Hayseed Dixie
Let There Be Rockgrass

THE REVIEW

Hayseed Dixie is an American quartet that plays bluegrass music. This involves mandolins, acoustic guitars, banjo, violin, and so on, but their eccentric, ingenious specificity lies in the fact that these quirky madmen's repertoire consists largely of hard rock covers!

They debuted in 2001 with an album of AC-DC covers only, while their third album in 2004 fully celebrated the music of Kiss. All their other works (not a few, since they release one every year, tirelessly) have ruthlessly plundered big, less big, or huge names in tough music (no one is spared: Led Zeppelin, Who, Aerosmith, Darkness, Black Sabbath, Van Halen, Sex Pistols, Rolling Stones…), although always mixed, albeit in varying proportions from time to time, with their own compositions. In fact, there was also an album completely of originals in 2008, so unique in their portfolio that they titled it “No Covers.”

The work in question is their fourth, dated 2004, and it openly mimics, both in the title and in the live snapshot of the cover photo, a historic AC-DC album. This band is indeed well represented on the tracklist with the re-proposal of five of their pieces, three live ones already appeared on their debut record plus two new studio entries. The rest features devilish bluegrass versions of cult items like “Fat Bottomed Girls” by Queen (hearing the famous a cappella chorus rendered with an indomitable Texan accent is at least a shocking experience), “Ace of Spades” by Motorhead, “Walk This Way” by Aerosmith which, with mandolins pounding instead of Joe Perry's big guitar, is something to behold, “Feel Like Making Love” by Bad Company, and so on. A couple of songs, in conclusion, are their own creations and make quite an odd impression, completely unknown as they are among all those acoustic guitar, violin, or mandolin riffs, so familiar to those who commonly chew on rock music.

All four musicians are extremely brilliant, endowed with the agility and precision indispensable for bringing out the best in such a fast and technical genre as bluegrass. Their faces bristling with surplus hair and their bodies, swollen with feasting and undoubtedly unhealthy drinking, ultimately inspire far more awe than the much louder and posturing performers to whom they are inspired.

It is clear that approaching such a derivative and niche group does not give rise to particular musical enthusiasms, much less to forward strides in terms of artistic framework and cultural importance… The enjoyment of these Hayseed Dixie remains an original divertissement, unusual and peculiar, a meeting between faraway worlds in improbable yet real balance, an oddity flavored with virtuosity and mischievous creativity.