Musicians:

Mike Estes: Lead Vocals, Lead and Slide Guitar, Mandolin, Baritone

Jay Johnson: Lead Guitar, Background Vocals

Kurt Pietro: Drums

Luke Bradshaw: Bass, Background Vocals

Titles:

01- Here For A Good Time

02- For Y`All

03- Give You All Night

04- When The Goin´ Gets Tough, The Tough Go Fishin´

05- Dust If Off

06- Snakebit

07- Glad I Ain´t You

08- Make It Easy

09- Ride

10- Girls Like You

I just want to talk about it first, I know that Mike Estes has no unanimity in Southern rockers but here he gave us the best album of his career. So let's talk about it.

"Here for a good Time" begins the album, a mid-tempo southern rock with two good guitar solos. Then we get "For Y'All", a nice country song where Mike tells he has had a good life and that this song is for his real friends who followed him until the end(« Don’t burn candles in my memory, I’ve lived a good life. Lord knows I’ve had a ball, and for my true friends up to the end this one’s for you all »). This could be written as an epitaph on a grave. So it's a good musician's life resume. It's still the same on "Give you all Night" a southern country rock close to the Allan Brothers with a good southern guitar solo.

"When the goin' gets tough" is a honky-tonk southern rock that talks about fishing against life difficulties. This song already was on Mike first album (Mike Estes and Brave New South). The southern ballad "Dust it off" is beautiful with a vibrato guitar, a clear good solo and a slide solo just like southern guys know how to play. "Snakebite" co-written by Gary Rossington is a hypnotic Southern Rockin, a medium tempo about the deep South. A piano arrives at the end of the song. This one already was on Mike's first album. Lack of inspiration or a wish to record gain his favourite songs? "Glad I ain't you" is the weakest song of the album. Sometimes it's hard to create ten new good songs. Then we get "Make it Easy" a jazz southern blues co-written by Ed King. Mike Estes voice is deep and sweet as it has to be and we do recognize Ed's slide sound at the first note. "Ride" is a slow song about life on the road.

"Girls like you" a medium rock song closes the album in the South great tradition with a guitar duet at the end.

So here we get a really good Southern album, no pretention, with good guitars and Mike Estes' voice full of sun and bourbon. Even if it is not the best album ever, this one is good and efficient and really fun to be listened to. It couldn't have been more Southern, Rock and especially sincere!

As I was lucky enough to meet him, I can tell you that: Mike Estes is a good guy who plays good music. Just listen!

Olivier Aubry

We can dream if Mike Estes could still be in Lynyrd Skynyrd... or listen to the last Skinny Molly album, because Here for a Good Time is an excellent album and could be enjoyed by many Southern rock fans. We can find in that record the sound of Lynyrd Skynyrd... and everything that is missing today, this mix of roots of Southern Rock, Blues, Country and Americana, we could talk about authenticity. Because the four musicians of Skinny have written a real tribute to the Southern sound, beginning with an excellent "Here for a Good Time" who fix what every fan waits from a redneck band: mid-tempo, choruses, breaks, powerful sound but not too heavy. Bands goes on with "For Y'All" close to Travis Tritt before "Give You All Night" less southern but good refrain. We can find on this album two songs from Mike Estes first album, Brave New South, but "When the Goin' gets tough, the Tough go fishin'" is a hymn that could be perfect live, and "Snakebite" is a nervous rock co-written by Gary Rossington! And what about Ed King presence on the writing and on guitar on "Make it easy", just before the end on "Ride" that, I think, could have been on "First and Last" and "Girls like you" close to Little Caesar. So, a wonderful Southern album I think, even if there's just a lack of a song full of guitars duets to bring that band and his leader at the place he deserves.

Christophe Marquis