Is there really such a thing as a hillbilly band covering rock classics? You betcha. They are called Hayseed Dixie and they play Rockgrass.
Barley Scotch is on lead vocals, fiddle and guitar. The Reverend Don-Wayne Reno is on banjo, Deacon Dale Reno is on mandolin and guitar and Jake ‘Bakesnake’ Byers is on acoustic bass. Hayseed Dixie are an awesome live band, who have, to date, released 9 albums. The latest, ‘Killer Grass’ was released in 2010. A live DVD entitled ‘No Sleep ‘til Liverpool’ is also available.
Songs by artists such as Kiss, Outkast, Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith get the Rockgrass treatment, but the band play original songs too. - numbers such as ‘Moonshiner’s Daughter’, ‘Kirby Hill’ and ‘Blind Beggar Breakdown’ raise the roof at live shows. Hayseed Dixie songs cover the four key elements of any song worth playing; - Drinkin’, Cheatin’, Killin’ and Hell! - The band also recorded an album of rocked-up bluegrass classics, called ‘*Choose Your Own Title’ using the name The Kerosene Brothers.
Brothers Dale Reno and Don—Wayne Reno are the sons of bluegrass maestro Don Reno, who wrote many hits, including ‘Dueling Banjos’, and the band even once played at a house-warming party for AC/DC bass player Cliff Williams.
Beware of instrumental cover tracks mis-tagged as ‘Hayseed Dixie’! (often from the ‘Pickin’ On…’ series of albums.)… as Barley Scotch has said, “If a song’s got word’s we’ll sing ‘em!” - A full list of albums and tracks can be found at the band’s website.
