This album represents a wonderful summation of Dwight Yoakam’s career from signing with the Reprise label back in 1986 to his recent, mutually agreed, departure to pastures new. A four-CD set, three of them cover chronologically, tracks from his 14 albums, as well as a selection of additional tracks recorded for other projects and some unreleased material. As a bonus the fourth CD is made up of, mainly, 10 songs he recorded back in 1981 as well as a series of live tracks, recorded at different times, that show off his considerable skills as an interpreter of other writers’ material.

As the opening track suggests, Yoakam has always been a ‘Honky Tonk Man’, but there has also been something of the rock’n’roller’s sattitude to his work, a product of youthful attention to the kind of radio where Buck Owens sat comfortably between The Beatles and Otis Redding.

In recent times there has been some criticism of Yoakam to the effect that he had changed too much, but the body of work here shows a remarkable consistency and ever present intelligence. He has encompassed bare bones acoustic music, bluegrass, r’n’ b, hard country, soundtrack music and rock and held it all together with a voice that could never really be anything other than country.

Then there is his writing, which is considered, thoughtful and direct – elements that are essential to all the best writers in country music. You feel affinity with the subjects of these songs; invariably, they tell a story that seems real and true.

Dwight Yoakam is a master of his art and this collection is a prime example of what good country music is and should be. Accept no substitutes.