There's nothing minimal about this singer and songwriter from Clarksville, Tennessee who's currently flying helicopters in Afghanistan. On his second collection, Nicer records with a lively cast of studio pros for an album that's like a rambunctious Southern dinner with all the fixings. The sound is plush, drawing generously on fiddles, pianos, slides, horns, woodwinds, banjos. The songs rely on friendly well-crafted melodies on which Spiker lavishes heart, soul, and slightly quivery mid-tenor power. On "Back-up Man" he offers to be a woman's killer #2; on "Rain" he wonders about romance to a backbeat jazzy enough for a Rolling Stones record. Nicer craves the instant sonic kick of classic rock and country, and here he often achieves it, always more the down-home player than the curator.