"Brighter days are up ahead," declares Dwight Yoakam on the title track of his new album Brighter Days (Via Records/Thirty Tigers), his first release of new original material in nine years. 12 brand-new songs written/co-written by Yoakam, as well as two seemingly disparate covers of "Keep On The Sunny Side" by the Carter Family and "Bound Away" by Cake, artfully woven into the same body of work in the unmistakable style that could only be Dwight Yoakam. - At once timeless and timely, in fact downright cowpunk-tual, Yoakam self-produced Brighter Days, blending a modern reverence for the history of country music with the pioneering rock and roll spirit of California. The result creates a sense of craftsmanship and immediacy that captures the quintessential Dwight Yoakam "cool" that has separated the two-time Grammy winner from his country contemporaries since the start of his legendary career. As usual, Yoakam's lyrics throughout the album are both deceivingly effortless and poignant. Brighter Days was mixed by world-class engineer Chris Lord-Alge.