Hayseed Dixie: Killer Grass (Cooking Vinyl)

You might have thought the Hayseed Dixie joke -- a band from the fanciful Deer Lick Holler playing bluegrass treatments of (mostly) rock songs, interviewed here -- would have run its course by now. But eight albums in they are still going.

And of course it is still kinda fun: here they knock off Queen (Bohemian Rhapsody), Black Sabbath, Mozart, The Prodigy and others (as well as seven originals which includes a song about an alien abduction probe). The "theme" is loosely songs about death.

Lots of material for radio programmers to have fun with and to drink beer to (then crush the cans on your head I guess).

Of perhaps greater interest is the accompanying DVD which includes six video clips for album tracks (see below), a funny but slightly unhelpful tutorial on how to play "rockgrass" (can't quite see the finger placements on a banjo or acoustic bass guitar), another entitled How to Hide The Body (digging the hole knee deep is the key so animals don't come round, and have plenty of lime) and others similarly odd tutorials.

There are also a bunch of multi-track files of the album you can remix in your computer using ProTools or Garage Band etc, if you have that facility -- and are keen enough.

You have to give Hayseed Dixie one thing: they offer great value and even if the joke is wearing a little thin you'd still want to see them rip the joint doing these songs live.