On Dwight Sings Buck, Dwight Yoakam pays tribute to his Bakersfield-sound forebear Buck Owens. File this one under obvious, sure. But while you're at it, file it under amazing, near-perfect and a whole damn lot of fun. That's as it should be -- Buck Owens, who died last year at age 76, put out some of the catchiest country songs ever recorded. From the get-go, with "My Heart Skips a Beat," it's clear that Dwight isn't going to reinvent this wheel, he's just going to let it roll on as Buck would have done. The rolling, swinging, rollicking good-time honky-tonk material on this album ranges from very good to great, so we'll just say that our picks for best of the best are "Foolin' Around," "I Don't Care (Just as Long as You Love Me)," "Down On the Corner of Love" and "Under Your Spell Again." And there's not a thing wrong with Dwight's "Act Naturally" either, though we'd have been horrified if there were. We might have liked this album just as much without the slower songs -- "Only You" is heartbreakingly beautiful, but it's also an unwelcome punch in the gut as track number four, coming between slabs of joy "I Don't Care" and "Act Naturally." We'd trade that one and "Close Up the Honky Tonks" for notable omissions, "I've Got a Tiger by the Tail" and "Streets of Bakersfield" (which Dwight did record as a chart-topping duet with Buck in 1988). But those are just two of many, many more songs Dwight would ace if he attempted them. Dwight Sings Buck may be just out, but we're already asking about Dwight Sings Buck, vol. II.

-- Josh Robertson