I have just discovered that Hayseed Dixie are playing Exeter University on April 25th. Looks like two aging rockgrass fans will be joining the student masses and bopping the night away.
Hayseed Dixie are: Barley Scotch - singer, guitar & fiddle; Don Wayne Reno - banjo;Dale Reno - mandolin; Jason D. Smith - bass and originally started as a tribute band to AC/DC playing their covers in a Blugrass style. In more recent times they have released much more original material notably on their latest album A Hot Piece of Grass.
Promoting themselves as hard drinking, womanising Appalachian small-town hicks, however, does not disguise the fact that they are all accomplished musicians with a good musical pedigree. Don Reno, father to Don Wayne and Dale Reno recorded the classic Dueling Banjos from the 1973 Burt Reynolds flim Deliverence, releasing it with Arthur Smith, it's composer, in 1983. Don Reno is revered as legendary in American bluegrass history for his improvisations, technical skills and good-humored personality.
Granted some of the subject matter of their original material leaves nothing to the imagination as on I Wish I Was You So I Could F**k me, but other tracks such as Kirby Hill and I Married the Moonshiner's Daughter amuse and hint of a lifestyle still found in remoter parts of the hill country.
Listen to them if you dare, once you see past their obsession with liquor and bodily functions, you might even enjoy their music!
A good video interview of them can be seen here : http://www.cookingvinyl.com/ (although you will have to navigate to almost the bottom of the page).
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