AVIDIGI

It’s hard to believe that these rocking rednecks have made it to album number eight without being thrown in the county slammer. But here they are with a CD/DVD package featuring seven of their own compositions and six rockgrass re-interpretations of other artist’s works. Over the years the ratio of self-penned material has increased to eclipse the covers and it makes sense that the band will be keen to put some of own songs out there. But what brought them to the barndance was their hilarious-hellraisin’-hillbilly takes on the rock and roll classics.
This album exposes the huge gulf between the quality of their covers and their own songs. Tracks about alien rectal probes might cause a snigger, but when positioned alongside tracks by Queen, Black Sabbath and The Who you’d have to have drunk a lot of moonshine not to notice a difference. What does work well is when they move away from the traditional rock back catalogue and cover something a little different. On Killer Grass they take on Mozart and The Prodigy’s ‘Omen’ - with some success. There’s an initial smirk of humour as everything kicks in but there is no denying that they possess enough musically knowhow to go beyond the easy yucks.