Record Label: Cooking Vinyl
Genre: Bluegrass
Band Link: link
Buy on Amazon.com link

There are people out there who love the irony of cover song clashing with a band’s style. Me First doing a punk version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow? Hilarious! The Dan Band cussing during corny 80s songs? Quick, hold my sides – they’re splitting!

Since I actually like good music and don’t think a bad song reinvented with irony makes it good, I’m not a big fan of bands like Hayseed Dixie, who play various rock songs in a hillbilly, Appalachian bluegrass style.

They’re talented – you have to be, to play bluegrass well – and I find their own material and arrangements of traditional songs better than some lame cover of Holidays in the Sun or Breaking the Law. But all the songs here suffer from a lack of energetic raucousness that you’d imagine should be part of their modus operandi. Impressive picking aside, the album is a drab affair and even fans of novelty covers will likely be disappointed.

Bottom Line:
Notable Tracks: Their original Hungover Brokedown. And their cover of Paint It Black is admittedly good.
Overall Rating: