Bluegrass fun after a setting sun
In 2005 Hayseed Dixie played a headline set on one of the smaller stages at Guilfest. One year on they returned to Surrey to play a similar gig.
If you still aren't sure what Hayseed Dixie do, it's basically bluegrass versions of classic, and sometimes contemporary rock tracks. They're a hugely entertaining live band, and are all excellent musicians. All tracks are played at a fierce pace and the packed Ents24 stage was carried along on a wave of positive emotions. Excitement, amusement, a touch of confusion too, it's was all there.
Amongst the covers this time round were Aerosmith 'Walk This Way', Motorhead 'Ace of Spades', and Queen's 'Fat Bottomed Girls', all adopted by this bunch of farmer looking types and turned into their own collection of crowd pleasers.
They brought things up-to-date with a version of Green Day's 'Holiday', and also took the opportunity to emphasize their staying power by telling the crowd how they refused to mime on 'Top of the Pops' in 2005 and were still gong with the TV show about to bite the dust.
As the name suggests they have a few ACDC covers in their armory too. This time 'Highway to Hell' was the one left to bring the night, and day one at Guilfest on the Ents24 Stage to a close.
Hayseed Dixie are a lot of fun to watch, although once you've got the gag, which takes all of about five seconds, it can ware a bit thin. Once twenty minutes or so has passed their set gets a bit repetitive and you couldn't blame people for thinking they'd seen enough and wanted to go and watch something else.