I started this page to boast about being Hayseed Dixie's poet in residence, but did some useful stuff for fellow fans, including the only gig listing with venue hotlinks. Trouble was I doubt the list attracted hits, and hours of work for no audience is alright for modern artists with a private income or with Art Council friends, but not for a lazy man with hardly a spare tuppence to scratch his ear with. Still the best band I have seen live though, and I have seen them a lot.
I was appointed the officialPoet in Residence at the
1st Annual Hayseed Dixie, Down from the Hills, Loopallu Festival, by John Wheeler, leader
of Hayseed Dixie. I repeated the triumph at Loopallu 2 I am also the winner of the coveted The Most Adamant Salesman At Loopallu Award. In the 3rdd year the promoter, from whom I have had a total of 1 e-mail, fixed Franz Ferdinand to play and Hayseed Dixie found themselves with a free weekend at the time of Loopallu. I would have still done the gig, but would not have worked for free as I did the first two years, including working in the primary school, so I was not there either.
I became Loopallu Poet in Residence by being cheeky. I met John Wheeler aka Barley Scotch at The Canizarro Park gig in Wimbledon, 24th August 2005, asked him if he liked poetry (I love it, would he like my books (Sure! I can read them on the plane tomorrow. Will yer sign them?) and if I could be their Poet in Residence for the Loopallu Festival at the end of the next month (Great idea!). The rest of the band thought is was a grat idea as well, even before I bought them beer
. They are a great band and a grand bunch of guys. See
The Hayseed Dixie Outhouse for a
more on more on the band and fans. If you know nothing of this great set of lads check
the opinions on this
BBC
site.
For the first festival in 2005 I did a Barely Official Poetry Show, featuring
these two
poems,
at Ullapool's cute Art Gallery, special thanks to Nancy, Frith and Johnny.
I managed to persuade the hardcore Outhouse crew to come along. Outhouse mother Jill
took this photo of
a shiny man reciting. and grand Man of Kent: Shunty took this one of
wide man with own book.
Jill is the lass in the poncho. My jumper is one of me ma's.
I also produced six copies of a handmade book while I was in Ullapool,
called: Highway to ULL- 16 pages of new poems, drawings of Ullapool,
and tales of Tennessee, the Highlands, Finland, fish & alcohol.
I will be making more books after I have added more pages about what happened in the 4
days I was there, and corrected all the mistakes, but I wont be selling any on here until I
have made enough for the friends I made and the people who paid. After that I will make
between 20 and 70. Making more than that is very hard, and getting them printed instead
is very expensive.
For the second festival in 2006 I got a free ticket but paid my own way otherwise. I did an assembly in the local primary school, and did some of the poems I had written for Loopallu. I also did several ad hoc shows around the town and fest, and appeared on Radio Loch Broom. I also did a new version of the book, but in very limited numbers again.
Please
if you have any questions.
I could not have made the books without the photocopying help from Julie and Laura at
Ullapool High School, so massive thanks to them. Also thanks to the people of Ullapool,
the
The Hayseed Dixie Outhouse
crew and all the great people I met and made friends with.
Written in 22 minutes at 9.30 on the morning of 6th April 06, between Terry Wogan handing over to Ken Bruce, and the traffic report.
I wrote it when I read the news that Jason D. Smith was leaving Hayseed Dixie. Jason is a flipping good bassist, and he and his wife, Emily, are really decent folk.
There is more on the Hayseed Dixie website .
Jason mailled me in may to tell me that he had updated his own site. Apart from anything else he has played the Grand Ole Opry backing Andy Giggs. Check Jason D. Smith's own site.
