Southern Culture On The Skids has been consistently recording and touring around the world since 1983. The band (Rick Miller – guitar and vocals, Mary Huff – bass and vocals, Dave Hartman – drums) has been playing together for over 30 years. Their musical journey has taken them from all-night North Carolina house parties to late night TV talk shows (Conan O’Brien, The Tonight Show), from performing at the base of Mt. Fuji in Japan to rockin’ out for the inmates at North Carolina correctional facilities. They’ve shared a stage with many musical luminaries including Link Wray, Loretta Lynn, Hasil Adkins and Patti Smith. Their music has been featured in movies and TV, parodied by Weird Al, and used to sell everything from diamonds to pork sausage. In 2014 the band was honored by the Southern Folklife Collection at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill with an exhibition featuring their music and cultural contributions. Their legendary live shows are a testament to the therapeutic powers of foot-stomping, butt-shaking rock and roll and what Rolling Stone dubbed “a hell raising rock and roll party.”
At Home with Southern Culture on the Skids is the latest full length album from the band and was released in March of 2021. It was recorded during the stay at home period of the pandemic when the band was at home and not touring. The album consists of 11 tracks recorded and mixed in Rick Miller’s living room with some additional tracks recorded at his studio, The Kudzu Ranch.
The first radio single off the album is “Run Baby Run”—a rocking number with deep garage roots. SCOTS bassist Mary Huff provides an urgent vocal while the band pulls back the throttle on a full race fuzz fest—cause she’s gotta to go fast! Run Baby Run!
The other songs on the album are a combination of the band’s
unique mix of musical genres: rock and roll, surf, folk and country—all a bit off-center, what Rick proudly calls “our wobbly
Americana”. Rick goes on, “We put a few more acoustic guitars on
this one, as you would expect if you recorded in your living
room, but it still rocks like SCOTS. So put your headphones on, get
in your favorite chair/sofa/recliner, put on “At Home With”
and let’s hang out for a while.”
Guitar riffs as lumpy as a camel, rough as a jackhammer or smooth and bright as Tennessee sippin’ whiskey, all slung loose and loud over salacious beats - No Depression
For over thirty years, Southern Culture On The Skids have played an eclectic range of Americana including rockabilly, surf rock, country and R&B, with a punk edge and heaps of humor. They are known for their legendary live shows and wacky antics...But it’s more than just great fun; they are fantastic musicians to boot. - Elmore Magazine
This Chapel Hill-based trio is flat-out amazing. Without resorting to needless flash or attention-hungry showboating, Miller in particular is one of the most spectacularly gifted guitar players I’ve ever seen. He juggles a lot of styles – country, garage rock, surf, rockabilly and soul to name just a few. - Stomp & Stammer
Videos
Southern Culture On The Skids — Run Baby Run
Southern Culture On The Skids — Let Me Make You Happy(acoustic)
Southern Culture On The Skids — Call Me (acoustic)
Southern Culture On The Skids — Billy's Board
Rick talks about "At Home With Southern Culture On The Skids"
Rick unboxes the vinyl of "At Home With Southern Culture On The Skids"
Guitars and gear Rick used on "Run Baby Run"
Rick talks with Kyle Meredith of WPFK and Consequence of Sound about horror movies, Slim Whitman, "At Home With Southern Culture On The Skids" and more
Southern Culture On The Skids - Cicada Rock 2020
Rick Miller of Southern Culture On The Skids Talks About His Danelectro
Live Stream of Southern Culture On The Skids in the studios of Paste Magazine in Atlanta - 11.6.19 .
Southern Culture on the Skids - 6.24.18 - Live Stream of SCOTS' set at Daryl's House Club
Watch the band tripping out in the kudzu patch in our video of “GREY SKIES”.
Watch SCOTS raise their "Freak Flag" high! Live in-studio performance at KCSN
SCOTS recorded live in-studio on Halloween, October 31, 2016 at KCSN, Northridge, Los Angeles
SCOTS at the Savannah Stopover Music Festival
Jon Chattman was at the 5th Annual Savannah Stopover Music Festival March 5-7, 2015 and captured this exclusive performance of Freak Flag for The HuffPo and A-Sides Jon Chattman. Ths was filmed at the Stopover Artists' Lounge.
