Aided by producer and guitarist Pete Anderson, he put a fresh spin on the honky-tonk sound of his Bakersfield hero Buck Owens to create a unique style that revitalized interest in traditional country music, as opposed to the more pop-friendly approach that dominated Nashville in the early and mid-Eighties.

However, as his star rose, Yoakam did not mince words in interviews when asked about the music industry in Nashville – such as his disdain for executives at Columbia Records after they dropped Johnny Cash from the label, among other things – and quickly gained a reputation as an opinionated outsider.

As one writer put it, "Remaining in Los Angeles distanced Yoakam from the Nashville music industry to advance his recording career through radio play, but it allowed him to develop as a live performer, to work the circuit, sharpen his chops, find his audience, and forge his own path.

[3]The result was a second album of remarkable high quality, with AllMusic noting, "Hillbilly Deluxe is proof that beyond a shadow of a doubt, Dwight Yoakam's Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.

In the "Beyond Nashville" episode of the 2003 documentary Lost Highway, Yoakam admits the elongated opening vocal was an approximation of Buck Owens trademark singing style on songs like "I've Got a Tiger By the Tail".

As on his debut LP, Hillbilly Deluxe contains seven original songs that display a depth and maturity on par with any country music songwriter at the time, especially the ballads "Johnson’s Love" and "1,000 Miles."

"[5] McLeese contends the song "sounds like Yoakam’s version of George Jones’s classic ‘He Stopped Loving Her Today.’"[5] However, the main character in that song is finally set free from his heartbreak by his own death, but In "Johnson’s Love" there is no such deliverance, with the narrator observing: Anderson's production on the ballad is irretrievably country, as it is on the foreboding "1,000 Miles," which finds a man boarding "flight 209" and ruminating on his broken marriage.

The song's elusive lyrics are filled with self-pity and self-loathing ("I owe so much to pride, it’s true: it brought an end to me and you...") and it features Yoakam's stellar singing and unique phrasing.

Sounding wistful, joyful, and cynical all at the same time, the tune is a brilliant display of songwriting, with Yoakam using simple language to create vivid pictures of a people and a way of life with deep family roots and ‘sweet hillbilly charm."