Dwight Yoakam

Don McLeese was formerly the pop music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times and the Austin American-Statesman, as well as country columnist and frequent contributor to Rolling Stone and a senior editor for No Depression. He has chronicled Dwight Yoakam in reviews, features, and interviews from the beginning of the artist's recording career through the present day. He currently teaches journalism at the University of Iowa. His most recent book is The New York Times Reader: Arts and Culture.

Introduction: A Thousand Miles from Nowhere 1. How Far Is Heaven? 2. Readin', Rightin', Rt. 23 3. South of Cincinnati, West of Columbus 4. Corvette Cowboy 5. From Kentucky Bourbon to Babylonian Cowboys 6. Who You Callin' Cowpunk? 7. Honky-Tonk Man 8. "It's Jes' Ol' Hillbilly Stuff" 9. Hillbilly Deluxe 10. Streets of Bakersfield 11. Bonus Cut 12. "Well, I'm Back Again . . ." 13. Wild Ride 14. Gone, Real Gone 15. Act Naturally 16. The Same Fool 17. Playing Out the String 18. South of Heaven, West of Hell (and Off the Charts) 19. Splitsville 20. Produced by Dwight Yoakam 21. The Buck Stops Here 22. "I Wanna Love Again, Feel Young Again" Appendix. The Dwight Dozen: A Selected Discography Acknowledgments

"A Thousand Miles from Nowhere does not aim at being a contextualizing "life and times" biography...It is tangentially about the music business...The choice plays to McLeese's strengths as a writer, as well as Yoakam's as an artist, and the result rewards any reader interested in popular music history. In short, A Thousand Miles from Nowhere is a provocative and engaging guide to modern country music's aesthetic concerns and commercial fortunes as seen through the lens of a single artist's career." - Jason Mellard, Southwestern American Literature "A Thousand Miles From Nowhere is a great way to get to know the story of the music of the best country voice of his generation. After you finish, take a country drive with the windows down and a Dwight record in the music player. I don't think you'll be wondering about his authenticity at all. I think you'll just be toe tapping, head bobbing and singing along to some of the greatest country ever recorded." - BookPeople's Blog "After seemingly vanishing in the wake of 2005's "Blame the Vain," trendsetting honky-tonker Yoakam resurfaced on Warner Bros in 2012 with "3 Pears," which reached the top 20 of the pop charts. Former Austin American-Statesman music critic Don McLeese chronicled the peaks and valleys of Yoakam's career in the 2012 biography A Thousand Miles From Nowhere tracing his progression from Bakersfield upstart to new-traditionalist chart-topper to big-screen character actor." - Austin American-Statesman