voice, to sing less like Merle Haggard and Lefty Frizzell, and more like Dwight Yoakam.
``He had great tone. He didn't really have to do a lot of vocal gymnastics.''
Anderson also helped Yoakam with his image. When they met, Anderson said Yoakam wore mostly blue jeans, low-healed boots and relatively subdued shirts. He never wore a cowboy hat. They talked about dressing in western suits like the Buckaroos, the backing band of their mutual musical hero, Buck Owens.
Anderson compared their relationship to that of a big brother and little brother - Anderson is 48, Yoakam is 39 - or to that of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. ``Apart, there's a lot lacking. There's not that magic there,'' he said. ``I think those things Dwight sees with us.''
For his part, Anderson never expected them to become as big as they have.
They recorded their first six-song EP, ``Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.,'' by persuading their drummer at the time to spend up the $5,000 limit on his credit card. Really, all Anderson said he was looking for was a chance to tour the country on the small club circuit.
Then they opened a club date for the Blasters in New York City. Anderson remembered seeing people in the audience singing along with some of their songs. ``I said this is going to happen. We won't be like Emmylou Harris, but we'll be able to make a living.''
It turned out they probably grew bigger than Emmylou Harris.
Yoakam was signed to Reprise Records in 1986, where he and Anderson have steadily churned out a series of both commercially successful and critically acclaimed albums characterized by a persuasive mix of Kentucky-born Yoakam's hillbilly bluegrass influences and the Detroit-born Anderson's roots in urban blues.
Anderson hasn't been content producing only Yoakam. He also has produced records for Michelle Shocked, The Meat Puppets, Jackson Browne, Blue Rodeo, Rosie Flores, k.d. lang and Roy Orbison.
In 1993, he founded his own record label, Little Dog Records, that he said is dedicated to recording and promoting original talents, much like Yoakam, and much the way the record industry used to be decades ago when the music came first and the marketing came later.
``It's gotten completely backward,'' he said. ``It's marketing over substance. We do not, as a society, make music for music's sake anymore. I'm signing stuff that I like. I trust my tastes.''
Anderson and Little Dog Records also issued his first solo effort, ``Working Class,'' which he called ``a musical travelogue'' or ``sketches of what I do individually on other people's songs.''
It's true. ``Working Class'' is all over the map, crossing from blues to roadhouse country to acoustic neo-folk and a few guitar instrumentals without missing a beat. He even throws in an uptown rhythm and blues cover of Jimi Hendrix's ``Fire.''
But Anderson is realistic. He doesn't expect his solo career to make him a household name. Of course, that's also the way he felt a decade ago when he was just getting started with Yoakam. So, who knows?
``I think my music is much too eclectic,'' he said. ``I'd have to catch some weird quirk of fate.''
Dwight Yoakam in concert: tonight at 8 at the Salem Civic Center. With David Ball. $22.50. Tickets at the box office, 375-3004, or (800) 288-2122 and Ticketmaster locations.
LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. Dwight Yoakam (above) will be the headliner tonight,by CNBbut Pete Anderson and his guitar will be plugged in right beside
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2. Pete Anderson (left) on the cover of his "Working Class" CD.
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