Hayseed Dixie Album Reviews

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Let There Be Rockgrass (2004)

Let There Be Rockgrass (2004)

7

Dirty Deeds Done Dirty Cheap (live) / Fat Bottom Girls / Whole Lotta Rosie / You Shook Me All Night Long (live) / I Believe in a Thing Called Love / Ace of Spades / Detroit Rock City / Corn Liquor / Feel Like Making Love / Walk This Way / Touch Too Much / Centerfold / I'm Keeping Your Poop / Highway to Hell (live) / Will the Circle Be Unbroken (live)

Let There Be Rockgrass While I still haven't figured out whether Hayseed Dixie are "just" a novelty act or more than that, an actual band with a future and an own identity that's not only derived from the material they cover, they certainly are something special. They made their entrance with a hillbilly tribute to AC/DC - surprisingly called A Hillbilly Tribute to AC/DC -, an album that became an unforeseen success in a country where most people think it's a sin to listen to more than one kind of music in their lifetimes. Even though the band is a classic bluegrass outfit, with only the classic bluegrass instruments - banjo, mandolin, guitar, fiddle - at their disposal, it makes sense to wrap up the AC/DC-songs in these arrangements. It was basic, but fresh, and once again proof that the Australian misfits' music was undiluted rock 'n' roll that worked under each basic approach (although I don't wanna give today's pop tarts any ideas). After the success of the tribute, the band released two more, one to icons of bad taste Kiss (called A Hillbilly Tribute to Kiss) and a third one (A Hillbilly Tribute to Mountain Love) that paid tribute to a diverse batch of well-known FM-radio rock songs, ranging from The Cars' "My Best Friend's Girl," to Ted Nugent's "Cat Scratch Fever," Aerosmith's "Walk This Way" and the J. Geils Band's "Centerfold." The last two also appear on this compilation, which intends to give you an idea of what the band has been doing the past few years.

If you've always thought bluegrass is the devil's music, it's not likely you're gonna dig this release, even though the band stays quite faithful to the basic rock songs they chose to interpret. There's not much room for subtlety, but these cuts weren't exactly refined material to begin. There are five AC/DC songs (three of 'em live) and they work really well, it's a blast to hear them plucking their way throughout the pop metal of "Touch Too Much" and the primal rock of "Whole Lotta Rosie" with thick Southern accents and a hillbilly swagger (for lack of a better term). The playing and singing (especially the harmonizing) is excellent throughout the album - some dazzling solos pop up here and there - and since they're not about deconstructing these songs or completely demolishing them and then trying to fit the pieces back together, the question whether you'll like these songs often depends on whether you liked the originals to begin with. Personally, I never liked The Darkness' "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" or J. Geils' atrocious 80's turd "Centerfold," so these versions leave me completely uninterested, and likewise, I was charmed (believe it or not) by their swaying takes on Kiss's "Detroit Rock City," Bad Company's refined paean "Feel Like Making Love" and Aerosmith's "Walk This Way." I couldn't really care about a 718th version of "Ace of Spades," but to compensate for this predictable one, you get a truly hilarious/tasteless original "I'm Keeping Your Poop," which is exactly about what it suggests: a guy who keeps the poop of his former love in a jar until she returns. All this turns Let There Be Rockgrass into an enjoyable affair, one of those Hey, you gotta hear THIS!"-albums, but once you've heard it, you're most likely to shrug your shoulders and return to the original versions. So, it's up to them whether they want to be remembered as a bunch of originals that got their fame because of a few tributes and moved on from there, or a bunch of hillbillies that didn't have much to offer besides their one gimmick.