Hayseed Dixie bring banjo-fuelled rock to Northampton

Free Your Mind and Your Grass Will Follow is the band’s 15th studio album and sees them holding up their own idiosyncratic mirror to an unsettled and unsettling 2017 in a collection of both original songs and reinterpretations of R&B and soul classics.

The album poses questions including “Why do we still believe there is such a thing as ‘race’?”, “Are concepts like ‘nations’ and ‘nationality’ really useful to people who lay bricks or perform kidney stone removal surgeries?” and “Why does every song always sound better with a banjo in the mix?”.

Hayseed Dixie were formed in 2000 John Wheeler and Mike Daly. Having spent the previous few years touring around with assorted country hat-acts, Wheeler had assembled a pile of recording equipment and also heroic collection of Bourbon and Scotch. Ten classic AC/DC songs were suddenly re-imagined and recorded forever anew, entirely reinvented as Appalachian Mountain hillbilly rave-ups.

They have released 14 albums and played more than 1,200 shows in the intervening 17 years. Doors 7.30pm. Tickets £18.50.