If There Was a Way

Dwight Yoakam's fourth studio album was his most muscular yet. Alongside the overtly rocking cuts, his honky-tonkers also kicked harder than anywhere in his catalog; on top of all this, he gave his loosest, most assured-sounding vocal performances to date. That he cowrote one of the disc's biggest singles, "It Only Hurts When I Cry," with Roger Miller makes perfect sense; Yoakam and Miller shared an ambivalently loving attitude toward the country-music establishment. Yoakam's insistence on going his own way would lead to even more indelible long-players, but If There Was a Way remains among his most impressive. --Rickey Wright