Band bio

Hayseed Dixie

 

The liner notes from the first Hayseed Dixie album, "A Hillbilly Tribute To AC/DC," give us the story from the beginning:

"From the fertile valley of Deer Lick Holler, deep in the heart of Appalachia, comes a sound that is old yet new. In an area completely isolated from outside cultural and musical influence, this band of acoustic musicians grew up playing the traditional music of their forefathers. Then, as fate would have it, one crisp fall afternoon, a stranger passed through the holler. Well, he almost made it through. Unfortunately for him, but fortunately for appreciators of great music worldwide, the stranger crashed his car into a stately old oak tree at Devil's Elbow Curve. Sadly, the stranger expired, but his legacy lives on. For under the back seat of his car, the boys found some old black vinyl records as they went through his belongings looking for identification. All they had to listen to them on was an old Edison Victrola that only played at 78 R.P.M., but the boys all agreed it was some mighty fine country music. So, in memory of the stranger who had perished the boys set about learning these songs . . . "

The records in the car, of course, were by the band AC/DC. And the boys recorded an album of the songs in their own mountain / bluegrass style - with fiddle, mandolin, banjo and such. As singer, guitar & fiddle player Barley Scotch says:

"Yeah . . . so when we was first listening to those records . . . I mean, it became REVEALED to me - that the Lost Highway of Brother Hank Williams and that Highway to Hell them boys was singing about . . . well, I KNEW: they're the same damn road!"

The band performed over 300 live dates from 2001 through the end of 2003, sold over 200,000 copies of the album worldwide, and appeared on every major morning radio show in the US and Australia. Many people began asking Barley Scotch - "What's next?"

Feeling the need to plough some fresh fertile fields, the boys began to focus on getting to Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland . . . hell, Europe as well . . . in 2004. Thus, August 2, 2004 saw the release of "Let There Be Rockgrass" in the UK and Europe. And the first UK tour took place, and despite the fact that people in the UK drive on the wrong side of the road, it was a greater success than anyone could have imagined. As fate would have it, the folks on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean liked drinking, cheating, killing and hell almost as much as the folks from Appalachia. The full spectrum of hell was raised. Rockgrass was now an international phenomena. The band played over 200 dates in the UK and Europe in 2005 and 2006.

As February, 2008 sees the release of a new album, appropriately titled "No Covers," and a new world tour as well, Barley Scotch says, "We ain't even started drinking yet. We've just been on a recon mission so far. Now we know where the party people around the world are, and we're coming back to close the deal." A promise, no doubt.