SCOTS in concert at Shakori Hills
Full length concert of SCOTS at Shakori Hills in beautiful, bucolic Chatham County NC.
Recorded for WUNC-TV's North Carolina channel June 2016.
SCOTS on "On Tour" from WHYY-TV
Features an interview with Rick and concert footage from October 2014 at the Sellersville Theatre 1894 in Sellersville PA.
Podcasts/Interviews
Words & Music on WMOT NPR Live SessionsWatch this special edition of Words and Music with Southern Culture on the Skids who recorded 'At Home With Southern Culture on The Skids' during quarantine. See performances of "Call Me", "Run Baby Run" and "Let Me Make You Happy". Thanks to WMOT Roots Radio 89.5 FM Jessie Scott, and Val Hoeppner, for having us on Words & Music to chat and play some music. Watch and listen to the complete interview
Live & Local on The Hill 97.9 WCHL & Chapelboro
Rick and Mary chat with Aaron Keck about “At Home With Southern Culture On The Skids”. Aaron spins a few of the new tunes from the record too. It is archived for your listening pleasure.
Check it out. Good conversation.
Sounds From the Superhighway KUPRHey folks, catch Rick chatting about his first car (a '69 El Camino, natch), music history, and more with Sal Treppiedi from the Sounds From The Superhighway on KUPR Radio in Placitas New Mexico. Hear the complete podcast
Fried Chicken Fun: Southern Culture on the Skids...Southern Culture On The Skids, known affectionately as SCOTS, has peppered a three-decade career with their own wild brand of rock ‘n’ roll culled from a cornbread mixture of styles and filtered through a parodied look at southern life... For 2018′s “Bootleggers Choice,” SCOTS revisited the two Geffen Records [Dirt Track Date, Plastic Seat Sweat]. Since the dissolution of the label, Miller had trouble regaining the original recordings of the now out of print albums. The songs have remained staples on the band’s tour setlist, but they’ve not had physical copies of the albums to sell to fans for some time.
So, they decided to pick 15 tracks from those albums and re-record them with the original producer, Mark Williams at The Kudzu Ranch. The only track on the new album that wasn’t re-recorded was “Camel Walk.” Before appearing on “Dirt Track Date,” “Camel Walk” was released on the 1992 EP “Santo! Sings,” by Athens’ Zontar Records. Miller had been sent the original recording, so they re-mastered it and put it on “Bootleggers Choice.”
“It was buried on the record,” Miller said. “It was just filler. That was the song that caught everyone’s imagination. That was the song we were known for and helped it sell a lot of records.” Read the complete interview...
Southern Culture On The Skids on NPR's World Cafe from wXPN
Founded in 1983, Southern Culture On The Skids has been touting the virtues of dirt-track racing, Little Debbie pastries and kudzu for over 30 years. The North Carolina band — made up of Rick Miller, Dave Hartman and Mary Huff — plays music that amalgamates rock, funky old soul and country, presented with tongue firmly in cheek. Southern Culture On The Skids' latest album, The Electric Pinecones, is named after an acoustic spin-off project from its past, back when the band sometimes opened for itself. And the name of its label, Kudzu, comes from the creeping vine that's invaded the South. Hear the complete session...
Reviews & Interviews
Road Warriors: Southern Culture on the Skids’ Homey New Albumby David Menconi for Walter Through nearly four decades of existence, Chapel Hill’s Southern Culture on the Skids have been road warriors, keeping a relentless touring regimen. It has periodically been a family affair, too. When frontman/guitarist/svengali Rick Miller’s son was born 15 years ago, they just put a car seat in the van and took him along. The kid saw pretty much the entire country by the time he was 3 years old, one raucous barroom crowd at a time.
But even S.C.O.T.S. were no match for the pandemic. That’s what it took to get them off the road last year. Undeterred, they documented the novel experience of not being on the road with their new album, At Home With Southern Culture on the Skids, released in March. As befits the surroundings, it’s a decidedly more down-home version of their usual surf-guitar rockabilly madness....While it might be a touch more restrained than usual, At Home is another solid collection of all the things that make S.C.O.T.S. great: cool covers, hot guitar licks, and exuberant paeans to the trashier side of the trailer park.
