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Hayseed In Other Words... |
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Track List 1. Outta Here (Tim Carroll) 2. There Is A Light (Duane "DJ" Jarvis) 3. 98.6 Degrees (Gwil Owens/Eric Elliot) 4. Irah June (Richard "Hombres" Price) 5. Farther Along (Traditional) 6. Ring The Bell (Paul William Burch Jr.) 7. I Walk Slow (Jerry Hager) 8. Old-Time Preacher Man (Rev. Joe "Little Joe" Hatfield) 9. Too Much To Gain To Lose (Dottie Rambo) 10. When Country Singers Were Ugly (Tommy Womack) 11. Falling Off The Face Of The World (Gurf Morlix/Jeff Steele) |
(Artist Friendly Records) Nashville based
Hayseed, was born and bred in Kentucky. His given name is Christopher
Wyant, the son of a Pentecostal preacher, and was raised on Southern
Gospel music. He wound up in Nashville in 1986, after a summer trip
there with some buddies, and when he was unable to secure financial
aide to return to college, he stayed on there. He dresses in overalls
and a preacher's hat, but quotes Kahlil Gibran, Ralph
Waldo Emerson, and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His music is written with old
time, rustic country melodies, but his lyrics are planted firmly in
the modern era, tackling topics such as child custody battles and
technology. He says while he loves and favors the sound of old time
melodies, and the songs of artists like Del McCoury, Ralph Stanley and
Bill Monroe, he never worked the mines, killed anyone, or lived the
"Dust Bowl" life, and felt it would be silly to just regurgitate their
music, because he feels it would be pointless. So he looked at their
work, and found what they were doing was telling the history of what
was going on around them, so he kept the melodies, and updated
the "history." He plays no instruments, his only one being his rich
Kentucky voice which adds weight to his songs. His debut album was
released in 1998, titled melic, which is an ancient Greek
word for singing.
That being said, his stage name "Hayseed"
was at first an accidental moniker, that after a bit of thought,
became quite intentional. One of the things that grate on him most, is
pop-culture's habit of anytime they wanted to make a character appear
ignorant, they'd give them a Southern accent, the primary offenders
being the movies and TV. He sees things on that front slowly changing,
with the emergence of actors like Billy Bob Thornton, and decided he
wanted to be a part of it. So he took the usually derogatory term
"Hayseed," for his stage name, and combined it with his intellectual
and metaphysical songs to deliberately prove a point. He calls it his
attempt at "deconstruction/reconstruction."
His start in music hadn't gone too
smoothly. He wound up getting a cut on Bloodshot Records 1997 compliation
disc Nashville: The Other Side Of The Alley, with his song
"God Shaped Hole." The cut was well received, and he set about putting
together a 6 song cassette to pass around. Julian Dawson brought the
tape to Watermelon Records, who contacted him and wanted to sign him
to their label. From here things got dicey. He cut another six songs
to add to the ones on the cassette, Buddy Miller mastered them to a
CD-R and sent it to Watermelon to show them what he had. However,
somehow, it got into Watermelon's release cycle, as is, and it was too
late to pull it. Hayseed hadn't even signed a contract with them. The
CD melic was released, but Hayseed didn't get paid for it. At
the same time, Watermelon was in in talks with Sire about being
aquired, however the deal never went through and Watermelon filed for
bankruptcy. So Hayseed had, what he felt was a never completed
album that had been released, no record deal, and was never paid a
cent for it. During the bankruptcy settlements for Watermelon, Hayseed
was able to get all the unsold copies of melic, that were
sitting in a warehouse, turned over to him. However, regardless
of Hayseed's feeling that the Watermelon released version of melic was
more or less a demo, and not fully fleshed out, he was caught by
complete surprise when the album met with well deserved critical
accolades. (Vocal support on melic is provided by
Lucinda Williams and Joy Lynn White.) Right now, Hayseed is trying
to decide what to do with that warehouse full of copies of melic,
whether he will try to market them himself, or shop them to a
label for re-release.
In the meantime, Hayseed has released his
sophomore album In Other Words... This time out, Hayseed has
put down his own pen, and instead released an album of songs by other
writers and artists. This had Hayseed's fans of the stellar melic
nervous, as it was feared the songs wouldn't possibly live up to
his own. Fans of Hayseed and melic can breathe easy, In
Other Words... is an outstanding collection of songs that are
more than worthy of Hayseed's great talent, and he proves himself an
excellent interpreter of other people's songs. As on melic,
slide guitar, acoustic guitar, mandolin, fiddle and banjo are the
predominant instruments.
In Other Words... opens strongly
with the Tim Carroll penned "Outta Line," on which Hayseed provides
plaintive and aching vocals about a life he can't keep on track. He
touches on spirituality and religion a few times over the course of
the album with the uplifting, mid-tempo "There's A Light," that
includes Joy Lynn White on vocals, the beautiful, hymn-like
traditional, "Farther Along," where he duets with EmmyLou Harris, the
bouncy, rustic "Old Time Preacher Man," and the lovely, old time waltz
of Dottie Rambo's "Too Much To Gain," again with Joy Lynn White
helping out on vocals.
One thing that Hayseed usually stayed away
from were songs of love relationships, as he mostly found them empty.
Apparently he's found the right ones that weren't, and he takes
on that subject a few times as well. Here he's chosen the Gwil
Owen/Eric Elliot penned "98.6 Degrees," a poignant song of longing to
love. "Ring The Bell" is a heartbreaking song about a lost love, and
though the lyrics don't come out and say so, the depth of Hayseed's
mournful, aching vocals make the listener feel that his love was lost
forever through death. On the outstanding "I Walk Slow," Hayseed's
vocals shine on this hauntingly beautiful song about still being
there, should someone change their mind about leaving. The disc's
closer, Gurf Morlix/Jeffrey Steele's "Falling Off The Face of the
World," is a shuffling, lost love, 100% barroom weeper.
Hayseed also addresses another kind of
love- the kind a proud father has for his little girl, and his hopes
and dreams for her, in the pretty, bluegrass inflected "Irah June." He
adds a touch of whimsy with the Tommy Womack penned, "When Country
Singers Were Ugly." In a song that would've been a fun-poking parody
in any other hands, including Tommy's, Hayseed's vocals add a weight
to it, that makes the lyrics about how country music today is all
about looks rather than actual talent, the God's honest
truth..."Willie was nothing to look at/All Waylon inspired was
fear/Country singers were tough on the eyes/And not so often the
ear"..."When country singers were ugly/And a man like me had a
chance."
In Other Words... Hayseed has
rounded up an outstanding collection of songs written by other
artists, and officially puts the stellar Hayseed stamp of approval on
them, with this fabulous CD of highly intelligent, old time,
rustic country music. Maybe someday his try
at "deconstruction/reconstruction" will reach Nashville's Music Row,
and they'll finally "get" the fact that a Hayseed CAN make a
thinking man's music, that still remains very much 100%
authentic country music.
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AnnMarie
Harrington
Take Country Back November 2002