New album from Hayseed Dixie: "Hair Down To My Grass"
Album release: "Hair Down To My Grass" by Hayseed Dixie
Release date: 12 January 2015
Listen / more information: on official Hayseed Dixie website
“I enjoyed this and...on further investigation...it’s not good...it’s fabulous!” - Brian May, Queen
“This is great! I can’t wait to get the royalty check!” - Gene Simmons, KISS
Hayseed Dixie began in the summer of 2000 in the fertile valley of Deer Lick Holler, deep in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains of East Tennessee USA. In this area which was completely isolated from outside cultural and musical influence, the boys grew up playing the traditional music of their forefathers on banjo, fiddle, mandolin, acoustic guitar and acoustic bass.
All of this changed abruptly one afternoon when a stranger crashed his car into a stately old oak tree on a particularly dangerous curve, which the locals refer to as the “Devil’s Elbow.” Sadly, the stranger expired, but his legacy lives on! As the boys searched through the wreckage looking for identification, they discovered several vinyl AC/DC albums. After playing these back on an old Edison 78rpm Victrola, everyone agreed that the songs were rather fine country music . . . and that the Lost Highway of Brother Hank Williams and this Highway To Hell of AC/DC were indeed the exact same road! And the rest is now enshrined in musical history.
Hayseed Dixie are now the acknowledged creators of the musical genre, Rockgrass. They have released 15 albums since 2001, consisting of both original material and reinterpretations of previously rendered songs, selling a combined total of over 500,000 copies. They have also performed over 1,000 live shows in 31 different countries.
More recently, Hayseed Dixie have been exploring the inspired catalogue of the stadium rock of the 1970’s and 1980’s. This interest began during a 2014 Spring tour of Germany, in which the band heard the song “Eye of the Tiger” 6 different times on 6 different German radio stations in a single day while driving between Dortmund and Frankfurt. “As the seed is planted, so the tree shall grow” - this very quote appears on the inner sleeve of the 1980 album “Escape” by Journey. How true indeed.
“Hair Down To My Grass” is the newest release from Hayseed Dixie and was recorded in the Mountains of Cumbria in a converted barn.
Hayseed Dixie are:
- John Wheeler aka Barley Scotch - guitar, fiddle and singing
- Jake Bakesnake Byers - bass and harmonizing
- Hippy Joe Hymas - mandolin and harmonizing
- Johnny Butten - banjo and harmonising
Tracklisting
- Don’t Stop Believing
- Eye Of The Tiger
- The Final Countdown
- We’re Not Gonna Take It
- Summer Of 69
- Pour Some Sugar On Me
- Dude Looks Like A Lady
- Livin’ On A Prayer
- Wind De Veränderung
- We Are The Road Crew
- Comfortably Numb
- Don’t Fear The Reaper
Press quotes
“The Hayseed’s berserk hedonism is indeed refreshing! ***** (5 Stars)” - The Guardian
“Hayseed Dixie highlights the worth of mountain music to all things rock: energy, dirt-punk rhythm, careening harmonies and the fundamental right of all no-good fuck-ups to raise hell come Saturday night.” - Uncut
“Superlative musicians with a deep love and understanding of the dynamics of both modern rock and ancient hillbilly music” - The Times
Tour dates
For the most up to date information on tour dates, please visit the Hayseed Dixie website.