Introduction
Dwight Yoakam’s Roots and Roads: The Storytelling Power of “Readin’, Rightin’, Rt. 23”
Among the many songs in Dwight Yoakam’s remarkable catalog, Dwight Yoakam – Readin’, Rightin’, Rt. 23 offers a particularly vivid window into the themes that defined his artistry: the push and pull between rural roots and the wider world, the tension between tradition and change, and the way music can give voice to the struggles of everyday people. Released on his 1986 debut album Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc., this song is more than just a piece of country music—it’s a small portrait of American life, sung with the kind of authenticity that only someone who lived those realities could deliver.
The title itself—“Readin’, Rightin’, Rt. 23”—is a play on the old saying about the “three R’s” of basic education: reading, writing, and arithmetic. But Yoakam cleverly adds “Route 23,” the highway that ran through Kentucky and Appalachia, carrying countless young men and women away from coal-mining towns toward factory jobs in the industrial Midwest. The lyric becomes both personal and universal: a story of leaving home, chasing opportunity, and reckoning with the costs of migration. For those who grew up in rural America, this wasn’t just a song; it was a reflection of lived experience.
Musically, the track bears all the hallmarks of Yoakam’s Bakersfield-inspired sound. The sharp twang of the guitar, the steady rhythm, and his unmistakable vocal phrasing ground the song in honky-tonk tradition while still feeling contemporary for its time. There’s a looseness in the performance, a sense that Yoakam is not just delivering words but channeling memories, both his own and those of the community he grew up in.
What makes Dwight Yoakam – Readin’, Rightin’, Rt. 23 endure is its honesty. It doesn’t glamorize the struggles of working-class life, nor does it pity them. Instead, it acknowledges the pride, the hardship, and the bittersweet reality of leaving one world behind to try and build another. For older listeners, the song may resonate as a reminder of their own families’ journeys; for younger audiences, it provides a glimpse into the history and culture that shaped modern country music.
In the end, this song isn’t just about a road—it’s about the stories that travel with us, the lessons we carry, and the identities we forge along the way. Few artists could deliver that message with as much sincerity and power as Dwight Yoakam, and “Readin’, Rightin’, Rt. 23” remains a testament to his gift as a storyteller.