Reviews By Mike Bond
HAYSEED DIXIE - NO COVERS
COOKING VINYL

TRACKLISTING
Bouncing Betty Boogie
Set Myself On Fire
When Washington Comes Around
Born To Die In France
Stephanie Comes To Me Secretly
Stonewall Hicks
Everybody Knows
Gonna Be Alright
You've Got Me All Wrong Baby
Trickle Down
Last Days Coming
Donkeys In Morocco
Frustration
That's It I Quit

Whilst an unmistakably superb live experience and an initially funny idea, Hayseed Dixie are a band for whom the joke is now wearing very thin to say the least.  Making their name as a band putting a bluegrass spin on their favourite songs, Hayseed Dixie have for their eighth album ditched the comedy cover versions in favour of release a record of self penned originals.

Despite the slight change in direction, NO COVERS is still a record from Hayseed Dixie that feels steeped in novelty and tongue in the cheek parody, the band seemingly unable to strike a note without a cheeky wink to the camera and an air of the ridiculous.  Songs like BOUNCING BETTY BOOGIE and SET MYSELF ON FIRE find Hayseed Dixie indulging in their trademark duelling banjos, bluesgrass guitar shuffles and deep south vocalising.

HAYSEED DIXIE - NO COVERS

Of the few minor highlights here, WHEN WASHINGTON COMES AROUND is a surprisingly impressive pop song that finds the band briefly ditching the comedic affectations and delivery for a straight up slice of alt country grunge that almost warms you to their cause.  Whilst the upbeat YOU'VE GOT ME ALL WRONG BABY and LAST DAYS COMING are spirited calls to arms that at the very least point towards the raucous spirit of the live shows, although the bands decision to sound like a watered down version of the Dropkick Murphys is slightly questionable.
On the whole, another predictable and frankly dull sounding aside from Hayseed Dixie, NO COVERS whilst admirable for the bands decision to at long last debut their own material ultimately finds Hayseed Dixie still banging out the same old clichés and winks to the camera, a joke that grew tired and old long ago.

BIOGRAPHY
The liner notes from the first Hayseed Dixie album, "A Hillbilly Tribute To AC/DC," give us the story from the beginning:
"From the fertile valley of Deer Lick Holler, deep in the heart of Appalachia, comes a sound that is old yet new. In an area completely isolated from outside cultural and musical influence, this band of acoustic musicians grew up playing the traditional music of their forefathers. Then, as fate would have it, one crisp fall afternoon, a stranger passed through the holler. Well, he almost made it through. Unfortunately for him, but fortunately for appreciators of great music worldwide, the stranger crashed his car into a stately old oak tree at Devil's Elbow Curve. Sadly, the stranger expired, but his legacy lives on. For under the back seat of his car, the boys found some old black vinyl records as they went through his belongings looking for identification. All they had to listen to them on was an old Edison Victrola that only played at 78 R.P.M., but the boys all agreed it was some mighty fine country music. So, in memory of the stranger who had perished the boys set about learning these songs . . . "
The records in the car, of course, were by the band AC/DC. And the boys recorded an album of the songs in their own mountain / bluegrass style - with fiddle, mandolin, banjo and such. As singer, guitar & fiddle player Barley Scotch says:
"Yeah . . . so when we was first listening to those records . . . I mean, it became REVEALED to me - that the Lost Highway of Brother Hank Williams and that Highway to Hell them boys was singing about . . . well, I KNEW: they're the same damn road!
The band performed over 300 live dates from 2001 through the end of 2003, sold over 200,000 copies of the album worldwide, and appeared on every major morning radio show in the US and Australia. Many people began asking Barley Scotch - "What's next?"
Reverend Don Wayne Reno - Banjo
Deacon Dale Reno - Mandolin
Feeling the need to plough some fresh fertile fields, the boys began to focus on getting to Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland . . . hell, Europe as well . . . in 2004. Thus, August 2, 2004 saw the release of "Let There Be Rockgrass" in the UK and Europe. And the first UK tour took place, and despite the fact that people in the UK drive on the wrong side of the road, it was a greater success than anyone could have imagined. As fate would have it, the folks on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean liked drinking, cheating, killing and hell almost as much as the folks from Appalachia. The full spectrum of hell was raised. Rockgrass was now an international phenomena. The band played over 200 dates in the UK and Europe in 2005 and 2006.
As April 9, 2007 sees the release of a new album, appropriately titled “Weapons of Grass Destruction,” and a new world tour as well, Barley Scotch says, "We ain't even started drinking yet. We've just been on a recon mission so far. Now we know where the party people around the world are, and we're coming back to close the deal." A promise, no doubt.
Appalachian hell-raisers Hayseed Dixie will be releasing two download only tracks, I DON'T FEEL LIKE DANCING and HOLIDAYS IN THE SUN on Monday 12th March.  Both tracks are taking from the band's forthcoming new album, WEAPONS OF GRASS DESTRUCTION (released 9th April), which features Hayseed's own material, alongside their unique interpretations of songs by the likes of Judas Priest, Status Quo and Cliff Richard, amongst others.
Below, Barley Scotch explains why the band chose to Dixie-ize these well known songs:
I DON'T FEEL LIKE DANCIN': The band heard Jeremy Vine play this song in November and thought it sounded like the Bee Gees and Elton John getting together and singing a song about unrequited love for George Michael.  Turns out Elton co-wrote the song, so maybe that's exactly what it is.  Our version was aimed more at the guitar player from The Donnas or maybe Lily Allen, but we like women...
HOLIDAYS IN THE SUN: I miss the Cold War.  I think we all do really.  At least back then everyone had a clear and distinct picture of who was trying to whoop who.  The Berlin wall was the concrete (literally) symbol of this certainty, and this song sums up the longing for those times of old quite perfectly.

LINKS
Hayseed Dixie>www.hayseed-dixie.com

Review date: January 2008