New album: Southern Culture On The Skids || At Home With Southern Culture On The Skidsby Dennis for Add To Wantlist
The 11 tracks, including 2 covers – Sugar Town (written by Lee Hazlewood, first recorded by Nancy Sinatra), and Dear Mr. Fantasy (written by Jim Capaldi, Steve Winwood & Chris Wood, recorded by Traffic) – were taped and mixed by Rick In his living room and at The Kudzu Ranch. And that is also the feeling that the new album evokes: a successful living room concert, a cozy and laidback rock ’n’ roll party with catchy songs that make you smile and sing along.
Southern Culture on the Skids – At Home with Southern Culture on the Skidsby VICTOR SALAS for Spain's Science of Noise
The fabulous Southern Culture on the Skids present their new album, At Home with Southern Culture on the Skids (2021)...."Authentic funky with the scent of fried chicken; You can't stop keeping up."
Artist Spotlight - Southern Culture on the Skids — Alt. Country Specialty Chart
Southern Culture on the Skids rocks fast (“Whip It on Me”) and furiously (“Certain Girl”) throughout Kudzu Records Presents. Covers transcend (“Devil with the Blue Dress On”). We recently spoke with SCOTS front man Rick Miller.
“We actually have two new records called Kudzu Records Presents and At Home with Southern Culture on the Skids,” Miller says.
Southern Culture on the Skids, Part 1
MUSICAL MUTATIONS AND SWAMP TONES:
RICK MILLER OF SOUTHERN CULTURE ON THE SKIDS TALKS ABOUT THE SOUNDS THAT GET HIM OFFby JEFF CLARK for Stomp and Stammer
Although I love their hokey sense of cornpone humor, and I wouldn’t alter a thing about them, sometimes it irritates me that so many writeups I read about Southern Culture on the Skids focus solely or primarily on that aspect of the band. I get it – they’re goofy and fun, they personify and lovingly exaggerate a lot of wacky Dixieland stereotypes, and they get folks onstage dancing with ’em while chomping on fried chicken. It’s like Green Acres meets “Green Onions,” and what’s not to adore about that?
What sometimes gets lost amid the laffs is just what outstanding musicians they are. Intact since 1988 (following a few formative years with other lineups), this Chapel Hill-based trio of guitarist/vocalist Rick Miller, bassist/vocalist Mary Huff and stand-up drummer Dave Hartman is flat-out amazing. Without resorting to needless flash or attention-hungry showboating, Miller in particular is one of the most spectacularly gifted guitar players I’ve ever seen. He juggles a lot of styles – country, garage rock, surf, rockabilly and soul to name just a few – which is reflective of his deep love of a wide swath of music and musicians. So, when he called up on a recent afternoon from a hotel lobby in Newport, Kentucky in the midst of yet another string of live dates for SCOTS, I decided the focus our conversation on the music that’s made the most impact on him over the years, the sounds that molded him into the stellar musician he is…
Joe Bonamassa Blog (jbonamassa.com)—
Grab a box of moon pies, a six-pack of cheap cold beer and a bucket of southern fried chicken, add some Southern Cultures On The Skids Music to the mix and my friend, you have all the proper necessities for a true white trash party! How would I describe this band’s music? I’ll put it this way, let’s say Jerry Lee Lewis and Dick Dale had a love child that was raised in a trailer park, the outcome would be the band Southern Culture on the Skids...
The Alternate Root—
Shimmy, swagger, and sass are mainstays in the songs of Southern Culture on the Skids. Collecting requests from fans for the band’s two major label release, Southern Culture on the Skids offer Bootleggers Choice, sixteen reworked versions of cuts from Dirt Track Date and Plastic Seat Sweat plus a remastered version of “Camel Walk”...
WYCE by Shane German - Artist Of The Day: Southern Culture On The Skids
True to their name, North Carolina's Southern Culture on the Skids offers an affectionate parody of local white-trash trailer-park culture, matching their skewed outlook with a wild, careening brand of rock & roll. SCOTS' music is a quintessentially Southern-fried amalgam of rockabilly, boogie, country, blues, swamp pop, and chitlin circuit R&B, plus a liberal dose of California surf guitar, a hint of punk attitude, and the occasional mariachi horns...The 2018 release Bootleggers Choice features 16 all-new recordings of the most requested songs from the band’s long out-of-print major label releases...
