Hayseed Dixie~A Hillbilly Rave

When John Wheeler (aka Barley Scotch) and Mike Daly ‘drank roughly enough whiskey to float a battleship from the Florida Coast over to Portugal and back’ in the summer of 2000, they were, unbeknownst to them, paving the Bourbon soaked path to the Rockgrass superpower that is Hayseed Dixie. Adding Reverend Hank Williams and Bishop Bon Scott to the their East Nashville coterie led to the first Rockgrass revolution – ten AC/DC songs ‘reinvented as Appalachian Mountain hillbilly rave-ups.’

17 years, 14 albums and 1,200 live shows later we have the pleasure of welcoming these genre defining gents to Nozstock. With a mix of originals and reimagined versions of everything from Motörhead’s Ace Of Spades to Bob Marley’s Buffalo Soldier, with Hayseed Dixie, you are guaranteed ‘high energy showmanship, loads of facial hair, an occasional flash of nipple and plenty of posing with one foot on the monitors whipping the crowd up and pulling preposterous rock god poses all combined with a wildness that’s almost punky’ (idp, Louder Than War, 2015).

Amongst the jocularity of their jamboree, there is political and social commentary and in their recently released ‘Free Your Mind…And Your Grass Will Follow’ (April 2017), their ability to fuse, transcend and conquer genre norms resonates loud and clear. Hayseed Dixie describe themselves as a ‘proper force’ that ‘most people either love, hate, or have never heard of. There isn’t really any middle ground, nor should they be.’

Are you ready to do-si-do ‘til dawn with this talented Tennessee troupe on the Orchard Stage? We certainly are!