For Lovers Only

While 1991's Too Much Pork for Just One Fork was a good calling card for Southern Culture on the Skids after the band went through a major restructuring period, most of the album sounded a bit too clean for its own good, with the production too drab and faceless to flatter the band's aural personality. For the most part recorded at the band's rehearsal space, 1993's For Lovers Only was a remarkable improvement; Dave Schmitt's production and engineering give these tracks a lively, vividly ambient sound that makes the most of Dave Hartman's clattering percussion and Mary Huff's dead-solid bass, while Rick Miller's guitar work sounds positively heroic compared to his earlier stuff, fusing the styles of Link Wray, Dick Dale, Steve Cropper, Travis Wammick, and a dozen other roots guitar icons into a single trailer park genius with a battered Danelectro. Miller is also given plenty of room to stretch out and strut his stuff and, on "Nashville Toupee" and "Biscuit Eater," he manages that rarity in contemporary rock music, extended guitar solos you can actually dance to. While most of the songs cover the band's favorite theme — namely, life on the white trash side of the fence — the humor is a lot more charitable than most bands following a similar path; they strive to suggest that they're making fun of themselves more than anyone else, which helps a lot. And Miller writes great tunes that should bring a smile to anyone who digs American rock & roll in its purest form. And, finally, do you really want to be without an album that features a song dedicated to Hank Snow, Carl Perkins, and William Shatner? Of course not!