Dwight Yoakam returns to Golden State Theatre.

The record 3 Pears marked the return of vintage Dwight Yoakam, an anti-country country star who was proud to once be hailed as “too country for rock and too rock for country.”

The stellar 2012 effort features reverberated honky-tonk throwbacks, including “A Heart Like Mine,” as well as playful quirkiness like “Waterfall,” which advises listeners to give a jellyfish “a single peanut butter kiss or squeeze.”

But there’s deeper meaning there, as with everything Yoakam pens.

“[‘Waterfall’s] chords and bridge deal with the loss of innocence,” he explains. “Then there’s the hope that innocence can overcome loss and find its way back and not become too esoteric.”

Yoakam says 3 Pears brought him full circle, back to when he started out on alternative/college radio in the early ’80s.

“I was doing neo honky-tonk music, and it had a certain rock attitude,” he says.

On the L.A. club circuit in the early ’80s, Yoakam’s twangy honky-tonk-meets-Bakersfield sound oozed with an untamed rock and roll energy that fit well on punk bills with John Doe and X and the Dils. There were also early tours with outfits like post-punk rockers Hüsker Dü.

What ultimately was dubbed “cowpunk” has yielded more than 25 million records sold, over a dozen Grammy nods – he won two – and an Americana Music Award for artist of the year.

Last April, Yoakam released Second Hand Heart, his 19th studio record and one of the best albums of his career. It’s a conscious throwback to the Kentucky native’s masterful debutGuitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.; the 10-song, 45-minute record flies by at a dizzying velocity that leaves you hungry for more.

The rip-roaring cover of the revered traditional “Man of Constant Sorrow” gets a makeover made of headlong rhythms and fuming electric guitar distortion. On the original “Believe,” Yoakam sings, “Regret is all we ever learn to see,” alongside ringing 12-strings.

But the 59-year-old star isn’t playing it safe or fearful of regret. The day after Yoakam first played the new batch of songs from Second Hand Heart live, he described the experience to the Los Angeles Times: “It was like coming down the backside of Coldwater Canyon with no brakes,” he said.

DWIGHT YOAKAM and SAM OUTLAW 8pm Wednesday, Jan. 20. Golden State Theatre, 417 Alvarado St., Monterey. $44-$98; $207 VIP experience. 649-1070, www.goldenstatetheatre.com