Hayseed Dixie, live at The Village, Dublin
A good American is one with a sense of humour and at least a shred of irony. What great hillbilly fun: a quartet of drinking guys in cut-off overalls having way too much fun on stage. Noodles of talent. And everyone invited back to the hotel for pool and rack assessments (for the next album cover, so they say). Sticking mostly to AC/DC covers in a very tight 1.5 hour set, with a lot of tongue in cheek preacherisms (
It was revealed to me… my path was clear… I want to testify… or maybe that’s the hooch in them talking) and some absolutely ace banjo playing (Don Wayne Reno, you are a legend). Personal favourites include
Big Bottom (The looser the waistband, the deeper the quicksand) and
Fat Bottom Girls and
The Ace of Spades. You just can’t appreciate these songs until you’ve heard them rockgrass style. Also, what is unarguably the best cover of
Walk This Way ever performed. All part of music about drinking, cheating, killing and going to hell. The insight of the night was the prevalence of lunch songs, if you know how to look for them. A band for whom performing and drinking time are the same thing. Best covers band of the year.
