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David Arnson's avatar

I moved to Los Angeles in April 1985 and got to see Dwight Yoakam in some super small clubs as well as the good old Palomino .He was amazing! I kept thinking " This guy should be famous!" And.. within a year he was!

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Paul Romano's avatar

When I first saw him I had two thoughts: that I had never seen a male person that shockingly thin, and that he had a voice that seemed somehow both vintage and timeless. And big.

This was in 1982, at an L.A. club called Music Machine, and he was opening for L.A. punk-turned-roots pioneers The Plugz. This ridiculously skinny guy took the stage solo, armed only with his acoustic guitar, and proceeded to impress the hell out of the roots-punk faithful.

It was an exciting time in the L.A. scene, with new hybrids of punk, country, blues, folk, rockabilly & soul popping up all over: Blasters, Knitters, Los Lobos, Gun Club, Top Jimmy & Rhythm Pigs, Phast Phreddie & Thee Precisions, new-model Plugz, Rank & File, Phranc, etc. Yoakam both fit in perfectly and stood out.

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