No Depressionby Michael Colby So Much Fun It Can't be Legal in 22 States -
Southern Culture on the Skids - The Electric Pinecones. This album is just plain fun; listening to it makes me feel good. The title "The Electric Pinecones" comes from a side project called The Pinecones, which the band describes as "country pysch garage band." Southern Culture on the Skids formed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1983 and have released over a dozen albums. Consisting of Rick Miller on guitars and vocals, Mary Huff on bass and vocals, and Dave Hartman on drums and percussion, their sound to date has been a mixture of rockabilly, alt-country, and punk, with a white trash sensibility, all served up with a good dash of humor...
Blurtby Fred Mills It’s unlikely that the majority of Southern Culture On the Skids fans remember the Pinecones—or, for that matter, are even aware that, for a stretch during the late ‘80s, SCOTS had an alter-ego bearing that name. Yours truly remembers, though, and fondly so. (I have the live bootleg tapes to prove it.) Essentially, the band would perform an opening set as the Pinecones, playing acoustic-based twangy/strummy countryish stuff (sometimes with a lap steel featured prominently) along with bits of melodic folk-rock. After a break, they’d come back out in full electric gonzoid SCOTS swampabilly ‘n’ choogle, and the contrast between the two sets was not only intriguing, it helped display the depth and breadth of their influences and inspirations.
The Electric Pinecones is not a revival of the Pinecones, however, but a record more generally inspired by some of the material that the alter-ego worked up back in the day. The addition of the word “electric” is the tipoff. In the words of bandleader Rick Miller, “Those old setlists became the starting point for this record.”
And what a terrific record. From first single “Grey Skies,” with its jangly modal riff and ‘60s West Coast vibe, and its twangier, equally Nuggets-worthy compatriot “Dirt Road”; to the moody, tremolo-infused “Waiting on You” and a bluesy, psychedelic ballad given the perfectly-themed title of “Slowly Losing My Mind”: The Electric Pinecones does indeed find Miller, bassist Mary Huff and drummer Dave Hartman dipping into territory they don’t routinely explore on album. ...
AllMusicby Mark Deming Conventional wisdom tells us that change is good, and there are plenty of bands that have been well served by shaking up their formula once in a while. Southern Culture on the Skids have been serving up their own distinct brand of deep-fried hillbilly rock since 1990, and the band has never failed to deliver on-stage and in the studio. But with 2016's The Electric Pinecones, SCOTS have stepped a few paces outside their usual creative boundaries, and with enjoyable results...
Elmore Magazineby Mike Cobb For over thirty years, Southern Culture On The Skids have played an eclectic range of Americana including rockabilly, surf rock, country and r&b, with a punk edge and heaps of humor. They are known for their legendary live shows and wacky antics, including throwing fried chicken and banana puddin’ into the crowd as well as inviting audience members on stage to dance. Visually SCOTS look a bit like the hillbilly stepchild of the B-52’s with Mary’s trademark beehive hair-doo and Rick’s hick overalls. But it’s more than just great fun; they are fantastic musicians to boot...
Shutter 16by Sheila Walsh Everyone’s musical crush: Southern Culture on the Skids
“Growing up in North Carolina and California, I listened to a lot of different things,” recalled Miller. “Rhythm and blues, soul music, pop music, rock and roll, country, all on the same radio station.
From Buck Owens to the Beatles to Aretha Franklin, nothing was out of the ordinary for Miller...
Creative Loafingby Anita Overcash Anyone who ever had the chance to see Southern Culture on the Skids' alter ego, The Pinecones, perform will get their memory jogged on SCOTS' new album, The Electric Pinecones. In the past, the band opened sets for themsevles under the moniker, delivering a swampy, and more '60s surf pop rock feel. That's become a source of inspiration for the group and the by-product is The Electric Pinecones, the band's fifth on their independent label, Kudzo. There's still rockabilly, folk-rock and Americana elements with narly duets between Rick Miller (guitarist/singer) and Mary Huff (bassist/singer), along with steady repetitive drumbeats and swirling, tremolo effects on guitar...
