A great show of redneck reworkings

Hayseed Dixie, Lemon Grove, Wednesday 29th September, 7.30pm

By Jenna Richards

Boasting they have consumed approximately 78,000 bottles of beer since they first stepped on stage, hillbilly hellrasiers Hayseed Dixie certainly didn’t appear to be suffering any adverse affects when the appeared at the Lemon Grove in Exeter.

The band, who say they have been drinking 48 bottles of beer each per show, have been on the road for almost 10 years. But although they may pretend to be uneducated yokels with an affection for liquor, there is no doubt they are articulate craftsmen with a high level of musicianship.

Named after rock supergroup AC/DC, Hayseed Dixie (get it?) are widely acknowledged as the creators of rockgrass.

The show features plenty of redneck reworkings with standout tracks including AC- DC’s You Shook Me All Night Long, Motorhead’s Ace Of Spades and Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody.

Classical music also go an airing with the band playing a Mozart arrangement that could have seemed cheesy, not to mention tricky. But they pulled it off with aplomb, acknowledging the one thing Hayseed Dixie and Mozart both have in common is their love of booze.

Hayseed Dixie also showcased a fair few of their own compositions, which, good as they are, covered some unsavoury subjects. The brilliant Alien Abduction Probe, complete with hugely entertaining accompanying spiel (unrepeatable in a family newspaper). The great Skinny When I Met Her preceded by a rant that made most of the female crowd and some of the men wince, plus a catchy tune about the only thing left by an ex-girlfriend entitled Poop in a Jar!

These cleverly-penned ditties brought a bit of mirth and merriment to the proceedings and despite their musical prowess made you realise that these guys don’t take it too seriously.

The whole show was interlaced with some hilarious inter-song banter including a tale of meeting Take That in Norway.

Hayseed Dixie fuse hard rock with cotton-pickin’ bluegrass into a genre that gets the crowd moving and ensures there isn’t a dry armpit in the room by the end of the night.

I’ll definitely be there the next time they are in town.