On their new record, The Kudzu Ranch, Southern Culture on the Skids revels in the swampy barrage of country, rockabilly, surf rock that’s been their calling card from the start (aka all the way back to 1983!). Rick Miller, Dave Hartman, and Mary Huff trot out all the old styles while imbuing them with a little edge and a lot of humor and showing off all the ways the band’s grown. They sing of bone dry dirt, busy roads, bad boys, and neighbors burning trash. There’s also, appropriately, a track about pig pickin’ and if you mosey on down to the Cat’s Cradle this Saturday, Dec. 4, you can join the band at a holiday pig pickin’ to support the Carrboro Food Pantry.
And now just the five filthiest question this side of the mason-dixon:
1. If your band were a fried food, what would it be?
3 pieces of fried catfish with raw onion on white bread on a paper plate on a picnic table in a square cinder block building. (Catfish Sandwich, Archibald’s #2 , Tuscaloosa, Alabama.)
2. When was the moment you thought you’d made it?
When I quit the day job in 1992 – my proudest career moment to date!
3. Describe your typical band practice.
Practice usually goes like this.
- somebody is late.
- talk or argue for a while – doesn’t matter which.
- rehearse the songs we screwed up last at the last gig
- make some coffee or tea (our practices depend on caffeine more than alcohol)
- run thru a set list till we are bored (Mary likes to check her email at this time)
- jam really loud for a while on a riff or a song.
- tell each other not to forget what we just played “cause it was really good”.
- try to play it again but realize we forgot it but there was some other stuff we just played “that was really good too”.
- go home – come back tomorrow and do it again cause “practice makes perfect”.
4. What/who might be a few inspirations or influences that would surprise people?
Belly dancing records!!
5. What did you want to be when you grew up? (How did that work out?)
I wanted to be a farmer like my Grandfather and Uncle but my family told me it was hard to make a living being a farmer – so I decided to become a musician and I love my job!
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Join Southern Culture on the Skids at the Cat’s Cradle this Saturday, December 4th for an old fashioned pig pinkin’. And, by all means, give Rick a high five when you see him!