'I wanted to get back to that special thing that I found in music when I was 15, 16 years old that feeling I had when I started to perform early on, as well as when I was in my 20s and put a band together in LA. Tell me more about the 'joy' you mentioned, the need to make 'joyful noise' - which I don't think sounds flippant at all. Yoakam has always been a complex customer, equal parts rogue and hopeless romantic, and his uncanny ability to jump from heartstring-tugging balladeer to butt-kicking rave-up king makes 3 Pears a continually surprising experience. Since 2002, Yoakam has worked without his longtime producer/guitarist and bandleader Pete Anderson, and 3 Pears sees the singer flying solo or collaborating spiritedly with Kid Rock (Take Hold Of My Hand) and another musical quick-change artist, Beck (A Heart Like Mine, Missing Heart).

'That sounds incredibly flippant, but it's actually the most profound thing I could acknowledge as the motivation for making music. joy,' Yoakam says, ruminating on his artistic agenda of late. Coming off something of a self-imposed sabbatical - it's the singer's first set of originals since 2005's Blame The Vain - it's the sound of an artist rediscovering and reaffirming his commitment to music.

Yoakam seems to thrive on pitching curve balls, and his adventurous and deeply introspective new album, 3 Pears, might be his most rewarding effort yet.

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