Hayseed Dixie started out as an Appalachian style tribute to AC/DC, after John Wheeler and Mike Daly had a drunken epiphany that the ‘Lost Highway’ of Hank Williams and the ‘Highway to Hell’ of Bon Scott were indeed, the same identical stretch of tarmac.
Playing traditional instruments, such as fiddle, mandolin and banjo in a rock n roll style, they called their unique bluegrass/rock mash up ‘Rockgrass’, and hit the scene in 2001 with an AC/DC tribute album which reinvented the classic heavy metal songs as Hillybilly tunes:
“Man! It’s just great! All our best songs done hillbilly! This record is hilarious!” – Brian Johnson, AC/DC
They followed this with 2002’s ‘A Hillbilly Tribute to Mountain Love’, which gave the same bluegrass treatment to assorted hard rock songs. ‘Kiss My Grass: A Hillbilly Tribute to Kiss’ came a year later:
“This is great! I can’t wait to get the royalty check!” – Gene Simmons, KISS
Hayseed Dixie have released 16 albums since 2001, consisting of both original material and re-interpretations, selling a combined total of over 750,000 physical records and countless digitally shared (legally and illegally) copies.
“I enjoyed this and… on further investigation… it’s not good… it’s fabulous!” – Brian May, Queen
Their latest album ‘Blast From the Grassed’, contains moonshine-inspired re-imaginations of guilty-pleasures songs from the Golden Age of Pop-Rock, including ‘Staying Alive’, ‘Tainted Love’ and ‘Dancing Queen’!
At a live show, you can also enjoy hilarious hillbilly deliverances of rock classics such as ‘Ace Of Spades’, ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ and ‘Eye of The Tiger’, admire country music favourites like ‘Foggy Mountain Breakdown’ and ‘Duellin’ Banjos’, and weep at the poignancy of the band’s own compositions.
Hayseed Dixie will be at The Apex on Monday 8 November at 8pm, see www.theapex.co.uk or ring 01284 758 000 for more information or to book tickets.
