Kiss My Grass - A Hillbilly Tribute To KISS
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, "
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.
While the gimmick aspect of Hayseed Dixie is overpowering -- you can't forget, this is bluegrass music -- I'm convinced this band has talent and should be recognized for their achievement. Previously, Hayseed Dixie paid tribute to AC/DC. While I would like to hear their take on other legendary bands -- I would only mention Black Sabbath or Rush as being present on my top 10 list -- I found this release refreshing and, frankly, a good shift from the other material I've been spinning lately.