Press Clippings from Spain!(PDF of press clippings from multiple Spanish music outlets including Popular1) Southern Culture On The Skids es de esas bandas que cuando publican un nuevo disco ya estamos deseando verles una vez más en vivo y que saquen otro cuanto antes. Ahora el turno de “The Electric Pinecones”, el álbum más inusual de su carrera. ¿Por qué?: Rick Miller nos lo cuenta, además de narrar unas bonitas historias sobre alguno de sus ídolos...
[via Google Translate:
Southern Culture On The Skids is one of those bands that when they publish a new album we are already looking forward to seeing them live again and getting another one as soon as possible. Now the turn of "The Electric Pinecones", the most unusual album of their career. Why ?: Rick Miller tells us, as well as telling some nice stories about some of his idols...]
1995 - “2 Pigs in a Blanket” and “She’s My Little Biscuit Eater”(live) on Bubbapalooza Vol 1: Chronicle of the Redneck Underground l - Sky
1995 - “Jack the Ripper, Parts 1 & 2” on Wreck Room Vol 2 (various artists compilation) - Safe House
1995 - “White Trash” on Buy Product: A Tasty Sample of Choice Cuts from 16 Artists (various artists compilation) - DGC
1995 - “Soul City” on CMJ: New Music September 1995, Vol 25 (various artists compilation) - CMJ
1996 - "White Trash”/“BSA441”/"Two Pigs In A Blanket" (7” single) - One Louder
1996 - Santo Swings (EP) - Estrus
1996 - “White Trash” and “I’m Branded” on Shut the Gate, Suzy, and Don’t Let Me In: From the Vaults of Demolition Derby (various artists compilation) - Demolition Derby
1996 - “Merry Christmas Baby” on Just Say Noel (various artists compilation) - Geffen
1996 - “8 Piece Box” on Rock Live from Mountain Stage (various artists compilation) - Blue Plate Music
1996 - “Camel Walk” on Live from the Music Hall Vol 3 (various artists compilation) - KSCA Radio
2012 - “Smiley Yeah Yeah Yeah” on I Am What I Am (various artists compilation) - Yep Roc
2013 - Dig This (album) - Kudzu Records
2013 - “Goo Goo Muck”, “The Loneliest Ghost in Town”, “Tingler Blues”, and “La Marcha de los Cabarones” on Mondo Zombie Boogaloo (various artists compilation) - Yep Roc
2014 - "Party At My Trouse" (w/ Fred Schneider) (limited edition single) - Yep Roc
2015 - "Party At My Trouse" (w/ Fred Schneider) (12” dance remix EP) - Yep Roc
2015 - "Silver Bells" (digital single) - Kudzu Records
2016 - The Electric Pinecones (album) - Kudzu Records
2018 - Bootleggers Choice (album) - Kudzu Records
2019 - "Wish I Was In Love" (digital single) - Kudzu Records
2020 - Live at Yep Roc 15: Southern Culture On The Skids (digital album) - Yep Roc Records
2020 - “Let’s Work Together” on "Cover Charge: NC Artists Go Under Cover to Benefit Cat’s Cradle" (various artists digital album) - Bandcamp
2020 - "Cicada Rock 2020" (digital single) - Kudzu Records
2020 - "Surfing On Christmas Day (Santa Won't You Bring Me Some Waves)" (digital single) - Kudzu Records
2020 - Kudzu Records Presents Southern Culture On The Skids (expanded reissue album, on CD, digital) - Kudzu Records
2021 - At Home With Southern Culture On The Skids (album) - Kudzu Records
2023 - Liquored Up & Lacquered Down (expanded reissue album, CD) - Kudzu Records - Kudzu Records
At Home with Southern Culture on the Skids is the latest full length album from the band and was released in March of 2021. It was recorded during the stay at home period of the pandemic when the band was at home and not touring. The album consists of 11 tracks recorded and mixed in Rick Miller’s living room with some additional tracks recorded at his studio, The Kudzu Ranch. 
