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Kiss My Grass - A Hillbilly Tribute To KISS
Hayseed Dixie
Dualtone, 2003
REVIEW BY: Paul Hanson
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 03/18/2008
What a fun release! Covering KISS songs is not new. Miscellaneous bands have taken KISS songs and made them their own – Poison's "Rock and Roll All Night" comes to mind -- but no one has ever had the courage, until this release by Hayseed Dixie, to change KISS' material into bluegrass, complete with fiddles and banjo. John Wheeler (voices, guitar, fiddle, bass), Don Wayne Reno (banjo), and Dale Reno (mandolin) have taken the KISS songs and made them their own.
The uptempo opening riff of "Calling Dr. Love" starts this release with their treatment of old-school KISS. The syncopation of the instruments is as powerful on fiddle as on electric guitar. The guitar solo in the next track, "Detroit Rock City," cements this band as beyond competent musicians. Then, diving into "Christine Sixteen," the voiceover of Wheeler talking about seeing "her come out of school that day" adds another level to this release.
Tackling more recent material with "Let's Put The X In Sex" was not a good choice. Even when sung by KISS, this song is terrible, its blatant disregard for intelligent lyrics with the "Let me by your private eye" line crossing the invisible line between tolerable bad lyrics and intolerable bad lyrics. It joins the ranks of anything by Meat Loaf (all of his material is intolerable.)
The disc recovers nicely with Hayseed Dixie’s best, "Love Gun," the track I keep coming back to.Their version of "Lick It Up" is faster than the original version and showcases some finger dexterity on the banjo. Following that track is the always silly "I Love it Loud," a song that seems out of place for Hayseed Dixie to tackle; when Wheeler sings, "Rock on, I want to be president," you can't help but smiling.
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