Countrypolitan Favorites

Southern Culture On The Skids | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 20, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Yep Roc Records
• ASIN: B000MDH8C8
• Also Available in: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #70,553 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #43 in Music > Alternative Rock > American Alternative > Psychobilly

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

What a blast! Applying garage-band urgency to a selection of material that extends well beyond countrypolitan favorites, the freewheeling SCOTS demonstrate surprising range and ferocious chops. At the heart of this labor of love, as the album's title suggests, are crossover country favorites from an era when the music was a staple on Top 40 AM radio (where many fans first heard "Oh, Lonesome Me," "Wolverton Mountain," and "Rose Garden"). Yet the release shows an equal affinity for the rock of that era, as the band gives the Kinks' "Muswell Hillbillies" an arrangement that recalls the Sir Douglas Quintet, injects a guitar surge from "Gloria" into the (pre-Creedence) Golliwogs' "Fight Fire," savors the fuzztone dreaminess of T. Rex's "Life's a Gas," and transforms the Who's "Happy Jack" into a banjo-driven hoedown. In other highlights, the band puts pedal-to-the-metal overdrive into the psychedelic shimmer of the Byrds' "Have You Seen Her Face" and adds some pop bounce to the swamp blues of Slim Harpo's "Te Ni Ne Ni Nu." The result is an irresistible party platter. --Don McLeese

Product Description

Since 1985, Southern Culture On The Skids have brought their chicken flingin' trashabilly antics to every nook and cranny of the US of A and beyond, playing classic originals like Eight Piece Box and Camel Walk while tearing up the stage, leaving behind nothing but a trail of pudding, crushed KFC boxes, and endless broken hearts. Now, with Countrypolitan Favorites, SCOTS are giving us a glimpse into their private record collections by compiling 15 one of a kind covers, recorded at singer Rick Miller's Kudzu Ranch recording studio. From Mary Huff's sultry take on Funnel of Love (made famous by Wanda Jackson), to Miller's version of the Don Gibson classic, Oh Lonesome Me, and their swingers-on-the-rocks duet, Let's Invite Them Over (an Onie Wheeler original), SCOTS have recorded what might be the definitive countrypolitan soundtrack to a life lived on the skids. Digipak.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Novelty Act? Only if ingenuity and fun are novel to you., March 7, 2007

By 

Paul F. Johnson (Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Countrypolitan Favorites (Audio CD)

Few artists can achieve what SCOTS have done with this release: present a genuine sense of spontanaity and flat-out joy while maintaining an unbelievable level of musicianship and creative fury. This is music made by people who have been doing it so long together that they know exactly what they're doing and challenge themselves to reach higher -- all while having more fun than white trash has a right to.

There's no call for a track-by-track breakdown here -- all you need to know is that it feels as if every little masterpiece this band has produced over the last decade has come together in one package that is likely to monopolize your ears for the coming summer and beyond. If there is a comparison to be made, Robbie Fulks' recent "Georgia Hard" comes to mind -- an album that needed to be made by musicians who were ready to make it.

And not unlike Robbie Fulks, SCOTS gets dismissed by many "No Depression"-types for not taking the scene seriously enough, or for being too clever, or for possibly being just too darned entertaining. Maintain that viewpoint at your peril, or succumb and scream your lungs out in the car to "Wolverton Mountain," "Life's a Gas," and "Oh Lonesome Me" -- ALL better than their originals. And if Mary Huff's "Rose Garden" doesn't poke you in the chest, see your cardiologist -- something ain't working right.

A covers album should breathe new life into familiars, but Countrypolitan runs the source material through the cotton gin that is SCOTS and weaves its thread into a quilt crazy enough to hang in any museum of modern art. These aren't just tunes: these are songs with life that howl -- and if you know what's good for you, you'd best howl back.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a GOOD example of a cover album, April 18, 2007

By 

Mr. Richard K. Weems "emperor_weems" (Fair Lawn, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Countrypolitan Favorites (Audio CD)

Who knows WHERE this trend started, of bands suddenly doing a disc of cover songs. What can be of interest when this happens is to see how the band got its roots (one that jumps to mind is The Ramones' _Acid Eaters_, where they showed that one of the roots of punk was actually acid rock), but a lot of the time the album proves to be little more than a mediocre artist trying to revive a dead career by recording songs that are proven hits (i.e., Michael Bolton), or just a lazy way of getting a new album out, by getting to avoid the whole annoying process of actually writing songs.

Fortunately, Southern Culture on the Skids is of the brilliant category. A staple of cover songs on other SCOTS albums has been their element of surprise--either they cover songs I've never heard before, or they surprise me by how they choose that may seem rather alien to their sound at first, but makes perfect sense once you hear it (I'm thinking of the brilliant cover of "House of Bamboo"). Yes, there are some familiar names and titles here, and though The Who cover doesn't thrill me as much as I wanted it to, "Oh Lonesome Me" and "Funnel of Love" and "Rose Garden" are sheer classics, before and after the rochabilly trio got their hands on it. This is without doubt a nicely toe-tapping, clog-dancing disc, and the wallet-sized autographed photos of the band is a sweet addition. I hope someone takes this for an old country classic--SCOTS deserves the most varied fan base imaginable.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Southern Fried Pin-Ups, March 18, 2007

By 

Brian J. Greene "djbrian" (Durham, NC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Countrypolitan Favorites (Audio CD)

An early candidate for album of the year. The selections on this collection of cover version by S.C.O.T.S are inspired, and the performances are even more inspired. Switching seamlessly from country classics to 60s Psychedelia to 70s Glam Rock, the record jumps off the needle on the first note of the first track and never quits. My favorites are their takes on T. Rex's "Life's a Gas" and "Fight Fire," a pre-CCR song included on the Nuggets box set. But every song is good, and in all cases the Skids find a way to put their own personal stamp on a classic song.