mrjonthehat: HAYSEED DIXIE / LOOPALLU FEST.

They Call It ROCKGRASS !

(pics : Jaunty and Hayseed-Dixie.com)

You will LOVE this band !

I guarantee it. It doesn't matter what your taste in music is, you will dance, and you will applaud, and you will agree that there is no other band like Hayseed Dixie.

First of all, they CAN PLAY ! ! Oh Boy ! The sons (Don Wayne and Deacon Dale Reno), of the man who wrote "Duelling Banjos" (Yup! That song from that film...more of which later), on Banjo and Mandolin, a fantastic Bass player (Jason) and one of the greatest, funniest frontmen, (John, aka Barley Scotch), who is a hot fiddle and guitar player, as well as one of the finest singers I ever heard.

Second thing about this band is that they love the music they play...Covering RAWK classics, in a bluegrass (OR ROCKGRASS, if you will) style may sound cheesy...But SHUT UP AND LISTEN ! ! In many, many cases, these versions ROCK MORE than the originals ! (Green Day's "Holiday" and J Geils Band's "Centerfold" spring to mind)....

and what else, they are a great bunch of hard drinking, fun loving, friendly guys, who seem thrilled to be on the road to superstardom...

Inverness, Raigmore Motel

OK, I liked the idea from the start, when I heard they were at The Renfrew Ferry, back in 2004. Me, Debbie and Kozmik went down, got drunk and danced about down the front like idiots. We all agreed that the show had been amazing.

A few months later, Hayseed Dixie returned to Glasgow, and sold out The Garage, we followed them up to Inverness, to a tiny motel, which was "stowed" as we say up there ...

Check Out That Setlist (and the keys, musos!)

Deacon Dale had soon established himself as a star (This band's Angus Young !) An incredibly talented, FAST mandolin player, who could take over guitar duties when Barley played fiddle. This man is a born entertainer, and Rock Star !

The sets got longer, and better, I saw them play TinthePark, Cambridge Folk Fest, and caught them on the radio and even TopOfThePops ! One of the hardest working bands in showbusiness (On at T on same day as James Brown, and winning over those lucky enough to catch their brief, tent-bound set). I knew they could top the main stage, we talked about Scottish Festivals (Wicker Man) and the Loopallu idea was mentioned...

John ~~~~(Barley Scotch)

THE LOOPALLU FEST. 2005

Billed as "Hayseed Dixie's First Annual Little Fest In The West", the Loopallu was hard-core, drunken festival going at its most extreme. The lads played The Renfrew Ferry, Glasgow, on Wednesday 21st September, (and were kind enough to welcome Debbie and me backstage afterwards for a few bevvys), Edinburgh on Thursday night, and then we all headed north, to the beautiful town of Ullapool, on the north west coast ! IN SEPTEMBER ! IN TENTS ! IN THE WIND AND RAIN !!

But it was FANTASTIC !!

Don Wayne and Deacon Reno prove they are brothers, by playing Duelling Banjos together (Quote "If you've got a young Burt Reynolds, without the moustache, you don't go for the fat guy")

Lead Mandolin

Jason and Don Wayne

The entire population of Ullapool, plus a thousand or more visitors got extremely drunk, and danced, and generally fell about in the mud, and had an incredible time, and there was a power cut, and still we sat, in the dark, in the pub, in the afternoon...and The Undertones, and Shooglenifty were brilliant...