Kentucky-bred singer and song-writer Dwight Yoakam makes his Los Angeles country music get up and go. As he boasts on the Johnny Horton cover that launches Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc., Yoakam's a honky-tonk man; it's the only thing that keeps him hanging on. He doesn't cut up much about it, but his dedication to hard country has yielded a focused debut that is lively enough to overcome his own solemnity.

Yoakam isn't exactly the purist he sometimes resembles. His 1984 Oak Records independent EP – all six tracks appear intact here – grew out of his work in Los Angeles's roots-rock club scene, and some of the revisionist attitudes he encountered there rubbed off. The songs from the EP, especially his "It Won't Hurt" and "South of Cincinnati," are accomplished, history-minded winners put across by Yoakam with a shivering Appalachian accent. His band is purposely raw, but if you doubt its ability to cook, just try Yoakam's version of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire," where his voice lassoes the heat that rises off Jeff Donavan's drums.

Three of the four new cuts expand on what's good about the EP tracks because they're more relaxed. Yoakam taps the great country standard "Heartaches by the Number" and, with a deep, steady tone, leans into the pain in all the right places. His own "Guitars, Cadillacs" works its fiddles and drum shuffles into an outgoing stride. Only "Bury Me," a duet with Lone Justice's usually terrific Maria McKee, offers cowpoke hiccups – a syndrome Yoakam should avoid as if it were a string section; it's a far graver threat to his authenticity and future growth than any cool Nashville sheen. (RS 475)

JAMES HUNTER