Hillbilly Vegas - The Carlisle, Hastings Thursday 25th July 2024 tickets

Five-piece Hillbilly Vegas, started out as a bunch of Oklahoma-based schoolmates before becoming a group in 2011. 

“My grandmother, a big fan of gospel music, passed away, and I got some friends together to record a gospel song as a present for my mother,” explains singer and guitarist Steve Harris. “We didn’t mean for it to happen, but it did: put musicians in a room together, and eventually they’ll start a band.” 

Since then, a rootsy yet distinctly song-friendly sound has led the Hillbillies to gigs with the likes of Molly Hatchet, Black Stone Cherry and the Kentucky Headhunters, as well as country-based artists such as Travis Tritt, David Allen Coe and Blake Shelton. 

“Nothing is original, every band copies its influences whether we sound like them or not,” Harris offers. “We’re a band from the South and we play music that comes from the South."