Yoakam Leaps Musical Fences in Benefit for L.A. Mission

Dwight Yoakam has always refused to be corralled by mainstream country’s conservatism, but his adherence to the genre’s roots is as conspicuous as his ever-present Stetson hat.

It’s that tantalizing tension that makes him one of country’s most compelling stars. Yoakam’s benefit concert for the Los Angeles Mission at Billboard Live on Sunday found the honky-tonk maverick crossing musical borders with impunity, this time by playing fast and loose with the holiday song book and some other well-chosen songs.

Yoakam’s greatest strength as an interpretive artist is his fearlessness: He’s not afraid to link up seemingly disparate styles just to see what result they’ll produce. Thus, “Silver Bells,” that most staid of holiday sing-alongs, became a hopped-up norten~o number; “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” was transformed into a funky Memphis soul showcase for Yoakam’s horn section; and “Here Comes Santa Claus” sashayed to a bossa-nova beat.

Yoakam then proceeded to strip the sentimentality from “The Christmas Song” by turning it into finger-popping swing. Yoakam ran his secular material through the same spin cycle: The Clash’s “Train in Vain” became straight-up bluegrass, and Roy Orbison’s “Claudette” was recast as a honky-tonk stroll.

Yoakam didn’t get to any older original material until the encore, when he proceeded to blow out the gaskets with a half-hour of crowd-pleasers, all of which were delivered with intensity and panache--no mean feat, considering that this was Yoakam’s only live show of the year.